We have been playing with calendar and diary prices in several locations to see how much we can make this time of the year.
With the majors now well out of the calendar space and most other retailers offering 75%, we have calendars at 50% off in my newsagencies and 25% off in my Sophie Randall gift shops.
As for diaries, we are at 25% off in my newsagencies and at full price in my newsagencies and gift shops.
The majority of the stock we are selling was purchased for post-Christmas sales – meaning an excellent margin.
Sales are strong in both types of businesses. For the overall season, calendar sales ar up 18% and diary sales are up 22%.
UPDATE: I edited the post because I’d made a mistake. we’re not discounting yet.
our calendar sales have really just started to kick into action even though we have had them for the last few months ,in the last few weeks the are going really well ,we will not be discouting untill feb .
Mark,
you did not discount your calendars before xmas and now you do discount your diaries, but since last 2 years i stop discounting my diaries cause they are good sale till even July .
We didn’t discount diaries until Feb last year and found that they still sold extremely well. Many people don’t remember they need a diary until school/work approaches … hence the continued demand through January. Our diary sales are up 79% on last year.
Note I uppdates the post – I was wrong about discounting diaries at the moment.
I discounted my last five 2009 diaries during December. I keep a little basket after June of last years diaries and they are constantly requested, esp in July after folks have been to their accountant!