You don’t need to do much advertising if your store is located across the street from the famous Wall Drug in South Dakota.  Wall Drug does that for you, promoting their famous “free ice water” and 5¢ coffee to anyone traversing the state’s highways.   But the question is how to get the Wall Drug tourist into your store once they are in tiny Wall, SD.

One way is to advertise a good sale. We all know that today’s shoppers love a sale, and  will buy items they don’t know they need or want if they think they’re getting a bargain.  And what better sale is there generally than a “going out of business” sale?

If you look closely at this sign, you will realize that it actually says “going out for business.”  Pretty clever, unless your purchase is based on the impression that the store’s sale prices are based on the fact that it is really clearing out all its merchandise and closing its doors.  The sign that says “Everything Must Be Sold” adds to the impression that the store is not long for the world.  But of course all of us would like to think that everything in our store eventually will be sold, don’t we?

I don’t want to condemn this shop’s business practices, which obviously works to draw customers in to their shop.  But I think you should be careful about the message that you send customers if you are in an area where you hope for repeat business.  The “sale vultures,” as we call inveterate sale shoppers, are happy to swoop in for the kill if they think they’ll get a bargain.  But your shop won’t be able to build a lasting business based on this type of customer.

It is important that our customers feel that they know and trust us, and that if we say a price is a sale price, it really is.  And if, heaven forbid, we advertise that we’re going out of business, they should bring out their hankies and come say goodbye.  But with loyal, long-term customers who know and trust the store, that will hopefully never happen.

Happy Retailing,

Carol “Orange” Schroeder