Retailers Forum Sept. 2014 Sept 2014 | Page 10

From the Publisher THE BACK TO SCHOOL season is in full swing this month and the industry had record breaking sales last month as parents and students hit the stores to stock up on the must-haves for the upcoming semester. The sales rate has us on track to top the $40B done last year, despite a sluggish economy! Like I always have said, events and holidays will always come around and sales will be made. Our readers know that if they stock their stores carefully and give value and selection they will make money. BE sure that your store is catering to the school crowd, especially those heading off to college who will need everyone from soup-to-nuts for their dorm rooms. Freshmen tend to overbuy along with their parents who want to ensure their rooms are comfortable and well stocked. I remember when my daughter moved into her first dorm room at Hartford she had enough things to furnish a full house! Years later when it was my son’s turn, he had a bed! Sometimes it pays to be first! IT was great meeting so many of our readers and advertisers at the ASD Vegas show last month. Our booths did extremely well with steady traffic and a great deal of interest from buyers looking for new merchandise and suppliers. EVEN with our economy bouncing up and down from week-to-week there are good indicators in the market that we are poised for a successful holiday season. We will see continued growth in the mid-range markets and wise retailers will do well to stock their stores with popular-priced merchandise to appeal to a broad range of shoppers. REMEMBER that as we head into the holiday season it is now that you need to make sure you are buying smart. Have a good variety of merchandise. Gone are the days when you could dust off the Simpson’s or Star Trek novelties and wait for gangbuster sales. The retailing world moves quicker than ever and trends go out almost as fast as they come in. THESE are the challenges of operating a retail business and if you have the dedication to sourcing new items and keeping on the pulse of what your customers want, you will have quite a successful business. RETAILERS FORUM SaleS & Marketing Gregory Brown Tom Richards Scott Savitt Martin Stevens Office Manager Leah C. PrOductiOn Myra Echevarria credit dePartMent Kristine Hines circulatiOn Discount Reading Svc. literary Staff Patricia Luebke Jason Meyers Rachel Spearman cOlOr PrOductiOn Anchor Imaging Printing Composing Room art directiOn Gregory Stevens Martin Stevens OverSeaS Office Trade Channel N.W. Guineastr 30 202 2 PA Haarlem Netherlands [phone] Published Monthly by: Forum Publishing Co. 383 East Main Street Centerport, NY 11721 Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone] [email protected] www.retailersforum.com >> ON-LINE SOURCING The entire issue of Retailers Forum Magazine is posted on-line at www.RetailersForum.com Includes: Website Links * E-Mail Links * Printable PDF’s ACCESS OUR MAGAZINE FROM ANYWHERE 24/7 RETAILERS FORUM is published monthly at $30/year USA, $75/year foreign. Entire contents copyright ©2014 by Forum Publishing. Publisher assumes no responsibility for contents herein. First and third class postage paid at Centerport, NY. Bulk mail paid at NY, Brookfield, WI and Hooksett, NH under private mail indicia via publication mailing.