Well friends, somehow November is nearly upon us. Towards the end of November, over the Thanksgiving weekend in USA, many Australian retailers participate in sales for Black Friday/Cyber Monday, or BFCM. We won't be doing that, so if you're waiting for that weekend to try and score a discount, sorry! There's a couple of reasons why, if you're interested.
- This isn't America.
We're in Australia, friends. Some aspects of American culture are admirable worth adopting. Our core business is selling electric guitars, an invention we owe to the Americans. I like the concept of Thanksgiving: taking time to get together with loved ones and be give thanks for what you have is great. But, stuff like rampant gun violence, insane culture wars and high fructose corn syrup... they can keep all that, we'll be okay. Adopting BFCM is taking the rampant consumerist aspect of the Thanksgiving tradition, without any of the healthy and helpful stuff. I reckon we're better off without it. - Constant discounts undermines our viability
We try to price things fairly. It's a constant balancing act finding the price that sells something without throwing it away, but still represents great value for the buyer. If we did a sale for Easter, EOFY, Spring Stocktake, BFCM, Christmas and Boxing Day, which is increasingly becoming the normal thing, we'd have to jack up our regular prices by 15-20% so we could then discount them down again for the 'sale'. We need to sustain a certain range of profit margin to stay viable. The wider musical instrument industry in Australia currently seems pretty hell bent on shaving margins down to the thinnest numbers possible. We choose not to work like that. Every day, you can buy a guitar (or whatever else) from us, and you'll pay a fair price and get good value for your money. And, hopefully, we'll still be here in many years, doing the same thing. That's the goal.
Maybe there will come a day when we have to change our approach on BFCM, but for now, that's the decision: we're out. Thanks for the understanding and support, we certainly appreciate it.
Simon & Topshelf Team
