the shop
Selling goods to people is a fascinating and tricky business. People are not always easy to understand. Goods may not be right. There are many lesson you can learn, like “markets can be cruel” if you produce cars that are too big or “nobody loves you anymore” if you don’t give enough discounts on electronic gadgets. Even if the discount might kill you in the end. I happen not to give discounts at all. In my opinion giving discounts is like saying that you charge too much for your non discounted products.
Nevertheless, I asked for a discount in our neighbor’s shop, opened last Sunday morning, for a few hours before he went out of business again.
You see: a tricky business…
Picture: Our neighbour’s shop this Sunday in our house. I wanted to buy the chewing gum, but this was a private collection.
I bought the yellow car in the middle. With zero discount.
November 11th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Marketing rule: it takes 7 people to make you famous.
It take one customer to ruin you.
Kisses Simone
November 11th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Oooh, Sweet!! What a lovely businessman that is :-D
Not even a discount for you Andy.. for sure he will be a rich man some day ;-)
November 11th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
with that smile, you should have bought the entire table of goodies my friend!
do you think he can airmail me his smile?
November 11th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Andy, thank yo so much for the smile you gave me today. I love your kind heart and your brilliant wit (and then there is that little perfume thing you do, too) :)
November 11th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
I have always found that it only takes one customer to make me successful! Of course, more than one is really good too!
November 11th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Thank you for the smile. :)
November 11th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Dear Simone
Another rule: Finding new clients is 10x more expensive than making sure existing clients are and stay happy! And about his smile: You think you can afford it? ;-) he is a tough sales rep….
Dear Marianne
Yes, and then when he’s become rich he will buy a lot of Tauer Perfumes for sure!
Dear Kelly my pleasure! He is a darling, isn’t he?
Dear Kelley
That’s what I would call a big risk. Imagine this one client dies of a heart attack because he or she was overwhelmed when he/she saw your pictures…. ;-)
Dear GalileosDaughter
my plesasure
November 11th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
How sweet, Andy! This really made me laugh out loud. Thanks, I really needed it.
j
November 11th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
So Andy - are you raising this guy to become a Pascal’s assistant and even replace him after he retires? ;-) Nice guy - is it the one who comes to you sometimes to play fairy tales (you mentioned a neighbor boy once in your blog)? Sunday neighbor shop - what a funny and pleasant event - to meat each other, have fun and even to learn each others better (after you see what other people are selling).
And about discounts for your fragrances and gadgets - I don’t expect a discount, but I do hope to get a free MP3-player with each of your perfumes ;-) Well - making fun about serious things is nice, but your post have started a chain of thoughts… about some marketing work, profits and the value of things like inspiration and creation…
November 12th, 2008 at 2:06 am
So what does your little shop owner intend to do with his earnings?
Sometimes that is an incentive to make a purchase.
:-)
November 12th, 2008 at 7:24 am
Good morning, Roxana
I ‘ll bet he will invest in chewing gum! An investment that I would consider to be on the bright side. Better than some blue stocks these days. The dividend: Lots of pleasure ;-)
Dear Aroma X
Indeed, it is him, who also played happy fairy, picking a happy winner once . The Sunday shop was- on the other hand - a somewhat lonely thing. He did not study the market potential sufficiently.
Talking profit and discount…. I once had a boss who explained to me the discount issue.
If you have a profit of let ’s say 20% after taxes and warranty and everything, and if you let’s say give 4% discount, then you reduce your profit by 20%.
Thus, in order to be able to give 4% discount, you rather raise your price by 5% first ;-)
November 12th, 2008 at 9:35 am
Good morning Andy on this fresh cloudy day,
I was wondering whether you sometimes in a ’show-and-tell’ kind of way teach this little man(with bright future!) how things smell..?
sending you a warm rose/honey hug XO,
Marianne.
November 12th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Come to think of it, he could be the future CEO of Les Parfums Tauerades ;)
November 12th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Greetings Marianne from cold, grey Berne!
I have another idea for this boy’s future. He will become the first colored president of a United Europe! Now we are talking fantasy….
November 12th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
That would be very nice Andy.
November 13th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
When I was his age, I noticed that the front yard of one of my playmates didn’t have any grass, so i placed some of the earth from our front yard in a bag and sold it to him for a nickel (about .04EUR), telling him that if he sprinkled the earth on his front yard, they’d have grass, too. My mother made me give him his coin back, though. Ah, the young entrepreneur. :)
November 14th, 2008 at 7:56 am
Dear Vasily
Oh… what a cool business model. Now, we all wonder what kind of grass grew there ;-)
Thanks for sharing