Tis the Season To Be Crazy

Some Ideas on Surviving the Holidays

– Don Capman, President, J.D. Associates

Well, here we go again. The season where most retailers make 70% to 80% of their annual sales is upon us. The blessings and curses of the 2006 holiday season are about to fall upon us without mercy. This time of joy (for everyone else) produces reasons for retailers to resort to lots of nail biting, multiple cases of Pepto-Bismol, and for some retailers, a double refill of Prozac.

Why do the holidays always have to be so crazy and out of control for retailers? We watch other people with "normal jobs" come into our stores full of the holiday spirit. BAH HUMBUG! When my business partner, John Deery, talks to retailers about how their "normal" day goes, he reminds them of the Ed Sullivan Show and the guy who used to spin the plates. That guy was spinning plates on sticks on almost every appendage he had, and he hardly ever dropped one. Sound familiar? Every successful retailer today is, in a sense, a plate spinner. Only today, the politically correct name for that skill and affliction is called "multitasking." [Get the full story]

Holiday Staffing Now

– Doug Fleener

It's about three months until Christmas and those days will pass in the blink of an eye. I can't stress enough that store managers and owners should be finding their seasonal staffing NOW. Here are the people to hire for seasonal help, in the order to seek them out. [Get the full story]

What Did You Learn Today?

– Rick Segel

When I was growing up, my parents had a nightly bedtime ritual for my sister and me. We had to brush our teeth, take our bath, put our dirty clothes in the hamper, and then jump into bed for that special time with one of our parents. We would always have a short story, and before we said our prayers my parents would ask one question every night that, in retrospect, has shaped our lives. The question was, "What did you learn today?" So many times we would say, "Nothing." Then they would always expand that question in a fun way by saying things like "something small" or "something big" or "something you will never ever forget" or "something that you will forget tomorrow." (Like Sally Johnson was a meany) If we still said nothing (which would never really happen) our parents would say, "Well I guess today was a bad day." [Get the full story]