It’s a familiar pattern. Full of hope for a bangup holiday season, retailers offer lots of goods at full price. But after a few weeks of lackluster sales, they slash prices to entice customers into their stores.
Retailers have got it backwards, says Joseph Ferrari, a visiting assistant psychology professor at DePaul University and an expert on chronic procrastination.
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Knowing that really good sales come closer to the actual holiday, shoppers have been trained to wait until the last minute to make most of their purchases. “We’re fostering and encouraging people to be procrastinators,” Ferrari warns.
Instead, retailers should kick off the shopping season with deep discounts and raise prices as the holiday gets closer, he suggests. That would punish last-minute bargain-hunters and reward early birds. Plus, retailers wouldn’t be nail-biting until the last minute trying to figure out whether they were going to meet sales plans.
For the 20 percent of the population categorized as hard-core procrastinators, a change in retailers’ strategy wouldn’t matter. These folks have adopted procrastination as “a lifestyle in which they constantly and purposefully delay starting tasks,” Ferrari said.
The good news is, even chronic procrastinators can be helped with a brief bout of therapy, he adds. Like shock therapy: paying full price.
Christmas sing: Speaking of waiting until the last minute, Lands’ End has revived its Christmas Eve shopping special at its nine Illinois outlet stores: Sing a Christmas carol while standing in the checkout line and receive another 10 percent off.
Last year, each of Lands’ End’s stores averaged 35 customers per hour who were willing to attempt a tune for the discount. Often, employees and other shoppers joined in for free.
There’s no rush on this one. The offer is only good from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 24.
Chapeau 101: Hat-wearing must really be making a comeback. The illustrious School of the Art Institute is offering a course in “Urban Headwear” beginning Jan. 5.
The first-of-its-kind class will cover hat blocking, making hat trims and creating “alternative” hats. Instructors include metalsmith Gillion Skellenger Carrara; local milliner Eia Radosavljevic; fashion designer Tommy Walton; and display artist John Koch.
This isn’t a class for dilettantes. It meets from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday for three weeks and costs $1,716. That’s serious hat money.
If you can’t say something nice: Sears, Roebuck and Co.’s push into fine jewelry is bothering somebody. Jewelry 3, a Kansas City-based chain with 17 stores in Chicago’s suburbs, is airing a radio spot that cautions men not to buy jewelry gifts at stores that sell appliances and power tools–a clear but unspoken reference to Hoffman Estates-based Sears.
The negative pitch isn’t bothering Sears. “We’re finishing our fifth year of double-digit increases in fine jewelry sales,” said spokeswoman Linda Blakley. “Our customers obviously trust Sears when they’re making a purchase.”
Retiree watch: About 100 retirees plan to picket the Sears store in Oak Brook Saturday protesting the company’s reduction in life insurance benefits. It will be the last protest of 1997, said Everett Buckardt, one of the leaders behind the newly formed Sears National Retiree Association.
But the retirees won’t be going away for long. They plan to show up at the National Retail Federation convention in New York in January when Sears chief executive Arthur Martinez receives an industry award.