Happy Holidays
Do you loathe doing battle with the crushing holiday shopping crowds? I get panicky just thinking about it. Does competitive parking bring out a side of you that no one would recognize? Have you ever encountered a sold-out toy shelf only to silently berate yourself for not rising at 4:00 a.m and waiting on line at the risk of being trampled by adrenaline and Starbucks crazed shoppers ready to SPEND, no SAVE, no SPEND, SAVE! It is all truly crazy when you think about it.
Whether you're buying or selling this holiday season, the time to be on the move is now! I have read countless news articles and seen TV news features about how retail prices are lower than, or as low as Black Friday right now!
According to Time magazine, Sept. 24th issue, 49% of big marketers stated they will launch Holiday Marketing prior to October 31st . A 2.4% rise in spending is forecast for this holiday season and adding to the rising pressure is this:
"Retailers have a reduced window of time to capture peak holiday spending as only 25 days lie between Black Friday (Nov. 29) and Christmas this year, compared to 32 days in 2012. Typically, weekends are busy times for customers to visit stores and, unlike last year, consumers have only four (not five) full weekends to shop. Also, Hanukkah starts 11 days earlier than it did a year earlier"
Retailers are rolling out the big guns:
- Layaway
- Early 'hot toy' lists
- Giant retailers are price matching
- Buy-Online, Pickup-in-Store
- Newcomers entering the Online arena: H&M and TJ Maxx.
My boyfriend and I love to go to garage sales during the Summer. After a while you see the same people at each one, (if you get up as early as we do). We started recognizing other early regular's cars because of their particularly crazy and fast driving speeds, passing us at 8:00 a.m. in a sleepy beach town.
Then we realized they all had the same look on their faces. Stress, anxiety; almost seething to get to the sale before the others. We deemed it "Garage Sale Face".
One time we needed a new "beach bike" because one of ours had rusted to smithereens. We knew we had to get there early because good beach bikes go quickly. Off we went with our coffee mugs from home in our hands, "early-birding" the homeowners (annoyingly arriving ten minutes before the start of the sale). Sure enough, we looked at each other and laughed, we each had Garage Sale Face as the other regulars pulled in. We got the bike, but we had fallen right into the frenzy!
Well, Holiday crowds to me, all have Garage Sale Face and it ain't pretty!
"Garage Sale Face" examples: (not exactly but you get the idea )
"Garage Sale Face" examples: (not exactly but you get the idea )
Take advantage of the early savings and beat the crowds. Coupons and free shipping deals abound. You must put in a little extra time, do your due diligence and you will reap the benefits of early Holiday shopping deals.
Shop early and you will also find the best inventory because of the recession of recent years, retailers have scaled back on inventories in order to cut back on end of season overstock and unplanned super-markdowns.
Use positive visualization. YOU, finished with your shopping a week before Thanksgiving. You saved lots of cash and you can actually enjoy the holidays instead of frenetically stressing out through them.
This is the buying side of the coming season. What about all of you online sellers.
What are you doing to get your ONLINE Shop Ready? We'll talk more about that next post.
Thank you for visiting and reading,
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Your comments mean a lot to me. Thanks, Norah.