Pessimism about the weather.

[Doodle-Noodle]

My daily takings have remained pretty constant - I'm just doing the bulk of my sales in the morning although this afternoon I have been inundated with parents & kids coming in for last minute teacher presents. I also made a very nice 3-figure sale this morning which made me smile

I am quite frankly astonished at the amount of money some people are spending on teachers gifts - for goodness sake, it's not like they're doing the job for no pay!

I am expecting tomorrow to be absolutely awful trade wise though - if I wasn't working I would certainly not be shopping!

I'm offering a "bring your own jam jar and paint a free garden lantern" activity tomorrow to try and entice people in (and hopefully spend while they're here!)..... could be an epic fail though!

 

[gr9ce]

We have been heaving...but running out of stock and wholesalers are sold out.

After 3 poor winters/hose pipe bans etc our sector was cautious. We sold 40 pumps for above ground pools in a week. The 'idiots' that were selling online for less than wholesale that have stock left have x 4 + their prices and bids on paddling pools are through the roof...

Supply and demand...and a crystal ball

I have 4 pools left large enough for a big toe.....do I hear £500 ??

 

[CinchTechnologies.]

I'm sure there are businesses that are booming due to the good weather, there's cafe near/on a beach that appears to be doing well because of it, I don't know it's name though; I believe there are advantages to the weather if you fill in the niche.

 

[maxh]

I just wrote a blog post about this
http://www.movehub.com/Brits-flee-heat-wave-for-warmer-climes

We've noticed more Brits moving abroad during the heatwave to hotter countries!

(and more people are moving, just generally)

I'm in two minds about the weather; love it during the day, hate it at night.

 

[warnie]

We've had people waiting upto 20 minutes for the slush machine to freeze up again. 20 minutes for what is just juice and ice!

We can't meet demand, which sounds great but all I can see is pound coins running out the door. Ice cream is flying obviously, and at £1.60 a pop it doesn't take long for the money to build up. So all good on sales here

The downside is that we don't have air conditioning. Well I do have a unit that keeps large offices cold, but at the minute it's keeping my 83 year old nan alive!! she has the sun on her lounge all day long and without it god knows how she would cope. So it's quite sticky relying on just fans to keep the shop cool, so much so that we were having little hissy fits yesterday as it just got too much!! we've had over 200 party bags make up for this weekend as well as the sweet bouquets, baskets and tree's. Just trying to get them all done whilst the shop is busy and your clothes are sticking to you is enough to drive you nuts!

Typical when your not that busy the orders come in, in drips and drabs, yet when your overrun everybody wants something. Trick is, not to show it too much to the customer that your about to have a mini breakdown!

So much better today though, after working our buts off all week, it's now cooler with a breeze and all the hard work is done. In fact I'm off to Cambridge for a few days tomorrow. If any of you have a shop there let me know

 

[gr9ce]

Had to laugh last week...on the hottest day of the year was in a supermarket and the clothing was wall to wall autumn and winter ranges...all the thick jumpers and coats we really needed in June when it was still chilly.

Of all the independent retail to run surely clothing is the most challenging? The summer clothing sale probably coincided with the hot weather so bargains all round for buyers..not sellers.

 

[Carbonio]

Well for once I'm happy to have been proven wrong.

Hope your sales are all up!