Tue, Dec 15 2009

Ka-ching, if they can keep the goods coming

I didn't skip blogging yesterday. I intended to post something in the late afternoon. Then My spouse came home and told me about a failed attempt to find some flameless candles for his work. He told everyone about a set we had found at Costco that included a timer feature. Everybody must have really wanted them because they made a special group trip to Costco at lunchtime. Sad to say, the candles have been selling out and they found none. So we traveled to another Costco location last night to see if we could find any. We found none. (You can apparently still order them online, for about twice the price we originally paid.) While we were roaming around the Costco neighborhood we stopped and got a bite at Arby's and took a quick look in Target, Kohl's, Walmart and even Bed, Bath and Beyond. We even made a stop at Pier 1 Imports, which I'm happy to report has returned to its roots with friendlier merchandise. One of the women who worked at that store told us that sales this holiday season are the best they've been in over three years. The down side is that stores could have sold a lot more holiday merchandise if manufacturers had made more. Demand has been too high for the lower inventories of this season. Shortages create hype (and vice versa), but if the bottom line is sales volume, they also create lower profits. This has been a tough transition year for manufacturers, distributors and retail stores. But people are out there, spending. If this mood holds, next holiday season is going to be a good one. As far as this year is concerned, if you don't have what you want in your hands right now you'd better hustle. Things are flying off the shelves in a hurry.



posted at: 08:30 | category: /Miscellaneous | link to this entry