...from operating a small grocery / deli (on Mars):
We have sold fish dinners from our kitchen for the past six months, with little success during even Lent. We had appropriate signage and I had my staff push it with little luck. Removing fish from the menu and putting up a handmade sign which reads "fish fry tonight" has tripled sales. We have a fish fry every night. Many customers ask when we will start, and our answer is that we're ready to start now.
Milkshakes make more money once we moved the blender a bit out of sight. When it was near where the customer ordered, they stood and watched us make them. I moved the machine to another counter, where it is still visible, but less centered in the customer's field of view. Shake sales were unaffected, but now the customers browse the store while they wait. A little less show, a little more shopping.
When I ask my customers "will that be all for you?," they nearly always say yes. When I ask them "can I get you something else?," they nearly always say no. Both answers are meaningless because many customers will immediately contradict themselves.
The right question is "what else can I get you?" This seems to generate a few more sales than either of the first two questions.
If a customer is a man or young, (or both), and they're buying cabbage, comment on it. Something like "cabbage sounds pretty good today" or whatever. Most of the time they thought they had lettuce and are glad to have "realized" before getting home.
Breakfast coffee drinkers are good customers. Afternoon coffee drinkers will stand around and annoy other customers. And me.
The less employed a person is, the more likely it is that they will order the cheese fries.
Anytime a customer asks that we carry a specific product, I try to remember if I have ever seen them shopping in the store before. If I have never seen them before, I never will again.
Most employees will do 50% of their work in the first 25% of their shift, and the other 50% won't get done at all unless I direct them.
When I hire a teenager and I am their first employer, I must be prepared to learn firsthand the failings of the American educational system. They are a blank slate and will usually fight to keep it that way.
When an employee asks for more hours, they mean day shift, and not on the weekends.
Coca Cola and Pepsi develop about fifty times the number of failed products than the number of successful ones. If I am not skeptical about new products, I will quickly have thousands of dollars of unmarketable stock.
Coke and Pepsi understand this. They don't care. A sale is a sale. They hardly care if the bottle collects dust or ends up consumed. On their ledger, it was sold. Sure, they'll refund me eventually, but only after I have ample time to bury the paperwork proving that I paid twenty two dollars a case instead of the sixteen dollars a case they are now offering.
Reps lie.
It doesn't matter if I think a product is great. I like to sell things I like, but it is a luxury. What matters is whether or not my customers will try it and continue to buy it.
Most people are idiots, ergo, most of my customers are idiots.
I will make the most money by selling the crap that idiots like.
No amount of money is worth the nastiness that is liver cheese.
I would bring liver cheese back on the menu if idiots would pay ten dollars a pound, however.
(Yes, I know it's all a contradiction. I am being funny. Ha ha.)
EBT cards ("food stamps") are only issued to people with special dietary conditions which require them to subsist only on candy bars, potato chips, and soft drinks. I doubt that this condition is universal, I am not making a blanket statement about everyone who has or has ever had an EBT card. Only those poor, nutritionally challenged folks which frequent my store.
If you subsist entirely on soft drinks, potato chips, and candy bars, it will take about two hundred dollars to feed you for a month. Best to just buy it all in the first few days of the month when your EBT card is funded.
If you subsist entirely on soft drinks, potato chips, and candy bars, you will probably frequently forget that your EBT card may not be used to purchase cigarettes. You will also forget that pleading with the clerk will also not work. Oops, sorry. Didn't mean to scare you with the W word.
Cheese fries carry twice the nutritional content of potato chips, however, they are like cigarettes: verbotten und de EBT carde. This makes people very sad.
No one will purchase the newspaper on top of the stack. It is where they hide the AIDS.
Many of the women of my town purchase certain sanitary products in the same part of the month. I am not saying that all of them do, only more than what an even distribution would imply.
The week after that is the most likely week to sell pregnancy tests.
The week after that sells the most condoms.
People that buy the kid's drink "bug juice" are often surprised to learn that it contains no juice whatsoever. (It is a kool-aid type product, sold in a kid friendly bottle.)
Most purchasers of the disgusting concoction called Yoo-hoo, are surprised to learn that it isn't called Yahoo!
Yoo-hoo is the only consumable product in the entire store which has no expiration date, and according to the reps, that is intentional.
If you had a bad Yoo-hoo, you probably couldn't tell anyway.
Most people stopped carrying cash last year. They have a credit or debit card instead.
They believe a myth that they are not charged to use that card for small purchases.
