Seasonal Sales Numbers?

[dirtfisher]

Hi there,
just opened our first small 2000 sq ft store in NorCal.
Sales have been less than expected, even given we are new.
Weather is real hot right now.
Wondering if that's part of the problem or are we just too small and too unknown??
Prices, organization and appearance of the store is excellent according to almost everybody.
Thanks.
Martin

[jennifer5john]

What's the starting price range in your sale?

[dirtfisher]

Shirts are $1.99-2.99. Better stuff maybe a bit more. Jeans and pants almost all $6.99. Some name brand stuff, like 501s we go up (those sell at those prices),. Kids stuff mostly from 0.99-2.99, most in the 1.99 range a few older kids stuff and nice jackets $4.99. Odds and ends stuff all over the place individually. Women's tops and nice bottoms 3.99 give or take. Tshirts 2.99.

I did some more research at other local stores and we are pretty comparable.

We do not put out junk. Just very nice, clean and presentable stuff.

We age our inventory and after 3 weeks its 25% off and after 4 weeks until we pull it 50% off.

Our initial prices are higher than several other stores, but they don't offer the aged inventory discount as we do.

Most other stores are MUCH bigger, so I am sure that does play some role.

We are planning a parking lot bag sale once we have enough pulls. Prob end of August.

Now I am contemplating a 30-50% across the board storewide sale. A larger store down the road has 30 or 50% off every day. I find that ridiculous and totally defeating the purpose of a sale. But they seem to make it work.

My concern is, that with such an approach people still by the same number of items, just at less $$.

Where is the Gordon Ramsey of the Thrift Store industry??? LOL

[lopez S]

One thing you can do to get known is to advertise your store a bit, so that people will come to know about it. It will brig customers to your store and will attract more people.