Every Black Friday, I give it the Old College Try. I come an hour early, stay a couple hours late. Wait for the crowds to appear.
And every year I'm disappointed.
The funny thing is, I had a huge Wednesday, and I would be happy to do, say, 75% of that. It's hard to resist the Hype, even for me. I still remember how big a day this used to be.
Thing is, I think the mass market has effectively Madoff with Black Friday. Give the devil his due, they've been very effective in co-opting this day. But I still get a little excited by the prospect of B.F. and then -- well, I say, next year I won't be such a knucklehead.
Oh, well. I had some of my normal Thursday work to do, so nothing lost.
I'm writing this before the day, so we'll see how it turns out.
O.K. I made in the first hour 10:00 to 11:00, when I'm usually not open as much as I hoped to make the first two hours. So this time, coming early worked. Most of it to one customer.
So not a great result at the end of the day. Did about 60% of Wednesday total. Which I believe happened last year, too. Cameron said he didn't do much business between 5:00 and 7:00 but did some in the last hour, 7:00 to 8:00; the tree lighting?
I think I'll hold off posting this until we see what happens on Saturday. "Small Business Saturday." We'll see. I'm going to open an hour early, again, at 10:00 and do some paperwork.
(By the way, looking at pictures of the mad rush, I'm not sure that I'm sorry that corporate America Madoff with Black Friday. Wow. Maybe we should just let them have it... It's not like one day out the year should make that much difference if you are doing a good job the rest of the year...)
Came an hour early on Saturday, and it was an effective hour. Did about the same Sat. as Fri.: so much for "Small Business Saturday."
So, not a great weekend, not a disaster. I had pretty low expectations, and we came in a little below those expectations, unless Sunday is unexpectedly good.
Nevertheless we are going to beat last year for the month, which will make it 5 months in a row we've beaten last year.
And every year I'm disappointed.
The funny thing is, I had a huge Wednesday, and I would be happy to do, say, 75% of that. It's hard to resist the Hype, even for me. I still remember how big a day this used to be.
Thing is, I think the mass market has effectively Madoff with Black Friday. Give the devil his due, they've been very effective in co-opting this day. But I still get a little excited by the prospect of B.F. and then -- well, I say, next year I won't be such a knucklehead.
Oh, well. I had some of my normal Thursday work to do, so nothing lost.
I'm writing this before the day, so we'll see how it turns out.
O.K. I made in the first hour 10:00 to 11:00, when I'm usually not open as much as I hoped to make the first two hours. So this time, coming early worked. Most of it to one customer.
So not a great result at the end of the day. Did about 60% of Wednesday total. Which I believe happened last year, too. Cameron said he didn't do much business between 5:00 and 7:00 but did some in the last hour, 7:00 to 8:00; the tree lighting?
I think I'll hold off posting this until we see what happens on Saturday. "Small Business Saturday." We'll see. I'm going to open an hour early, again, at 10:00 and do some paperwork.
(By the way, looking at pictures of the mad rush, I'm not sure that I'm sorry that corporate America Madoff with Black Friday. Wow. Maybe we should just let them have it... It's not like one day out the year should make that much difference if you are doing a good job the rest of the year...)
Came an hour early on Saturday, and it was an effective hour. Did about the same Sat. as Fri.: so much for "Small Business Saturday."
So, not a great weekend, not a disaster. I had pretty low expectations, and we came in a little below those expectations, unless Sunday is unexpectedly good.
Nevertheless we are going to beat last year for the month, which will make it 5 months in a row we've beaten last year.