The merchant is charged for the honor of accepting the plastic.
Since more people are using them, we, like other merchants, are increasing our prices to cover the cost.
People understand very much that prices are increasing.
In a store where most transactions are trivial, like mine, the cost of credit adds a huge pressure to increase prices.
People have no idea that their plastic habit is driving prices up rapidly. After all, they aren't being charged anything (by their bank) to use the card, and I don't add a surcharge to use the debit card... (I just increase prices to make up for my costs.)
Allowing a customer to have a tab or to write a check will eventually cost me the customer. Both are essentially a promise to pay at a later date. When they are really having a hard time in life, we give them food, not credit. That builds loyalty instead of risk.
That being said, I don't run a free soup line. We help our friends and neighbors, but we can't feed ourselves on good feelings and rainbows.
Everything regarding the cigarette industry is deceptive, counter intuitive, and built to make even the accountants in the statehouse cry for mercy in it's labyrinthine workings.
Remember when a pack of Marlboros cost a dollar? My customers do, and they will never forget.
Fifty percent of my smoking customers are "about to quit." FOR GOOD!
About five percent of my smoking customers attempt quit on any given week.
A few of my customers quit each year. Of course this is purely anecdotal. The only customers I am including are the ones who I remember.
About the same number of customers who I know as quitters, die from lung or heart related conditions each year. Again, purely anecdotal and unscientific. But it is my experience that very few who tell me that they will quit actually accomplish their goal.
No one who has ever said "this is my last pack, then I am quitting" has ever quit, to my knowledge, and neither has anyone who has said any of the following to me:
"I am going to quit next week."
"I am quitting because my spouse quit."
"I am going to try a good hypnotist."
"I bought some of that nicotine gum."
"I got the nicotine patch."
"I'm going to taper down to only a few cigarettes a day first."
"I'm going to switch to smoking cigars."
A few of the things I have noticed have been said by those who quit smoking:
"I got that new pill."*
"I am quitting cold-turkey."**
"I am starting chemo in a few weeks."***
"I am going to switch to dip/chew/smokeless tobacco."****
* Yes, I have had customers quit using chantex or whatever it is called, and no, none of them went crazy. No, I don't get any kickback. I have had even more customers try it and it not work for them.
** Most often fails, but I have seen successes also.
*** Very high success rate. Has worked in all but one case that I remember.
**** Technically, they quit smoking, i will grant that, but they only traded one bad habit for another. Most often, it doesn't work anyway.
Mexicans are really good customers. If they like my food, they will bring their friends. Damn, they have a lot of friends.
A kid wearing a heavy winter coat in July will be very offended if I watch him closely. Watch him closely. As a matter of fact, I will personally escort one such as him around the store, as his personal attendant. I play the part of the gracious host. For some reason, this will agitate him greatly.
Chore-boys are much prized by those suspected of being crack-heads. (A chore-boy is a metal scrub pad without soap, somewhat similar to steel wool.) No one will ever purchase a chore-boy. Ever.
Somehow, the magical chore-boy fairys show up to take the chore-boys to chore-boy never-never land, leaving nothing but the empty box behind when I am not looking. I have, regretfully, been forced to stop stocking chore-boys due to their runaway nature, much to the dismay of my innocent crack-head suspected friends and neighbors.
They lament the passing of the chore-boys with each passing day.
In completely unrelated news, I have heard a rumor that a chore-boy makes a fantastic accoutrement to a crack-pipe. I'm not sure if it is used for cleaning such paraphernalia, but I suspect that it may somehow be used in packing the pipe, not as a filter so much as a netting to keep the rock enmeshed in a metallic webbing, allowing good airflow around the rock.
The State Police will stop by once or twice a year, explaining which products could theoretically used to manufacture meth to our clerks.
My meth-head customers don't purchase anything on the cops list, ever. They purchase the stuff which will be on their next list.
If a policeman in a marked car visits the store, sales will be down a bit until he leaves.
The better rolling paper sales are, the better doritos chips will sell.
Most "energy" drinks are purchased by kids who are already practically bouncing off the walls.
I have my doubts that most energy drinks have any greater chemical effect than caffeinated sugar drinks naturally do already. I believe there is a placebo effect for the enhanced effect on energy levels. I have no opinion regarding health effect.
Each color of cigarette lighter is considered unlucky by someone. They will consider their preference to be universal, and will be mildly shocked should you offer their unliked candidate to them for sale.
