Hurrah!! It’s Christmas! Well, actually, it’s not really. It’s March. But having just managed to finish sorting out the left over stock issues from the Christmas that’s just gone it’s time to start thinking about the next one. It’s just wrong if you ask me but that’s retail for you.
I start off by making a short list of the top lines from last year that we’ll definitely use again this year. These were dream products – they went into store, they all sold through by the time the stores closed on 24 December and there were no nasty surprises accompanying them such as the odd stack of pallets being “found” in the warehouse the day before Christmas Eve or display or quality issues. The customers loved them, therefore the buying team and account team loved them and the stores loved them. Everyone’s happy. Bliss!
Shaking myself out of my blissful reminisces, I start reviewing some of the mid performers. These were the steady achievers – nothing really startling performance wise and likewise nothing really terrifying in the post Christmas wash-up. We’ll probably look at repeating the majority of these again this year but with a fair bit of tweaking quantity wise. Still in safe territory.
I decide to get a strong cup of coffee to help face the third part of the exercise. The dog lines. God, even now, 3 months on from when the last jingle bell jingled and the last slice of Christmas cake was eaten I can feel myself breaking out into a cold sweat. These were the lines that kept me awake at night. They were the lines that kept the Account Managers awake as they could feel vast portions of their January trade spend being swallowed up helping clear and collect excess stock. They were the lines that cluttered up the aisles in the stores looking sadly out of place in the wake of all that Christmas cheer. They were the lines the store managers swore they never wanted to see darkening the doors of their stores ever again. By the end of this I’m feeling slightly hysterical and briefly consider a sacrificial burning of the bad line list but notice it’s raining outside and don’t fancy risking 30 minutes standing in the carpark as a result of a fire alarm. I decide lunch may the safer option.
Comments