Tag Shopping Clubs

Let’s Go Clubbing!

Michael 1 Comment

The holidays are coming.  Some of the retailer advertisements would have had you believe that the holidays came a couple of months ago but with Thanksgiving rolling in next week and Christmas just another month after that, we feel pretty confident saying they are looming.  Soon all our free time will be taken up with cooking, baking, and decorating.  If you’re looking for that last piece of regularly scheduled insanity, this week might be your last chance.  And what better way to close out the insanity than with a weekend at the clubs!

No, not those clubs.  The shopping clubs!  Regardless of the level club you patronize it’s only going to get more frantic from now through Christmas.

To start, there are the classic shopping clubs.  To these you pay a fee for the privilege of being notified of special deals on special days for special people willing to wait especially for that special sale.  Usually only on-line, shopping clubs are clubs in the truest sense.  You have to be invited, you have to pay your dues, and you don’t get to order off the menu.  Gilt Group and Beyond the Rack are two popular shopping clubs.  Some clubs require a membership but without a membership fee.  These are the public pubs of the shopping clubs, usually divisions of other retailers and include Haute Look and Rue La La.

At the other end of the spectrum are the corner bar versions of our clubs.  These are the remainder stores.  Big Lots, Ollie’s, and Tuesday Morning are filled with bargains that nobody else needs, wants, or could sell.  Everybody is welcome and the discounts can be deep.  But be cautious while clubbing at the neighborhood tavern.  Not all of the deals are deals and not all of the merchandise is of the expected deep discount.

The most common of the clubs that will see high level holiday shopping sprees are the warehouse clubs.  Costco, Sam’s and BJs may be the only remaining warehouse clubs in the United States.  Here you pay a fee and buy in large quantities.  So large are the quantities that stand-up comedians have fed on the warehouse clubs since the Price brothers turned an airplane hangar into the first Price Club in 1976.  (If you’re wondering, Price Club eventually merged with Costco.)  You may not need a pallet load of toilet paper but if you want one, the warehouse clubs will sell you one.  Or more.

Yep, it will probably be the warehouse clubs that will be filled this week and weekend as zillions of Christmas lights, mountains of frozen appetizers, plentiful place-settings, hundreds of miles of garland, oodles of electronics, and the occasional occasional chair will be trucked out to pickups and vans and the shopping season opens with a round of clubbing more feverish than Saturday night at a mid-seventies disco.

And they even come with their own cover charge.

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

 

And If You Order Now…Part 1

Michael Leave a comment

A local television station recently reported on new shopping sites that lower your costs. Television shopping channels are comparing their prices to those in brick and mortar retail outlets. Infomercials are offering “free” or dramatically reduced trial periods. What do these all have in common? Boy are they expensive!

Selling products remotely is nothing new. You can go back to the sixties and find record clubs that offered 10 albums for a penny. Selling music on TV was a staple then. And the penny sale was the hook they all baited to get you into a long-term arrangement. Get your 10 albums now and agree to buy a certain quantity over time. Don’t like that idea? How about get your 10 albums now and never have to buy another one ever, period. But you would get an album or two every month “on approval.” If you wanted it, you kept it and sent them money. If you didn’t want it, you sent it back by a certain date.

While the record clubs were fine-tuning their pitches, home shopping was starting to take off. The earliest versions were the televised equivalents of the print ads found in the Sunday supplements of every major American newspaper. No longer were you limited to a picture and your imagination about how something worked. Now you could see it in action on your TV screen. The prices were reasonable even though shipping was extra, and you could always count on some special bonus if you ordered a certain dollar amount, usually a “surprise package.” Woohoo.

But the real money was still around the corner. The televised department store. Entire networks were set up to do nothing but sell. All of them had some catchy 3 letter name so they sounded like real television networks. And they all started out as economical alternatives to going to the mall. It’s two in the morning and you’re bored. Let’s go shopping! It won’t cost any more than going out and you don’t have to get out of your jammies to do it.

And here we are today. Television shopping networks, infomercials, print ads, and on-line stores. Somewhere we’ve lost the record clubs but we have Hulu+ instead. No longer are they content with competing with the brick and mortar outlets, they want to be better. Now there are high end fashion sites with real couture. Accessories from shoes to bags to scarves to belts. Jewelry from costume (a few pieces here and there), to this week’s favorite gemstone. We’ve seen purses over $400, rings in four figures, and a dress suited for a red carpet. Don’t worry about the price. There are payments available. Without interest. Is a one-time “Holy Cow” hit to your debit card out of the question? Just make 4 easy payments of “oh-my-gosh” instead and it’s yours.

Do we begrudge those businesses making money. Of course not. Do we begrudge those who buy a purse for more than their weekly salary to carry around in it? Absolutely not. Do we think things are getting out of control? For sure!

In the original Star Trek movie, when they return to the 1940’s Capt. Kirk says to Mr. Spock, “They are still using money.” We’re pretty certain that’s a statement that we never want to make. How do we stop this roller coaster? Part 2 is coming.

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