Hey everyone,
Back in the office after a nice 3 day weekend. I hope you were open yesterday and ran some sort of Labor Day Sale, the couple stores I got feedback from already saying they did that sound like they had a killer weekend and needed to restock today, That's something to keep in mind for next year. Any holiday that a lot of stores close for, if you stay open you get all the business. We HAD to close for the day because we can't ship anything on UPS on the holiday, but for a retail location it sounds like being open is the way to go for labor day.
Fall and cooler temps are right around the corner, so hopefully things start picking up for everybody soon. We're hearing from a lot of stores that things have been fairly slow lately this summer and especially now that school is back in, but that should change soon once everyone is trapped inside again. For our part, we've been trying to keep things fresh by bringing in new stuff lately that doesn't break the bank, and I think most of you have noticed and appreciate the variety. I think this time of year is the absolute best time to be bringing in those oddball type fish that you can sell for under $15-20 retail to keep excitement high during the "slow season" with fish that people can actually afford to purchase. Probably not a lot of demand for Zebra Pikes at the moment, but plenty of demand for scarlet badis, rocket gar, daisy rice fish, fancy shrimp, etc.
Here's another great tip for making as much money as possible at all points during the year, but especially important while things are slower: quantity discounts on cheap schooling fish. I'm always suprised how few stores do this. If you sell a serpae tetra for $3.50 that's fine. But I'd recommend doing something like this:
"Serpae Tetra - $3.50
buy 5+ @$2.50 each"
You'll be suprised how many more fish you sell. Nobody's buying 3 from you at that point, youll be selling 5 or more every time. And that's honestly what's best for the fish anyway since they want to be in a group. So make more sales, keep the cashflow moving, and get more fish out into your customer's tanks. Just make sure to keep your lowest group price somewhere in the ballpark of doubling to tripling your landed cost and you'll be good. It's ok to make lower margins if it means you're selling twice as many of a certain fish.
Give your rep a call if you need anything!
--Steven |
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