Tag Holiday Sales

It’s Super! Yeah, Right.

Michael Leave a comment
Just when you thought it was safe to go back outside.
This close to Christmas with yet a weekend still ahead of us it should be a time to stay indoors and finish trimming the tree, plan the big family dinner, tune up our voices for midnight mass, and venture outside only for snowman building, sledding, and ice skating. Instead there is one last suspense filled 24 hours. Super Saturday. Also, and perhaps more appropriately known as Panic Saturday.
 
I’m sure with apologies to the National Football League but not to American consumers, Super Saturday is expected to outsell Black Friday this year as it has in most recent years, bringing retailers 60% of the years holiday sales and as much as 40% of this year’s total haul at the hands of those clutching fast melting credit and debit cards.
 
It’s hard for the young crowd to picture it but once upon a time, with the notable exceptions of Spiegel’s and Sears, people had to go to a real store to shop, those stores were closed on Sundays, and without constant flood of email reminders shopping was often a last minute activity. The Saturday before Christmas was the last chance to finish filling out the kids’ Christmas lists. So even without the commercials, banners, and full page ads those Saturdays were already super for many stores.
 
I’m not sure what to make of this year’s edition of Super Saturday. There are 3 days between Saturday and Christmas which is one more than most carriers need for 2 day delivery. Will people take that chance or will in store shopping outpace on line shopping? Will Internet shoppers take the order on line and pick up in store option? Will Saturday night bring regret over whatever choices were made.
 
Or will the collective America decide its bought enough already and spend Saturday building snowmen, sledding down a nearby hill, and falling on their behinds at the frozen over pond?
 
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Skaters
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What Color Is Your Parachu– er, Sale?

Michael 2 Comments
Today is another day we’ve been waiting for. Green Monday.
 
People who do marketing know certain colors evoke certain emotions in shoppers. Red imparts urgency, limited time offers, or great reductions such as with clearance sales. Blue suggests confidence and brand trust. And green? Besides being the color of money green symbolizes healing. That must be why so many banks and hospitals use green in their logos and signage. 
 
Green also suggests environmental friendliness. Green Monday? Environmentally friendly sales Monday? Supposedly eBay came up with Green Monday some dozen years ago and claimed just that. According the online giant, online shopping is an environmentally responsible way of shopping.
 
Shopping on online indeed saves the gas and emission used and released by my car on the way to the store but I’m not sure if they count what energy is used to get the UPS truck down my street to deliver my purchases in the greening of on line buying frenzies. And have you ever bought anything from eBay? I have. The package came in a padded case wrapped in bubble wrap, packed in a cardboard sleeve within a corrugated cardboard box filled with packing peanuts. Perhaps the energy used to created all those layers doesn’t count either. In fairness to the company, the sellers are responsible for shipping their products to the buyers, eBay just sets back and collects the money. The green if you will.
 
So, no, I can’t say I’m buying the notion that Green Monday is a celebration of the environment and that every purchase we make will add to the planet’s longevity. I think Green Monday goes back to that earlier thought … it’s the color of money. 
 
20191208_231616As far as I’m concerned the color of money is a fine thing to celebrate. It will go good with the green savings I celebrated on Black Friday, or will save on linens at the January white sales, fitness and wellness equipment on Blue Monday (the third Monday of January), or if I happen to be in Southeast Asia on March 17 on candy and flowers for White Day, or almost anything else at the Red, White and Blue sales between Flag Day and the Fourth of July.
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Hmmmm, I wonder if the best time to buy Scotch Tape is on Plaid Day.
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Black and White

Michael Leave a comment

Do you remember “White Sales?” I might need to address that to the over 50 crowd only. Over 60? For the under 30 crowd, no, that’s not a racial thing. Go find an old person for clarification. Well, White Sales popped into my brain just yesterday when my tablet went black. How do I know why? It just did. I gave up long ago trying to figure out my brain. It was giving me headaches. But there I was with a black screen on my tablet and White Sales on my brain. And they say it’s not a black and white world!

Fast forward to this morning when I stepped out of the shower and pulled a black bath towel off the bar and again thought, “White Sale!” But my thought didn’t stop there, oh no. It continued, “I need to start looking for a new tablet.” By now everybody either knows from experience or determined through careful inquiring and/or slapdash Googling that White Sales and tablets do not go together. Again, I’ve given up on brain figuring.

whitesalesign-777608

The interesting thing about White Sales, at least the last ones I remembering patronizing, is (was?) the lack of white linens. Just now I had to get up and check my closet to see if I even have any myself. I indeed have a set of white towels and white sheets although I don’t remember the last time either was out of the linen closet. It was probably when I moved and they made the trip from one closet to another. Neither set has been in the regular rotation for, well for years. Considering I actually had to go looking for them should tell you it’s been lots of years. It probably also tells you I don’t clean out my closets as often as I should but that’s a post for a different day.

