Damage Control...

So, let's just say, somewhat hypothetically, that 'Acts of God' ruin your Holiday sales.
Record-breaking rainfall for a month, snow & ice shutting down the roads for days, historical windstorm knocks out power to the entire region and snarls traffic (EVERYTHING snarls traffic here...what is that all about?!!!), shuts down businesses, and keeps customers huddled at home under fifteen blankets to keep warm in their powerless abodes for a week.

Hypothetical, of course. There is no WAY all of that could happen to one area in a two-month span of time.
Unless you live in the Pacific Northwest.

So, amidst all of Nature's Rampage, retailers are expected to continue to sell the merchandise in their stores to keep the valuable fourth quarter numbers in the black.Easier said than done!
One local independent retailer, Molbaks, is running registers off of generators in order to stay open. The huge building is all greenhouses, heated by steam, so there is warmth and light and apparently, enough people who are willing to go out and find both. Plus shop in the process! But many others, like the wineries, are still in blackout. Generator power is minding the tanks and humidity systems, in order to save the wine. Sales are at an all-time low for this week of the year.

But what can you do? Throw out the spoiled food and wait for power. Slash prices to 50/75/80 percent off, and hope for the best. The same thing everyone ELSE is doing. I've been chatting with the buyer for the winery, who is none too happy with this nasty turn of events. She'll do the markdowns when the shop reopens, but then, I suggested something else....

Let's salvage all that we can and turn it into winter/spring displays. Like, for example, those ornaments above.....silver, with red felt dots. Some others in the collection say 'Love'. So they didn't sell....well, then let's make lemons into lemonade and create a big red Valentine's day display! Those ornaments will be heaped into a huge heart-shaped box I have, made to look like bon bons. And the red table, below, will fit right in:
So will the red cyclamen flowers and the linens with white snowflakes..
And some of these Seasons of Cannon Falls snowmen, below, are 'non-holiday specific', so I'll use them, too. It's still winter - they still work!!!! The newsprint snowflakes from the collection can hang from tree branches above.

The winery stocks a line of pottery in multiple colors year-round, and I'll pull the red pieces to round out the display.
Some of the white Vietri poettery with the lacy edges will work nicely, too. Then just add some fab Seattle Chocolates in Valentine's boxes, some red wine, a few red velvet wine bags, and you have a new look with almost all 'leftover' merchandise. It's a way to get more than clearance prices from things that didn't sell, keping your profit margin high.

Once I get the display installed, post-Holiday, I'll share a photo. But I thought that perhaps sharing a solution would be helpful right now. And even if you don't have to deal with a bad sales slump, sometimes products just don't move like you expect them to. Rethink them, restyle them, recombine them with other merchandise to create a whole new story. Don't think that the way they were displayed in the showroom is the ONLY way to merchandise them! Sometimes, your creativity can mean the difference between clearance and sell-out.

My best to all area retailers struggling this year....hang in there. It really can't get any WORSE!!!!