If stuff doesn't move at one location move it to another. I find that once two people look at at a display, it brings in more people. Crowds form around an item, people start thinking it's really cool item and buy it. I've seen it on numerous occasions. Make store announcements, maybe your shoppers don't know you have tulips on sale. Let your bargain shoppers know when you will be marking down flowers.
At the end of the day you can say you tried and you did your best.
I actually fell a little short. That being said, we got about 90% of budget, and did really well compared to others in our district, and were in the top 20 in our division. We needed another designer making arrangements. We just couldn't keep up with the demand, with only two people making arrangements (as fast as we could) . All you can do is your best. Plan, plan, plan. Hope that corporate doesn't screw things up too badly by sending stuff you didn't order, etc. It takes help, lots of it, and at least some help with experience. Another factor that I am looking at is that we don't have a huge amount left over. Lots of filler, but maybe we can work through that in the coming week. By the way, our entire store is down from last year, so I did well to do about the same as last year.
Maybe Kroger should start lowering its expectations. Just because its the retail food business doesn't mean your gonna make more than the year before, every year. The well runs dry sooner or later. The economy is tanked. And its getting worse with rising food cost to the consumer.
The consumer or at least a larger portion is beginning to wise up. Moving from a end cap to a isle stack and sticking a higher price on it when it was lower the week before only works for so long. Buying ONLY the sale items and getting bulk at Walmart and Dollar stores is beginning to pay off.
