Thanksgiving Week

First I want to let everyone know that I will post a wrap-up of the ISO meeting results soon, but awaiting a written summary of all the actions so that I won't miss anything important that I had little interest or involvment with.

It's Thanksgiving week here and many folks are starting the preparations for the big feast. I question why we anticipate eating such a huge feast knowing that we also want to control or maintain our weight. Knowing that we will have to start again to lose those pounds that we gain in that one day always baffels me. I also know that many folks (mostly women I imagine) are planning for that huge shopping day - Black Friday - which follows the feast.

Now I for one, have NEVER been a fan of shopping, let along jumping into those insane crowds on that morning. I question why retail stores want to create such massive jams and overloads on their staff and facilities when they could just spread those out over a much longer time period and everyone would be happier and work easier. Is it the "mob" effect that they want to create?

Last Saturday we went to several stores in London, Harrods, (of course) and PriMart. Both stores were, at best, uncomfortable shopping experiences. My thoughts 50 foot inside of PriMart was how do I get out alive!! Literally the Que for check out was 200+ people long and everyone was pushing and shoving to get to the merchandise. No way would I have spent even a shilling in that store due to the atmosphere they have created. Harrods was slightly better, but still way too crowded and broken up for me to have what I call a good shopping experience.

I know we are in bad economic times, and I can appreciate wanting to improve business, but what about the proper environment being created for the desire to spend money? In the flooring business most of us spend huge amounts of time and effort, not to mention money, creating a scene of beauty so our consumers will desire it for their homes also.

Maybe the retail stores could take a few moments to study other types of selling and find a new and different path to profits.

These are my thoughts, what are yours?

Steve