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Discover Mid-America — February 2006
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Missed opportunity?
by Bruce Rodgers, Editor/Publisher
Antiquers, to me, seem to be both leisurely and passionate about their love for things that carry history. The assumption holds true for dealers and antique shop and mall owners and managers. They see the connections — family and community mean a lot. So it’s no surprise that the holidays are a time to retreat to that comfort zone — and close up shop for a few days.
Still, I’ve got to wonder, particularly when considering the day after Christmas, which is considered a big retail day, this year fell on a Monday.
Many shops in the Discover network close on Monday as a matter of routine. But I found of those that don’t, or maybe even opened in hopes of catching some of that day-after-Christmas trade, had a very good day in sales.
I spent the last week in December on the road delivering the January issue to my cluster of advertisers. Most everyone I asked crowed, to varying degrees, about their sales on that post-Christmas Monday and the week leading up to the holiday; a few even said November was better than December.
Granted, there was nothing scientific about the survey and, maybe, just maybe there was the “brag factor” at work. But here’s a list of the shops where the owners or managers smiled and nodded when I asked how their Christmas sales went, particularly the Monday after Christmas:
Keepers Antique Mall, Harrisonville, MO, Mission Road Antiques, Prairie Village, KS, Sentimental Journey, Olathe, KS, Lawrence Antique Mall and Antique Bazaars II, both in Lawrence, KS, B&J Antique Mall, The Secret Place, Ferris Wheel Antiques, Wheatland Antique Mall, Brickhouse Antiques, Pastense, all in Topeka, KS, Greenwood Mercantile/Millett & Co., Greenwood, MO and Liberty Antique Mall in Liberty, MO.
Overall, the nation’s retail sales for the Christmas season for 2005 have been labeled “unspectacular.” The gain from 2004 said to be up 3.2 percent. I would bet the shops/malls I just mentioned had better than a three-percent jump.
So what are they doing right? Maybe nothing more than staying open on a Monday.
It’s not my place to suggest that the longer and more often a shop or mall stays open, the more their sales will increase. You and I know there’s way more than just that. But knowing your customers, and determining your days and hours to accommodate those customers, and potential customers, is important. Some antique retailers lessen the equation somewhat by just staying open seven days a week; the majority of those I listed above do that.
Another Holiday sales statistic worth noting concerns e-commerce. Online retail sales increased to $172 billion or 7.7 percent of overall retail sales. Forecasters are predicting that by 2010, online commerce will amount to 13 percent of overall retail sales.
At some point small retailers, including antique shops and malls, may have to decide whether selling online is as important as deciding what days to stay open. The so-called “multichannel retailing” — selling both in stores and online — will become an increasingly dominant retail model, much like staying open seven days a week.
Still, if that scenario happens, the passion and interest in antiques will remain.
Contact Bruce Rodgers at publisher@discoverypub.com.
> Editor’s Notebook Archive — past columns
