Saturday, November 29, 2008
Black Friday, a brief analysis
Yet another Black Friday down. As I said last year, I hope to never work one again. No, it wasn't too bad. I managed to switch shifts with someone so I didn't have to work at midnight, so that was a load of pressure off.
So with the economy in the toilet, a lot of people want to know what it's really like down on "the front lines", rather than the press releases that companies push into your local news reports.
First of all, my company made a fatal mistake in chosing their product line this year. This was the year they decided to push cashmere. We've got cashmere sweaters, cashmere scarves, cashmere gloves, cashmere hoodies (I swear it's true), and even cashmere socks. Yes, a pair of cashmere socks for $18.50. Who the FUCK pays $18.50 for a pair of SOCKS?? Last week someone stole a stack of men's cahsmere sweaters off of a table--total value of about $1100. "That's the only way we're going to get rid of them." I said. My fellow employees agreed. Nobody's buying the cashmere. They can't afford it!! And trust me, these items are nice, well made and all have a nice classic style that anyone could fit into their wardrobe. They're not getting passed by because of style or color, they're just too fucking expensive. Hell, the scarves are $59.99. And nobody's buying a $149.99 sweater for dad when he just got laid off.
Then to add to the problem, the company also decided last spring to reduce the amount of inventory they carry. I understand how large inventories can be a problem in the restaurant business--food goes bad! But clothes? I don't work the rest of the weekend, thank GOD, because I am certain that by Sunday we won't have anything left to sell. It won't matter how many people come in if we don't have anything left in the sizes they're looking for.
I worked an 8 hour shift at the cash register from 8am to 5pm. It was mostly constantly busy, half the time with a decent sized line, a quarter of the time with a frighteningly long line and the remaining quarter of the time little or no line at all. People were in high spirits, unexpectedly patient and understanding--far more patient than I would have been, but then that's why I would never go shopping on Black Friday. I was shocked--shocked I tell you-- at the number of people making returns. What were they thinking?? I also expected to see more cash this year than usual, but I was really surprised at how many people were paying in cash. Most folks buy clothes on credit/debit. Now it seems that people are leaving their wallets at home and breaking out the bank envelopes. My till started off with $300. A year ago, on a random 8 hour Saturday, I might end up with about $400 in the safe and $500 in the till. I have to guess, but I'd say this time I ended up with about $2000 in the safe and so damned many bills of $20 and under that I could barely stuff them in anymore--probably another $2000.
Overall, I believe the company was budgeting us to reach a sales goal of about equal what we did last year. When I left at 5pm, we were down about 7%, and conversion (the percentage of people coming into the store who actually bought something) was creeping downward hourly. It's the conversion that perplexes me--normally, conversion creeps UP throughout the day. Perhaps our depleting inventory was already hurting sales...
And one thing I forgot to add: the only real excitement for the day was when our manager went into labor...
Yet another Black Friday down. As I said last year, I hope to never work one again. No, it wasn't too bad. I managed to switch shifts with someone so I didn't have to work at midnight, so that was a load of pressure off.
So with the economy in the toilet, a lot of people want to know what it's really like down on "the front lines", rather than the press releases that companies push into your local news reports.
First of all, my company made a fatal mistake in chosing their product line this year. This was the year they decided to push cashmere. We've got cashmere sweaters, cashmere scarves, cashmere gloves, cashmere hoodies (I swear it's true), and even cashmere socks. Yes, a pair of cashmere socks for $18.50. Who the FUCK pays $18.50 for a pair of SOCKS?? Last week someone stole a stack of men's cahsmere sweaters off of a table--total value of about $1100. "That's the only way we're going to get rid of them." I said. My fellow employees agreed. Nobody's buying the cashmere. They can't afford it!! And trust me, these items are nice, well made and all have a nice classic style that anyone could fit into their wardrobe. They're not getting passed by because of style or color, they're just too fucking expensive. Hell, the scarves are $59.99. And nobody's buying a $149.99 sweater for dad when he just got laid off.
Then to add to the problem, the company also decided last spring to reduce the amount of inventory they carry. I understand how large inventories can be a problem in the restaurant business--food goes bad! But clothes? I don't work the rest of the weekend, thank GOD, because I am certain that by Sunday we won't have anything left to sell. It won't matter how many people come in if we don't have anything left in the sizes they're looking for.
I worked an 8 hour shift at the cash register from 8am to 5pm. It was mostly constantly busy, half the time with a decent sized line, a quarter of the time with a frighteningly long line and the remaining quarter of the time little or no line at all. People were in high spirits, unexpectedly patient and understanding--far more patient than I would have been, but then that's why I would never go shopping on Black Friday. I was shocked--shocked I tell you-- at the number of people making returns. What were they thinking?? I also expected to see more cash this year than usual, but I was really surprised at how many people were paying in cash. Most folks buy clothes on credit/debit. Now it seems that people are leaving their wallets at home and breaking out the bank envelopes. My till started off with $300. A year ago, on a random 8 hour Saturday, I might end up with about $400 in the safe and $500 in the till. I have to guess, but I'd say this time I ended up with about $2000 in the safe and so damned many bills of $20 and under that I could barely stuff them in anymore--probably another $2000.
Overall, I believe the company was budgeting us to reach a sales goal of about equal what we did last year. When I left at 5pm, we were down about 7%, and conversion (the percentage of people coming into the store who actually bought something) was creeping downward hourly. It's the conversion that perplexes me--normally, conversion creeps UP throughout the day. Perhaps our depleting inventory was already hurting sales...
And one thing I forgot to add: the only real excitement for the day was when our manager went into labor...
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