Top-Shelf Advice
Retailers respond to: "What kind of fall promotions do you do?"
By Barbara Wujcik
"Down here we have a couple of weekend festivals in the fall. We have a Shrimp Festival the first
weekend of October and Fall Tour of Homes also in October. Since most of the visitors want a taste
of the area, we gear our product promotions to regional products. We offer items like she-crab soup,
shrimp and grits, praline mustard glaze, Carolina rice, stoneground grits and Benne Wafers, a popular
cookie from the Lowcountry.
"
Louisa Alexandre, co-owner of Cravings By the Bay in Beaufort, South Carolina
"We put together a big canning display
and promote it in the front window. We offer bottles, labels, jars, colanders,
food mills and other equipment used for canning. We have found that people
want to preserve the local produce, and we will sell a lot of this product
until the end of September. We don't have the space for classes, but we
also have books on canning and preserving. "
Carole Johnson, sales associate at The Wooden Spoon in Edmonds, Washington
"We usually have a fall open house.
We debut the new products we have found at the summer shows and offer
food sampling. Sometimes we might have a guest vendor. We might also do
special offers on certain products. We do drawings with free giveaways.
We ask for peoples' e-mails and also birthdays on drawing-entry forms
because we also have a birthday club. To promote the event, we have a
special invitation on Facebook, in our e-mail newsletter and by postcard.
"
Jill Bednar, owner of Southbank Gift Company in Jefferson City, Missouri
"The Saturday before Halloween is
Black Hat Day. The whole town takes part. We usually offer a 20-percent
discount to anyone wearing a black hat -- any kind of a black hat, including
baseball caps, etc. We try to do other things in the store that promote
the theme. We served Bloody Marys this year, and it was a big hit. We've
also had face painting for the kids. This is the third year for the event,
and it is starting to gain traction. We also had a kids' costume contest
and a dogs' costume contest. It's a pay-to-play, and the Chamber sends
out an e-mail promoting it, as does the city. We also promote it with
bag stuffers in our customers' purchases. We've partnered up with the
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Having a nonprofit that benefits
from the promotion is a good idea because it will also promote you and
bring people in. This year we are thinking of having someone telling ghost
stories, maybe reading tea leaves or maybe a fortune teller. Anything
that goes along with the theme. An event like this should be a family
fun day. For Halloween itself, we give Mardi Gras beads instead of candy.
The kids love them. It has become our trademark thing. "
Jane Briner, co-owner of Persimmon Tree in Geneva, Illinois
"We try to switch up our fall promotions.
This year we will have an Early Bird for the Holidays sale. We will probably
hold it in late September, early October. We have about 3,000 items. They
include pots and pans, cutlery, kitchen gadgets and other kitchenware,
glassware and tabletop. We will promote the sale by e-mail and fliers.
We also coordinate with other merchants and work with print and Internet
publications. The trick is when you do a promotion like this, you don't
want to advertise it too early in your store itself. People might see
it and decide to wait to buy something. This is what is good about liquid
chalk. You can write the promotion on the window, and you don't have to
spend the money on making signs. I can wipe the promotion off and change
the wording every day. It also has a fun retro look. We've been in business
two years. We were named 'Best Kitchenware Store' in the State of New
Jersey by New Jersey Monthly. We also received a rave review recently
on the front page of the Star-Ledger, the paper that goes across the state.
"
Ben Salmon, owner of Kitchen a la Mode in South Orange, New Jersey
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