What to do with your surplus poinsettias

I was speaking with Bob Sickles of Sickles Market yesterday about his loyalty program, which he has had up and running about a year. He said that you need about a year to gather enough data on your customers to make it work for you.

Bob was the third or fourth retailer I had spoken to that day, and of course each conversation included how the Christmas season was going so far. Prior to my talk with Bob, all the reports had been on the dismal side. Bob, though, said he’d just got a call from his cashiers that sales were booming today.

I immediately assumed the sales were all from his gourmet grocery store department. He said, no, the cashier who called is assigned to garden.

He attributed the uptick in sales to how they thanked their most loyal customers this year. Every loyalty card customer who had spent more than $5,000 at Sickles Market this year had a quality poinsettia delivered to their home by a Sickles employee.

“The response has just been tremendous,” Bob told me. “People are coming in and hugging employees and saying thank you.” And, according to that cashier, they were shopping.

I’m hearing from a lot of retailers that poinsettia sales are low this year. Sickles Market’s idea of giving away poinsettias to truly loyal customers seems like a perfect use of those surplus plants.

Why? Because everybody is scared right now. They’re scared about job security, about their 401Ks. And they’re even worried about the local stores staying in business, because they are the basis of the local economy.

With each of those deliveries, Sickles Market was sending the message that its management wasn’t scared. That they still are solvent enough to send tokens of appreciation.

Now, in reality, Bob Sickles is just as concerned as the next retailer. But he says it’s vital that his customers and his employees have faith in his store, or both groups will abandon him for more something more secure.

So who can you deliver poinsettias to this weekend?

-- Carol

Comments

[greg draiss]

Excellent idea. Imagine the relief of not having to have a loyalty program that gives the store away.
Congrats to the IT guru who wrked through the mine of information for "relevant" information............

greg draiss
garden guru to every class (now that we are officially in a recession)

[Alan Watkins]

As a small wholesale - retail operation many years ago we had 100's left over. We got local radio stations to plug us giving away poinsettias to anyone that would give them to nursing home residents or home bound people.
People remembered that 15 years later. And we got "free" exposure.

[Kate]

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Kate

http://educationonline-101.com