I was buying a Sunday Dallas Morning News newspaper last week in a Walgreens and I noticed a promotion they had that was displayed at the cash register. The item was a book that was selling for $21.99 or you could buy two for $43.98. Even though it was very early, I could still do the math and quickly figured out that there was NO discount for buying additional copies of the book. Quickly I thought — Are you kidding me! That’s the promotion you went with! That’s the impulse item you put next to the register. Even though I am not a retail guru I would think that the planners or store managers would use that sacred space for items that really move and frankly can make them a lot of money.

Instead they go with a promotion that to me isn’t even a promotion.

• With the economy being the way it is doesn’t everyone want and almost need to get a deal?
   
• Isn’t everyone looking to buy something on sale?

There are a number of promotions and deals that really can work. Lots of retail stores are doing:

• buy one get one free
   
• Pay full price for the first item and the second is a penny
   
• Buy two suits and get a sport jacket for free

Retail stores are really getting creative these days.

• What promotions do you like?
   
• What promotions in your opinion don’t work or a total waste of time?
   
• What retail store does the best job?

I look forward to reading your comments.

Over the weekend I was at a Target store and after purchasing a few items I was standing in the checkout line. The line had maybe 3-4 people in it and as I was looking around for some impulse items to buy (yes I am guilty of that) I noticed something interesting on the cash register. As the person in front of me was paying I noticed something come up on the register that I had never noticed before. It said “The guest is entering their pin number”. I assumed the person in front of me was using a debit card and no, that wasn’t the interesting thing about this. To me it was the word guest! I thought that was a GREAT word to use. To me they could have used a number of other words like client or customer. But they didn’t they chose to use the word GUEST.

When I think of the word GUEST I think about someone coming to my house or going to someone’s house and be treated very nice or very special almost like a special occasion.

• As a retail shopper don’t you want to be treated special?
   
• Don’t you want to be treated nice?
   
• Doesn’t the word GUEST imply that?

Ok you may think I am a little nuts for noticing this on the cash register but I do pride myself on noticing everything. So please get past the point that I might be crazy.

• What do you think of the word GUEST?
   
• Have you noticed this before?
   
• Should that word be more prominently displayed in their stores?
   
• Are there other words that you like to describe a customer?

I look forward to your comments.

To me every day is a learning experience. You can learn something from every situation. And even though the economy is very challenging, I totally believe that there are tremendous learning opportunities and life lessons there as well.

So here is the question: What has the challenging economy taught you?

For me the first lesson it has taught me is this difficult time has had a ton of highs and lows and for me I am trying to be much more even grounded and not get too excited when something goes well and don’t get too down when something goes in the other direction.

Now your turn.

What has the challenging economy taught you?

I look forward to reading your comments.

It is probably on everyone’s mind daily. If you watch TV, you hear about it.  If you look at the newspaper, you read about it.  And probably it is a topic of conversation with your family, friends and industry contacts.
 
What am I talking about?  The economy.  The seven letter word that is on everyone’s mind. The question is what are you doing different because of it?
 
How do you finish these two sentences?

• The economy is forcing me to ______________________?
   
• No matter what I am still going to do ________________?

For me the second answer is very easy for me.  No matter what, I am still going to:

• Fund my children’s 529 accounts
   
• Max my 401k contribution year after year

• The economy is forcing me to ______________________?
   
• No matter what I am still going to do ________________?

I look forward to reading your comments.