Holiday Question

I had a comment yesterday about a customer who didn’t like our holiday music.  So I have a few questions for anyone who reads this and will post a comment.

Do you like when a you go to a store that plays a continuous stream of holiday music?

Are you one of those people that like it at first, but by the time Christmas actually comes you are completely fed up with the constant bombardment of holiday music?

Do you wish that stores would just operate on a business as usual model and not play holiday music?

Do you work in a business where holiday music is played constantly and want to kill yourself by the time Christmas finally arrives?

I think that I fit rather neatly in the latter category.  There are so many horrible renditions of “Christmas Music” out there that I personally do not like.  For example, the 3rd time that you have heard a Spanish guitar rendition of “Jingle Bells”, you know that something is wrong with the world.

So if you read this, feel free to post a comment.  I don’t mind if you disagree with me, but you may want to reevaluate you decision come December 25th.

People spending less

Over the last month, we have noticed that sales are down in our electronics business.  Basically people are not buying things that they don’t need.  Lets admit it, you don’t “need” a wireless router in your home.  You can keep swithing the ethernet cable back and forth between the computers in your home.  Sure, you can’t wonder around the house, but do you really “need” to?  The answer seems to be “NO” for more and more people.

They also don’t “need” to replace that older computer.  They may sit waiting a little longer, but parting with the $500 for a slightly better model is not a necessity.  A laptop would be a nice replacement for the aging desktop system, but the laptop cost money.  Money you are spending on something else, like bills!

This is actually the first month that we have seen declines in sales.  I don’t think that it will be the last though.  One thing that may help is that Christmas is coming.  People tend to lose their minds at Christmas.  Society puts so much pressure on gift giving, that people spend money they don’t have.  Not everyone does this, but enough of them do that it ends up in the retailers favor.

One area of the store has been better than the last few month, video rentals.  We have been renting movies like crazy.  I think that people are renting movies instead of doing other more expensive activities.  Also the movie selection has been a little better than the last few months.  There is also the weather to thank.  So some reason the weather on the weekends has not been all that great for the last couple of months.  When this happens, we get a flood of people looking for movies to rent.

Christmas Attitude

Has anyone else noted the attitude of people shopping at Christmas?  About 75% of the people shopping in our store seem to be grumpier than hell.  Are they stressed out because of Christmas?  Everyone needs to take a deep breath and wake up to the realization that Christmas is not supposed to be about giving the best gifts.  If everyone would relax, we could all get along much better.

Well to everyone out there Merry Christmas!  If you don’t celebrate Christmas, I’m fine with that too.  So have a Happy/Merry ________ (insert your preferred celebration here).  Thanks for reading.