Catalogs

     With Christmas around the corner many have already started the Christmas shopping experience. I have received several store coupons through the mail along with catalogs. Some of these catalogs are from stores I have never shopped at and a few I have never even heard of. Do companies send out these advertisements and catalogs  around the holidays to get new customers? Of course they do. I receive a catalog from LTD Commodities a few times a year and I have only ordered from them once. They have been sending me catalogs for probably three years now even though I have not placed an order from them in years. Every time I receive one of there catalogs I get excited to look through it. They have really neat stuff for the most part and they are reasonably priced. I often times mark the pages of the items that I would like to purchase and look over it for a few weeks. If any one has received one of there catalogs you will know that they are usually pretty thick and have probably close to 200 pages.
     I find myself never following through with the purchase decision though. They have a mail in order form to send back but I automatically think that that option will take to long. I would have to mail it off and they wouldn't receive it for around 5 days. Then it would take 3-5 days for the order to process then another 5 days to get my order. The whole process could take up to two weeks. I am always so impatient when I am waiting on a package in the mail. I often times set it up so that I receive text message notifications on all packages that I order. So you can see where sending off a mail order form is not ideal for me.
     LTD Commodities also has a website where you can shop and place orders. I have tried to place orders through the website. The problem with this is that there website is not very organized. You can shop by catalogs. With this option you pick the catalog you would like to view and then start looking for the items that you would like. There are pages and pages that you can go through to look at close to 600 items. This may sound good but there is no system to this. So if you are looking for candles, are you really going to look at over 500 items to find candles? No, probably not. The other option is to search the website with the product item #. So basically you look through the catalog they sent through the mail, you write down the item #, you search for each item # online, you add it to you online cart, and then you checkout. This seems like to much work to me. If I planned on ordering more then just a few times I could see where it could take to much time to place an order. I think I would rather just go to a store and get the items I needed. How could this particular company make it easier for customers to place orders?

 

Bell Ringers

 Earlier this week I was out shopping, and the Salvation Army bell ringer was there, like they usually are around this time. As I walked towards the entrance of the store several other customers had went through the door by the bell ringer, some dropping in change others not. The bell ringer greeted each person who went by, there was a total of probably five people. When I got to the door, I expected the same greeting and was disappointed when she said nothing to me. I looked towards her and she was looking at me so I smiled and say hello, still she said nothing. So I went in and did the little bit of shopping that I needed to do. All the employees were busy getting the store ready for black Friday. So the store was a mess, but I was able to get what I needed and get out fairly easy. On the way out a man was a few steps in front of me, I heard the bell ringer speak to him and say something along the lines of have a nice day, so again I expected the same and again I was disappointed when she said nothing to me. As I walked to my car I could hear here greet other customers who were entering and exiting the store. Obviously there was something about me that the lady did not like, at first I thought that maybe she thought that I was rude but once I spoke to her I would have thought that she would have changed her mind. We all have first impressions of people good or bad, but should we use those in all situations at work? I actually thought about giving money when I had first got out of my car and heard the bell, I was going to wait and give the change I had from paying for my purchases but after she had not spoken to me I changed my mind. If she would have said something to me on the way out I would have probable stopped and gave a few dollars. I know that my donation would not have directly benefited her but she did cause the organization a few dollars. Is it right that I based my decision not to give based on the bell ringers actions? Maybe not but I could not see giving money to someone who seemed so rude.        

Black Friday Shopping

 

 As Thanksgiving gets closer so does one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Black Friday ads are out and many shoppers are already excited for the shopping to begin. Over the past recent years stores are opening earlier and Thanksgiving activities are getting cut short. Walmart is starting their Black Friday sale at 6pm on Thursday along with other stores.

   Here is a list of stores that will start Black Friday deals on Thanksgiving:

• Kmart
• HHgreg
• Dick's Sporting Goods
• Old Navy
• Best Buy
• Toys R Us
• Target
• Walmart
• JcPenny
• Kohl's
• Meijer
• Belk
• Lowes
• Gander Mountain
• Shoe Carnival

   Some stores that will not open on Thanksgiving day include:

• Babies R Us
• Cabelas 
• Costco
• Game Stop
• Pier 1 Imports
• Petco
• Nordstrom
• Sam's Club
• TJ Maxx
• Tractor Supply

   Last year Costco statement described its reasons for not opening in Thanksgiving: " Our employees work especially hard during the holiday season and we simply believe that they deserve the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving with their families. Nothing more complicated than that."

   I believe that more stores should be like Costco. I do not think that they have to open on Thanksgiving to attract more customers. I have heard from several people that they will not go out shopping on Thanksgiving, but will get out Friday morning to participate in Black Friday shopping. A recent study shows that 1 in 3 Americans plan to shop on Black Friday. Are you one of the ones that will? 

Pumpkin Shortage

  Pumpkin may be a signature fall flavor but a below average sugar pumpkin harvest could lead to a shortage of canned pumpkin.According to crop experts in Illinois, the country's top pumpkin producing state, the large rounded type of pumpkin typically found at pumpkin patches will be enough for all Halloween/fall activities, but that might not be the case for the canned pumpkin.

   "I would not wait until November 20th," University of Illinois professor Mohammad Badodoost said, "I'd buy it whenever it comes to the store."

   Sugar, or pie pumpkins are not the same as the pumpkins that we carve for Halloween. Sugar pumpkins are smaller and have more flesh.