Some few customers will not understand why you are confused when they ask for marlboro lights 100s kings in the silver pack.
Some few customers don't remember what brand they smoke, and will ask you to remember.
Nickels confuse customers more often than any other coin. I can't say why, I only report the news.
4/24/08
What I have learned so far...
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11 comments:
I was totally consumed by this post.
Some thoughts:
*People understand very much that prices are increasing.*
No junk!! I paid 5 bucks for asparagus the other day. I used to be able to get asparagus for practically nothing !! This will NOT curb my asparagus habit, however. I'll quit when it hits $7 a lb.
I didn't know what an EBT card was till you told me. Question: Do people who have these cards, and no offense to those who do, but do they have bad eating habits because they can not afford to eat properly or do they eat crap because they have bad eating habits? Do they not know what they are doing to their bodies or do they not care? Or both?
*When they are really having a hard time in life, we give them food, not credit. That builds loyalty instead of risk.*
I wonder if they would accept produce?
I hate even the thought of smoking/smokers. I'm very OCD about that, among other things, as you know.
*Mexicans are really good customers. If they like my food, they will bring their friends. Damn, they have a lot of friends.*
And they are AMAZING cooks too!! The girls in the warehouse occasionally bring in food for us gringos. Holy mother of mud, I've never had such great homemade Mexican food in my life !!
I didn't even realize they made metal scrub pads without the soap in them. I learned something new.
*Some few customers will not understand why you are confused when they ask for marlboro lights 100s kings in the silver pack.*
Is this a smoker's meme? I don't understand. :(
*Some few customers don't remember what brand they smoke, and will ask you to remember.*
Are those the ones that are also buying the rolling papers?? Ha!
*Nickels confuse customers more often than any other coin.*
Confused by Nickels. It could be our new punk band.
That's great. Loved it. Thanks for taking the time to share such hard-won knowledge. Remind me to share what I learned running a record store someday.
Haha! Vox, bad news, food prices are going to continue going up all year, for a few reasons:
1 If it isn't made out of corn, it's probably made out of something that eats it.
2 Rice prices are also exploding.
3 Farmers who grow neither rice nor corn, are considering switching to them, due to the better prices. (Which may eventually ease prices, just not soon.)
4 Fuel prices.
5 The entire market is in a slump.
6 Rapidly increasing merchant costs on credit / debit processing.
7 Minimum wage increases on July 24th.
8 Food distributors are also suffering due to the credit crunch.
I'm not making a prediction here, only repeating the industry gossip.
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Question: Do people who have these cards, and no offense to those who do, but do they have bad eating habits because they can not afford to eat properly or do they eat crap because they have bad eating habits? Do they not know what they are doing to their bodies or do they not care? Or both?
Eating healthy foods can be more economical than highly processed convenience foods. There are lots of staple foods which are very inexpensive, beans, rice, cabbage, etc. I suspect it would be cheaper to feed a family of four at a large grocery for a week using foods that are not ready to eat than foods that are "fire and forget" in the microwave, assuming that the family is willing to accept eating leftovers.
According to the literature, lack of education is a major factor which limits nutrition of those eating via EBT. Also, lack of transportation. For instance, the prices at my market aren't nearly as affordable as the ones at the nearest megagrocery, but the nearest megagrocery is a thirty minute drive away. Some of my customers walk to the store.
(Before being certified to accept EBT, a store must pass inspection on a yearly basis, proving that they carry a certain variety of products for basic nutrition of infants, children, and adults.)
We do have healthier alternatives available. EBT cards are rarely used to purchase anything healthy.
I know I sound like I'm on a high horse here. Damn, everybody deserves a treat or snack, I'm not saying that people shouldn't be able to get it.
I just see quite a few people who aren't in the position of needing the card to fulfill their nutritional requirement so much as it's just a luxory, a way of having some doritos to go with their weed.
(And yes, it makes me sick, but every day I do encounter the parent with the hungry child who is spending their last three dollars on a pack of cigarettes, and of course I'm only seeing a moment of their life out of context, but it makes me sick.)
And yes, of course some of my customers do feed themselves with their EBT card, and not just fritter it away on frivolous junk.
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Q: I wonder if they would accept produce?
A: They have. It's not an every day occurance, but the way we handle it, is when we get asked for credit, they've usually already done their shopping. If it's a pile of candy bars and ice cream, we say sorry, no. If it's FOOD, then we just let them have it. People get embarrassed, and I know that they don't want to seem like they're beggars, and we don't treat them as such. It's really tricky. Every time is a little different.
