CrossCheck Blog

CrossCheck Blog

Check Processing & Payments Information

Retailers: Spring Is in the Air and It’s Just Like Petaluma

Posted by Tom Lombardo | Tue, Mar 17, 2015 @ 09:07 AM

Petaluma Butter and EggsCrossCheck is proud to be an all-American company and it’s almost comical how well we fill the caricature that comes to mind when you imagine what that means. We raise money for charity and give food to the needy. When we hit sales goals we wear jeans to work. We have barbeques and ice cream socials. We’re located in a small town.

And we’re proud of our local industries. When most people think of Sonoma County, they think of wine, but Petaluma got its start as a dairy town feeding a hungry San Francisco during the Gold Rush, and dairy is still one of our biggest industries.

Come spring, therefore, shifting breezes carry a variety of aromas through town, and one of them – one of the stronger, more prevalent ones – confirms that we’re surrounded by thousands of cows.

Affectionately known as the “Sonoma Aroma,” it comes and goes. But ultimately it’s a sign of a healthy economy, even if it’s uneven.

Blowin’ in the Wind

2015 is shaping up to be like spring in Petaluma. If you try to sniff out evidence of a vibrant economy, sometimes you’ll get a whiff and sometimes you won’t.

For example, according to the Census Department, retailers have endured declining and sluggish sales for the past three months. Analysts blame it on the harsh winter, the skyrocketing value of the dollar, American’s new fiscal conservatism or the Millennials’ losing their formative economic years to the recession, among other guesses.

Then the breeze shifts to another direction, and we look at solid gains from the previous year, giving us all hope that 2015 will post positive gains across all retail sectors.

Retail and Food Services Sales

But so far that’s uneven. Auto dealers, electronics stores, building suppliers, and department stores are doing better than grocery stores and sporting goods stores.  On the other hand, “personal consumption” grew at the fastest rate since 2006. Sniff in one direction and stagnated wages cause many Americans to suffer.  Sniff in another and we’ve paid down our debts so significantly that household wealth has increased nationwide.

If it’s any comfort, we’re doing better than the rest of the developed world. China has slowed down as the government tries to curtail rampant corruption within its own ranks while simultaneously suppressing what we call the “loyal opposition” amongst its ever-more restive and well-educated population. And Europe is just now reaching the point we were at two years ago – better, but hardly generating a lot of excitement.

The rest of 2015 may follow the same pattern. Thankfully, 8 out of 10 taxpayers will get a refund with an average value of $2,086.

Will they save? Pay down debt? Or treat themselves to a shopping spree? The answer, immortalized by Bob Dylan, is “blowin’ in the wind.”

In fact, it could be that the only thing we know for sure is that if they buy a television, it’ll be huge:

Big Screen TV Sizes Purchased

A Whiff of Change

We also know that the retail space will be a lot different at the end of 2015 than it is now. Sears will close hundreds of stores. Abercrombie & Fitch will close 60. American Eagle will close 150. According to Bloomberg, the list goes on, but this may be their most interesting conclusion:

Skinny Jeans Style Craze Retail Sales

In the absence of a “craze” where media saturation drives all your customers to the same store for the same thing, and with this reduction in storefront competition across the board, 2015 may be the year for local stores to remind all their customers how pleasant it is to shop locally.

Forbes Magazine quotes a consultant who says, regarding large national and international retailers, “Localization will be a big focus for [them] as they look to…improve margins by creating the right product assortments for the right stores according to local customer demand, store attributes, and product preferences.”

That may be a challenge for a bean counter sitting in an office a thousand miles away from a given store – and that might be great news for you.

This trend might increase your return on what you do best: appeal to your local customer.

Revenue on the Breeze

In fact, it could be the best possible business development you can do this year is something your Mom probably taught you when you were a kid.

So much of the business development advice given to retailers in recent years has involved technology it can make a retail store owner or manager cringe just to think about a “responsive website” or “store beacons” or “near field communications.”

Your customers might be getting tired of that, too. Most retailers who rack up merchandise sales that regularly exceed $100 know that at least one in five customers paying that much pulls out her checkbook to pay. Low tech, sure enough, but hyper-secure and completely private.

In fact, accepting checks can build that local-business image and can ingratiate you to some of your best customers. It’s usually better for you, anyway, because accepting checks is a lot less expensive than accepting credit cards, so more of the sale falls to your bottom line. Better, you can guarantee that all the revenue does the same – click the link below to find out how.

 

Check Guarantee Insider's Guide
 

And to get that customer into your store in the first place, think about what your Mom taught you. Recognize this?

Food Retail Sales

If you don’t know the recipe by heart, you certainly know that it’s printed on the back of the bag. You might even have a few top-secret modifications that make your cookies the best ones in the world.

Well, according to the prognosticators at Forbes Magazine, one of the biggest trends this year will be wooing customers into your retail establishment with food.

And if you’re going to set loose an aroma on the breeze, drawing customers inside like bees to a flower, what could work better?

Topics: Retail

Written by Tom Lombardo