Discounts

Dear Reader,

Upon perusing this entry you will soon discern that something untoward occured today as it relates to customer interactions and discounts:) I offer this up as my take on the world of educator discounts and the like. I invite you to respond to this. I would add that I too have been a HS teacher, and a HS Coach so I have some familiarity with the intense pressures faced by the education establishment to deliver the highest quality service with a shrinking revenue source.

So, here we are in the brave new world of a recession worse than any financial crisis I have lived through since 1949. The pressure on small businesses to survive is acute to say the least. And the requests for gifts, auction items, donations and discounts has exploded. Virtually everyday I hear "Please give more and better to ____________(pick your worthwhile charity or educational institution)." And those groups that have been receiving support continue to believe that the amount or type of support should continue unabated despite the dramatic change in the business environment. My first question would be: How does my business survive with reduced sales and continue to do everything the the store has been doing without fiscal adjustments? If I cut back employees I add to the unemployment ranks. If I cut back hours then I push my workers into an even worse financial crisis. If I cut back advertising the sales rep loses their job and perhaps my sales fall off even more than before. If I raise prices then I put more pressure on the already strained pockets of my loyal customers. What would you do? So far, only the advertising has been affected...prices are unchanged and my staff is still intact!

One thing I would do is take a hard look at educator/institution discounts. Let's take a hypothetical school doing a book fair. There is one thing , dear reader, you must remember. If I offer a 20% discount off of the list price I have offered a 50% cut in my gross profits...half of the gross profit. If I sold all my merchandise with that level of price cut I would be closed in a month! So, when a school calls in and asks for that discount I think I am doing my community a good deed. I think I am putting back into the community. I think I am helping. Guess what? The school thinks the same thing! They think they are helping my business by asking me to sell books at a 20% discount. They think they are doing a good deed. They think they are helping!

So, when I recently suggested to a school that I would provide books for an author reading without a discount but rounded down so as to not charge the individual students for sales tax, in effect a 6% discount, I was met with a very negative reaction. This school called me at the last hour, on a Tuesday night. I had the books here by the next Monday for them to pick up Tuesday, in time for the event on Wednesday and Thursday. At the last minute I received a phone call cancelling the order because I failed to display enough enthusiasm for filling the order, had not provided a price list of the books in time for a mailing to the students(not made clear to me at the time:) and was not offering the books tax free and with a 20% discount...which becomes a 26% discount because the books are sold to individual students(By the way sales tax must be paid when sold individually) I was told other stores would have done this and I was only being contacted out of a sense of community loyalty. So, you guess, dear reader, which of these transgressions was the deal breaker? Oh well, I missed that one.

The school was right. I was not enthusiastic about the order. The wholesaler did not have adequate numbers of the books, any books from them would , in effect, be nonreturnable and the discount is significantly lower than a publisher. I foolishly allowed one publisher to tack on a 2 day freight charge in order to get the books here in time($27.00LOL) Supporting this event was a money loser. If one thinks I can survive offering these discounts then one also must think I am egregiously over charging my regular sales?

In my opinion there is a gigantic disconnect between what my store does to stay in business and what the recipients of the discounted sales think they are doing for meLOL. Part of me wants to say....please hurt me...get the books from B&N...get them from anyone besides me. Without throwing too many stones at glass houses I fear their is a sense of entitlement and privilege at play. If you don't play my game I'll get you and your little dog too:) Even though the world as I know it is in the middle of an earthquake I am supposed to do business as usual. And keeping your special interest happy is paramount...no matter the adverse affect on my business or the people I employ. I fear I cannot do business as usual. We all must make changes in how we do our work, even educators. In the long run I know I do more for the community by keeping my doors open, paying sales tax, employing 8 people and providing an intellectually honest alternative to box stores. And remember, please, that my employees are still here and my doors are still opened.

I'd be delighted to know what to do about this.