The interesting thing about my tablet is it might be as old as those white sheets. For a piece of portable electronics it’s held up remarkably well. It gets a lot of use. I’d say constant use but there are a few hours each day that I can say I don’t have it in my hand. I know I had it for several years before I moved and I moved 4 years ago. It’s so old that when I read an e-book on it I have to wet my finger to turn the page. Well maybe not, but it is quite old. It has an old operating system, limited RAM, and if it wasn’t for the Micro SD Card it would have almost no memory. But I like it. I like the size, the screen quality (when it’s not all black), the battery use, even it’s case. I know I’ll never find another one that will last however long this one has been with me. Seven years? Ten years? And I am certain one today will probably cost twice as such and last half as long.

I need a sale!

With luck I can hold out until Black Friday. Electronics are always on sale during the Black Friday Weekend. And if I can’t find one then maybe I can make it until January. After all, that’s the traditional month for White Sales.

And they say it’s not a black and white world!

 

 

Up Next: Stoopid Tuesday

Michael Leave a comment

Only 52 shopping days until Christmas.  We could have sworn Black Friday was just a couple weeks ago.  Oh wait.  It was.  Seems around here stores have been advertising “Black Friday Prices” for their weekend sales for the past month or so.  Weekend sales, actually one day sales (with an extra preview day and sometimes an extra wrap-up day) are sweeping the country.  Everything is cheaper on Saturday.  It makes one wonder what those poor schmucks who work the weekend have to pay when they go shopping on Tuesday.

Tuesday has to be the pits, shopping wise.  We know about the weekend sales (actually one day sales on Saturday with an extra preview day on Friday and sometimes an extra wrap-up day on Sunday).  We know that on Monday there will be unadvertised specials to get rid of the “special purchases” brought in just for the more unsuccessful weekend sales.  Thursday is the day the buyers set out the stuff that will be on sale on the upcoming weekend sales and there will always be new discounts for the shopper willing to use his or her store credit card to reap those extra savings on this extra savings day.  Wednesday is the day that the grocery stores end their weekly specials so everybody is there picking up the items they said they would go back and get before the sale ended.  That leaves Tuesday as the only day that a retail store actually sells stuff at the full retail price.  Assuming that somebody actually goes shopping on Tuesday – Stoopid Tuesday.

But things will be a little bit better now that there are only 52 shopping days until Christmas.  Just in yesterday’s paper there were advertising supplements for trees, ornaments, lights, toys, and camping gear with their advertised prices good all week long.  But the ads for clothes, shoes, scarves, hats, gloves, outerwear, and underwear were noticeably missing having come out on Thursday for their usual weekend sales (actually one day sales on Saturday with an extra preview day Friday).  You can get a great deal on a crossbow this Tuesday but forget about finding any deals on a new winter coat until later in the week.

We hope you don’t have to work weekends so you too can take full advantage of the amazing “Black Friday Prices” at this week’s weekend sales (you know, the one day sales on Saturday with an extra preview day Friday) without the annoying wait for Black Friday.  But if you have to work this weekend remember, there are only 8 Stoopid Tuesday shopping days until Christmas.  That leaves you with 44 other days for the good stuff.  You’ll be fine.

Now that’s what we think. Really. How ‘bout you.

 

Get Ready for the Biggest One-Day Sale All Weekend Long

Michael Leave a comment

Happy Fourteenth of July, our country’s newest holiday.  It must be.  There are sales going on and everybody knows the way Americans mark holidays is through sales and clearances. 

Last Thursday the advertising supplements of almost every store that advertised in the supplement touted their “Last Weekend of Our Fourth of July Sale!”  It was so big that the Sunday advertising supplement had a bunch of ads from that same bunch of retailers that all screamed “Last Week of Our Fourth of July Sale!”  Car dealerships are quite adept at celebrating any one holiday for an entire month. They are now in the middle of their Independence Day Specials that “end August 2.” 

It shouldn’t surprise us that stores are taking 14 days to hold a Fourth of July Sale.  Macy’s regularly has a One Day Sale with special savings on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  The real question here is are there really enough clueless people for a major retailer to have a 3 day One Day Sale and not think twice about it.  Or are we all so desensitized to advertisements that they can call an August Clearance the After Christmas Sale and argue quite convincingly that August is after Christmas.

It’s even gotten the amateur advertisers following suit.  The local volunteer fire company is holding its annual carnival this month and sent out flyers to every household in the township.  Stop by the Carnival the flyer reads.  It goes on to say that festivities start Friday at 7pm, “and beginning earlier.”

It’s a good thing that the Carnival will begin even earlier.  That way people can be there for the opening ceremonies and still have time to hop over to Macy’s for the Friday night kick-off to this Saturday’s One Day Sale. 

Hmm, we’re wondering… if the boss gives you one day to complete a project, can you take 3, 14, or 30 days to work on it?    

Now that’s what we think. Really. How ‘bout you.