Restock came today for the auto center. It took two of us three or four minutes to restock the shelves with the bounty. It took that long because there was a phone call from a member asking if we had something in stock yet. Of course not. "We're sorry".
Over this holiday period, I have taken a personal effort to keep my auto gift bar stocked with whatever I can find to sell and I have sold a lot of things. I am running out of things to sell and my shelves in auto are barren. From what limited traffic we have I have moved a lot of product that does not move inside of the auto store cave. I even make my own handwritten price tags and no one says anything about it.
Every day I go and and look the gift bar, straighten things up and then I look at my shelves for ANYTHING left to sell. I have come up with an idea. Why not just start selling the shelving itself? It is not being used for anything anyway. Give it to Goodwill? They would probably say, "This is way too worn out for us to use. See how it falls apart? Why did you save it?".
That said, why not just start selling the signage? The auto center has some pretty neat lettering signage in it that people might want. I love that cable show American Pickers. Maybe we should call Mike and Frank in to see if there is any value left in the Sears brands signage. That DieHard lettering is MINE I tell you if Mike and Frank don't pick it.
We are struggling in our store. The customers are commenting very frequently now about what is happening at least in our FLS. The handwriting is on the wall. Auto keeps on fighting but we are not going to be spared either.
I have had a quite a few of FLS customers in for service of late and we know how it is so have been helping out with barcodes and points and discounts to try help out. We know you don't have much money because know who you work for. I have one great tech left in our shop and now is time to have anything automotive addressed while we still have a line of credit.
I actually had to order something for a customer yesterday with my own credit. I will not keep doing that. That's a one off.
Am I going to get a write up on Pebble about "Own It", because I used my own credit? Probably not because that is embarrassing. When I get the part I actually WILL OWN IT. I am going to have to mark it up of course. I can't be loaning too much money Sears like Eddie.
I appreciate all of the dedicated FLS folks at my Sears FLS who have gotten a good chuckle out of my "Welcome to Sears, We're Sorry." meme. I hope everyone has a great one day off holiday but you know that won't happen either if family is involved.
Peace My Associates.
ZHD