   Farmers are blaming the shortage on the record rain fall in June for washing out their sugar pumpkin crop. Some planters even planted a second round of crops, and they were washed out as well.

   Illinois makes up 90 percent if all pumpkins grown in the U.S.

   So if pumpkin pie is part of your upcoming holiday traditions, you may want to go ahead and stock up on canned pumpkin.

Non profits

   Non profit organizations collect as much as 40% of their donations around the end of the year. It's not just the spirit of giving, it's the tax deduction that attracts much of that. Recently I have seen that companies tend to send nickels out as part of their campaign to collect donations. How does sending out money help collect money? What if the charity kept the nickel and only sent out a letter, would they receive more donations including the nickel they saved? I know that it sounds ridiculous thinking that  a nickel could have an impact on a company, but if they send out 2,000 letters that is $100.00. Some charities such as Children's Hospital Los Angeles says that for every nickel it spends in the campaign, it makes a dime; but does that nickel really have to be sent to make the dime?
   After doing some research, I have learned that companies mail out money ($0.05) as an inexpensive premium. Most of the items that you receive in the mail, such as greeting cards, address labels, calendars,and notepads typically cost more than $0.05. So with the company sending money they actually save on the campaign.
  Direct mail is still more effective than the internet in terms of fundraising, but direct mail is not exactly environmentally friendly.To attract just one new donor, nonprofits need to send out about 200 pieces of mail.
   Just this week I have received several pieces of mail asking for donations. One of those from the Paralyzed Veterans of America. Written on the envelope,'This nickel can help provide life-saving assistance to paralyzed veterans.' Also included with the nickel were; 72 address labels, 10 holiday gift tags, 10 envelope seals, and a magnetic 2016 calendar. My first thought when opening up the envelope was why did they send so many things? I can understand if I had already sent them a donation previously, that they might step up the 'gifts' as thinking that I might send them another donation but they are risking valuable campaign dollars one just one letter sent out.  
   I know that everyone gets mail asking for donations, and that not everyone donates to the same causes but do you base your donations on the free items that they send you? Do people really donate just because of the company sent you a nickel? What are your thoughts?

Drive in theater

  Saturday October 17 was Sand Mountain Twin Drive-In Theaters Halloween night. The theater plays four different Halloween movies that last all night. The price for admission is $15.00 per car. So you could be a group of seven or just two and will pay the same price. To promote this once a year night, they gave each person who entered the theater a meal ticket. This ticket could be used in the concession area to get a free hot dog meal. The price listed for a hot dog is $2.25. So if you had seven people in one vehicle and each used the meal ticket, the drive-in gave away $15.75 in food cost. The drive-in used the idea to get more people to come to the movies but was is a good decision? The thinking from the company is that if we get them here, they will more than likely spend money to make up the difference in cost for the free hot dog.
     So back to the example of the seven passengers; if they all used the meal ticket (free hot dog) and bought a drink ($3.00 for small, $3.25 medium, $4.00 large) the drive-in had the opportunity to sell $28.00 of products. Other favorite movie snacks including popcorn, candy, and nachos are also available for purchase to make up for the free hot dog meals. Some other items that were offered for purchase was pizza, funnel cakes, chicken fingers, cheeseburgers, corn dogs, and chili cheese fries. With more items offered and during the six hour movie marathon playing that night, I think the drive-in used the meal ticket to their advantage and ended up making more money and attracting more customers with this offer.

Big News for McDonald's Customers

McDonald's made big changes to the menu earlier this week. As of Tuesday, October 6th customers can order breakfast items at any time during the day. Sounds perfect, right? Well there is a catch; only certain breakfast items are in the all day menu. For most of the southern states including; Alabama, Louisiana,Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky, the Biscuit Menu is available.

Biscuit Menu includes:

Bacon egg cheese biscuit
Sausage and egg biscuit
Sausage biscuit
Fruit and maple oatmeal
Sausage burrito
Fruit  and yogurt parfait
Hotcakes
Hotcakes and sausage
Hash browns
 
For Northern states the McMuffin Menu is available. The items are the same as the biscuit menu only they are served on McMuffins rather than biscuits.

McDonald's say the decision was based on local customer preference.

McDonald's has been pressured with the idea to serve breakfast items for awhile now. McDonald's previously said that it was pretty much impossible to serve breakfast all day. The thinking was that the restaurants were too busy and the kitchens were too small to handle breakfast orders on top of burger orders.This is why McDonald's is limiting the menu to prevent kitchens from getting overwhelmed by cooking breakfast and burgers at the same time.

Some items that are not included on the all day breakfast menu are; breakfast platters, McGriddles, and bagel sandwiches.

I went on McDonald'd Facebook page and read some of the comments about the all day breakfast menu. Some of the comments included concerns for not including McGriddles and hash browns. McDonald's had replied to some of the comments and stated that hash browns were included in 90% of restaurants all day breakfast menu and that they were starting with a limited menu but that it could possibly grow to include other favorites such as the McGriddles.I was actually surprised to see how much McDonald'd had replied to comments left by customers.

Some of the concerns about having the all day breakfast menu is that breakfast items generally cost less than burgers. Will this impact McDonald's negatively? Will customers who normally buy burgers buy breakfast items and not spend as much money? Or will this attract new customers? I think only time will tell.