Feature Inexpensive Comforts Now

A violent storm is approaching where most of your customers live. Because other stores in your city might run out of merchandise—sending people scrambling in the face of all those warnings to stock up on important items—you figure this is a chance to bring competitors' shoppers into your store to generate interest in your business.
     But those people are going to want to get in, make their buys, and get out. How should you merchandise the shelves towards the front of the store? You look over your list of what you carry. Your eyes zero in on three "B" items. It's time to decide whether the people bursting through your doors are more interested in Batteries, Beer, or Boots.
     What's your decision?
     Did you pick beer? Sales data says that stores sell more beer than batteries or boots when all are available in that situation.
     Okay, you guessed it right. I'm not surprised. It did surprise me, though, that news of an approaching storm boosts Wal-Mart's sales of Strawberry Pop-Tarts® by more than 500%.
     When stressed, we go for comfort. cheap comfort has a special appeal, and this is what beer and Strawberry Pop-Tarts® offer, I guess. Some consumer psychologists think that because of today's environment of economic stress, the draw to cheap comforts is even greater. Let's rename it "inexpensive comforts" and merchandise our stores and websites to satisfy the desire.
     With emotional and meteorological storms, also take care to protect your customers. Predatory pricing because of product shortages may earn you a short-term gain, but unless you're planning to close up your business and move to a different part of the country, the decision whether to gouge your shoppers is a slam dunk: Don't.