Cand-nac The Magnificent

OK, so I stole the name from the late great Johnny, so lets hope the spirit of the late, great, Carnac the Magnificent is with me today when I make my predictions for 2013.

Lets start at the top shall we? This is an easy one and I've got a 50-50 shot here, so I'm going with my gut...

1. Kim Kardashian and Kanye West will have a...BOY! Just a hunch here, but I'm thinking boy. I was right about My Tommy and Giselle and baby Vivian Lake, so maybe I'm good at this. I'm thinking Kimmy K isn't showing yet, and her face and body don't look different yet, so I say its a boy. Girls take over like little aliens and change you all up when you are carrying them, and Kim  looks like could have held out on the announcement for a while longer. And she's three months along. I'll be keeping a tight watch on her face, if it changes and she starts to look like shit, GIRL. I also predict that Klohe and Lamar will finally get preggers this year too.

2. The US economy will continue its climb upward. Wishful thinking, really. But I am a retailer and I'm watching people spend money (in an affluent community) and I'm thinking that things are looking up. Consumer confidence is creeping back, and I'm hoping that the jobless rate goes creeping down. A bold prediction here, considering that the retail numbers rose at a mere 0.7% for the 2012 Christmas season and was the weakest rise since 2008. I'm still going to predict a better economic climate and the US Stock market to continue to regain it's strength. Today's Dow number is at 13 thousand, just two thousand off it's all time high at 15 thousand back in 2007.

3. NHL Hockey will not have a 2012-2013 season. Greed, greed and more greed will keep the two sides from reaching an agreement by Jan 11th in order for a Jan 19th- 48 game season to be played.. And here's the kicker...NO ONE will care. For us hockey fans out there, we are beyond disgusted by yet another standoff  and if they loose the fan's interest, they will loose the sponsors interest and that ever important sponsor dollar. Not to mention the network air time and network dollars. If life goes on much longer without NHL hockey, I fear that the fans will loose interest and the game, already an underdog in the network money game, and will be in danger of  never coming back from it. GET IT TOGETHER GUYS!

4. Ben Affleck will win an Oscar for Argo. Since I have yet to see the film, I'm not quite sure if it will be for acting or directing or BOTH, so I'm going to predict at least one more statuette for Ben to bring home for  his latest, Argo.

5. I'm not going to do what I did last year and jinx the shit outta my boys, so I'm just going to predict that a certain team from a certain place will make it to New Orleans on Feb 3, 2012, and that  same certain team will WIN the big kahuna in all sports. If you know anything about me, you will be able to fill in the blanks here.


That's it blooggers! Lets see how I did in about 363 days from now.

The New Order Of Business

Becoming a retailer in this challenging economy was certainly an interesting move on my part and one that I do not regret. I know that things have changed for the consumer drastically in the past few years and with that, the climate of shopping has changed too, forcing myself and other retailers to re-think how we market to the customer. There seems to be a new order of business out there and the name of the "game" is savings....

It used to be true that this was the time for retailers to "make their year", gouge the prices if the need be, and reap the benefits of a healthy holiday buying season. Such is no longer the case, as major retailers, little guys like me, and everyone in between have had to offer, unheard of at this time, discounts to get consumers into their retail establishments. Open up your mail box or your email box and you will see what I mean. There were no less than 15 offers of 20% or more off at major retailers like JCrew, Bloomingdales, Saks, Barneys New York, etc in my email box from the time I got dressed to go to work and the time I got to work, (no more than an hour) leaving me to wonder, how do I compete?

The facts are what they are and it's a fact that discounts bring in the shoppers. Which means I must offer the customer great customer service AND a substantial discount. Will this effect my bottom line? Yes, but it won't kill me and it certainly won't hurt to build that ever important customer relationship. Gone are the days of excessive shopping, as they are a thing of the past. Even the shoppers who CAN afford to binge, simply are not. They too, appreciate a discounted price for goods. Another sure sign that the climate has changed; Nieman Marcus offered 25% off everything in the COSMETICS department last week-this is unprecedented. It has always been a rule that any discount coupon from a major retailer did NOT apply to cosmetics. It was right there in the fine print, and any savvy shopper knew it. Hence the new order of the retail business.

While forecasts for retail over all show spending to be up, I wonder how up if the majority of goods were sold at a discounted price point. Take moment to think about the discounted offers you have received in the past week and post them in the comments section. I'm guessing there are more than you can even remember. Let me know if it motivated you to go to the store, buy more, or think about checking out that store because you hadn't been there in a while. Then let me know if you intend to be on a spending spree this holiday season.

Your fellow little guy would appreciate it.