Marlboro Lights come in a gold pack, kings are "regular" length (80-something millimeters, I think 85). 100's are the long ones, 100 millimeters long.
ULTRA lights come in a silver pack.
No such thing as lights in a silver pack, and if they're kings, they can't be 100's.
My example was a little unlikely, just to show the type of things people say.
More common is something like: Marlboro Lights in the silver pack or Marlboro Kings 100s.
Occasionally someone will also ask for a specific brand such as GPC menthol lights, in the hard pack. (For some reason, many brands put their menthol light kings and 100's only in a soft pack.)
These are people who have smoked the same type of cigarette for years, yet are still unsure of what the hell they are addicted to.
Confused by Nickels.
I'd love to hear what it's like to work in a record store!
I guess sometimes I just wish the whole world would eat as healthy as I do.
You know me, always curious about people as long as they are at a distance. I wonder if half...literally half...of your store was produce, if people would put down the junk and eat better.
For some reason I've been very curious the last year or so about the eating habits of people at different socioeconomic levels.
Oh, I know food prices are going to keep going up and the reasons for it, I was just floored when I saw my asparagus at that price !!!!!
Asparagus is kind of the red- headded stepchild of the produce area. That and endives. I thin it's because people don't know just how good asparagus can be when prepared properly, but anyway, I'm the only one I've ever seen actually comparing the different bunches and trying to find the best ones and buying it. I don't have any idea why I'm bemoaning the loneliness of asparagus in your comments. Must be the hormones.
I'm really glad that I eat hardly any processed foods.
I've pretended to be browsing the produce at Whole Foods (Whole Paycheck) and actually been watching people pick out produce there and compared the prices of what they choose to the prices at the Vons and Albertsons (the regular grocery stores here) and I've been astounded at what people will pay when they think something is organic when it actually isn't. WF has conventionally grown produce that has just as many pesticides sprayed on it as the stuff down the street at Vons, but people will pay almost twice as much, if not more.
Now, you know how I feel about the truly non-sprayed, non-pesticide stuff, I'll pay more for that all the time, but I don't understand paying 3 dollars for a sprayed apple you can get at Vons for 1.50.
Anyway I pay close attention to this: http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/ams.fetchTemplateData.do?template=TemplateA&navID=NationalOrganicProgram&leftNav=NationalOrganicProgram&page=NOPNationalOrganicProgramHome&acct=nop
I really don't know why I'm writing all of this.
It cut off my link to the department of agriculture national organic program that outlines the requirement for products to be labeled organic.
Oh well.
Our experience with healthier foods: certain customers will not shop in the store if there aren't any available, but the mass of people ignore them entirely and only ever purchase comfort food or convenience foods.
Actually, trying to push the health benefits of certain foods will DECREASE sales. (Most people assume healthy = bland). For instance, we sell a very lean ground beef. If we advertise it as "extra lean" then many people won't buy it. If we just call it ground beef, it sells well.
Some customers ask about the fat content, so we tell them. They're then happy too.
I suggest that I come into the store and set up booth where I do 47 million tasty things with asparagus.
What isn't eaten will be flung at customers you don't like. :p
I can't stop looking at this article. You should call yourself a consultant and charge us all.
Hate hate hateration infinity to the corporation that cut off my internet at work!!! I can only comment when I'm at the end of my string and my mind is totally blank. Bleah.
Homeless people and prisoners like Cheetos with soda because it gives you a quick sugar buzz and a long-burning fat satiation and the carbonation combines with the puffed up corn doodle objects to expand in your stomach. I think the ingredients in salted snack foods and especially in soda are at the very least psychologically addicting. And comforting. Particularly in combination.
Don't even get me started on the sociology of forming a line and what paper-napkin-acquisition reveals about customers and society. I've got to get ready for work. : )
DRAFT DAN FOR THE RECORD_STORE BLOG!!!!
Vox: I'm not a veggie hater, but I can't imagine the first good version of asparagus. (But I'd be willing to try.)
Come on over.
Radio: Everything I write is anecdotal. There is certainly bias. But thank you.
I hate that they cut you off, too!
I didn't know that about sodas + cheetos. I am addicted to soda, I drink it every day. No cheetos, though.
We only have one line, but there is some stuff I should have wrote about that. Maybe next time.
Great post.
We have a prepay system at the store which replaced the old customer charge. Now most people put $100 or so on their account and we let them know when the balance is used.
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