Kevin Stilley

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Stilley Christmas Retail Index

Economists, the Federal Reserve and governmental entities use specific economic indicators to determine the health of the economy and forecast business and trade cycles. Such indices as earnings reports, the unemployment rate, housing starts, the Consumer Price Index, industrial production, bankruptcies, Gross Domestic Product, retail sales, and stock market prices.

Well I have my own set of five indicators that I use to predict how good sales are going to be for retailers during the Christmas season. (1) How many of my neighbors have up outdoor Christmas decorations and how early did they put them up? (2) How many items are people buying from Amazon after clicking through from my website? (3) How bad is the traffic congestion near the malls? (4) How difficult is it to find a parking place — how far do I have to park away from the star? (5) How long are the lines at the local discount stores?

So, what does the Stilley Christmas Index predict for retailers in 2010? It is going to be bad; really bad. We are only two weeks away from Christmas and very few of my neighbors have outdoor Christmas decorations deployed, fewer people are buying from my Amazon links than any year in the four years I have been blogging, there is little difference in the traffic levels near the malls than there is at any other time of year, I have no trouble getting a parking place close to stores, and cashiers were standing around with no one to ring up during my visits to Target and Wal-Mart this week.

I predict that this is going to be a really, really bad year for retailers.

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I’m Not An Exhibitionist

Several days ago I went to my son’s Famous Texans Living Museum. Each of the fourth graders in his school selected a famous Texan, researched biographical information on him or her, and prepared an exhibit on a cardboard tri-fold background. Then, they dressed up like their Famous Texans and stood perfectly still in front of their exhibit while those attending walked through “the museum” and admired their work. It was pretty impressive.

In fact, it was impressive enough that it made me wonder about a trade show I had been to a few weeks earlier. At the trade show probably twenty-five percent of the exhibits were nothing more than a 8′ X 4′ table that was draped with a table cloth and skirted. On this the exhibitionists then placed a miscellaneous collage of literature or samples. The fourth graders had put a lot more time and effort into creating a stimulating environment than had the so-called “professionals.”

Personally, my creative skills are pretty inadequate for most such tasks. But there are tools out there for people and businesses who make their living from such endeavors. Those looking for ideas or supplies can check out the Godfrey Group who specialize in trade show displays. There are plenty of ideas at their website to help those of us who are creatively challenged, whatever the need; creative support services and products, showrooms, corporate information centers, retail environments and promotional events. With a little help we might just be able to do as good a job as those fourth graders — dare to dream!

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An Education At Borders Books

Borders BooksIn 1992 I went to work for Borders Books. It was intended to be “just a job” till I finished my PhD. I ended up working there for ten great years.

While reading Sven Birkert’s book The Gutenberg Elegies, I came across his description of his own time with Borders and it resonated with me. I share an excerpt below.

“I handed in applications at several bookstores, and I was asked in for an interview at one the very next day. Borders Book Shop was a new business in town, run by two young brothers from Kentucky. They had burst through one storefront and were opening in a larger place on State Street. They recognized me as a browser–perhaps they saw the fixated look of the addict–and I was hired. What ecstasy! I walked home in the hot afternoon sun grinning at the sidewalk and wishing I had someone to celebrate with.

“…Borders was all hustle and crackling fluorescents. The brothers kept the staff in motion all day long, unpacking boxes, stocking shelves, sorting backstock, and working the cash registers. We were expected to know titles and references. And, although my years of obsessive browsing helped some, I was once again face to face with my ignorance.

“My whole relation to books was changed again. All contemplative distance was shattered. I was not there to thumb through offbeat volumes–I was stacking and sorting the brand-new stuff. Everything was glossy and crisp. And, I thought, cutting-edge. I felt as if everyone were just waking up to books as I was. Suddenly there were thousands of serious readers in town. They thronged the aisles of the store, asked questions, placed orders. The books had an aura, an excitement about them. And just moving the titles back and forth, getting them onto the shelves and into the hands of customers was an education. For the first time I caught a sense of what a genuine intellectual life might be like. This was a sense I had never had in college, no matter how challenging a given course may have been. That was packaged thought, with everything already subjected to institutional dry-cleaning. This was different; this was hands-on. I saw my role as quasi-priestly: I was channeling the nourishing word to the people who wanted it most. I had to feel that because, otherwise, I was just putting in time at a low-paying retail job, not at all ministering to the life of the culture or moving along a worthy career path.”

~ Sven Birkerts, in The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age (NY: Fawcett, 1994), page 51.

Borders closed its doors in 2011, due largely to changes in the book industry. I miss being able to go to one of the Borders stores to browse its deep inventory shelves, but I often return to the fond memories of the years that I spent there.

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