Discounts

The holidays are quickly approaching and stores are starting to get busy. Working at the liquor store we are about to start our busiest time of year. And the question I am posting is should we offer more discounts during the time of year we are the busiest? We always do discounts when customers buy cases for wine and liquor. But should we offer them during the holidays for people who do not buy as much during the time of year when we sell the most?

Halloween costumes at work

Is it a good idea to wear or have your employees wear Halloween costumes to work? This is my question. I can see it as being a good idea as a way to liven up the store and as a way to make to customers happy. But the down side could be some people find the costume offensive in some way. Customers could find some costumes as either to scary or inappropriate. I believe there are some places where it’s a good idea. Some examples would be restaurants, bars, and even most retail stores. Places where it would be a bad idea to dress up would be a doctor’s office or even a hospital. What do you think?

Displays week 4

At work as you walk up to the registers we have a seasonal display set up. The display changes every month or two depending on the time of the year. And I have noticed that when people are in line or when it changes that some people check it out. But have only seen a few times that people have taken an item off the display to purchase or asked where it was in the store. So my question is are the displays really necessary? I will agree that they make the store look nicer but as far a product placement goes and getting people to buy something they didn't come in for they don't really do anything. This display is one that we set up and as employees do on our own. And with more people involved there is always a disagreement on what should be put on the display. I think that we should either use the space to go after the college crowd or the people that pay more for the premium bottles. If you were in charge of setting up the display whom would you market to?

working in retail week 2

I have been working at the liquor store for almost a year now and this first sales/retail type job. Before this I was in the corporate world, working payroll for an oil company. So there are many differences between the two jobs. Interaction with people is a big thing. For the oil company my interaction only was over the phone trying to answer questions people call in and ask for. Where working at the liquor store the interaction is face to face. And the variety of people keeps on surprising me on almost everyday I work. We have people like doctors and CEO's to people who are looking for anything they can get with the change they have. Another thing that has surprised me is the relationships that are built with the customers. In many cases I can't tell you anyone’s name but know what they drink, know if their kids are in town visiting, know what type of job they have, know the car they drive, and know they area they live in. It’s just amazing to me to how much I've been able to learn about how to interact with so many kinds of people over this last year. The difference between my payroll job is for the most part I was talking to the same person day in and day out. 

Convincing the boss week 1

I’ve been talking with my boss a little about trying to do some things to promote the store. I’ve started with little things like having business cards on the counter for customers to have access to. I have reminded him a few times about the business cards but he tells me that he already has some and just keeps forgetting to bring them from his office. It has been a few months now and still no business cards. The boss is a great guy who I love working for, its just he doesn’t like to spend money on things. And I wish I knew of a better way to convince him that spending money on little things can have a large return for the store. His store has been in his family for like 30 years. And I see it as a secret in Edmond. People come into the store all the time talking about how they have not heard of our store before. Or talk about how much lower our prices are compared to anywhere else in town. So I guess I'm asking for ways to convince him to let me help get the secret out.