This one’s going to be short and sweet and to the point: if you want to generate traffic and get the customers coming in the door when every newspaper on the planet is screaming about the meltdown on Wall Street, you gotta give them a reason to come in!

This means making deals. The prices on EVERYTHING are going up, up, up. It’s true in my store, and I know it’s true in yours. When was the last time a vendor called you and said, “Hey, we like you so much we’re going to eat the rising cost of gas because you’re that awesome?”

If you’re like me, that’d be never.

So prices are going up, everywhere. The customer’s feeling it no matter where they go.

Send them coupons — 10% off anything in the store. Run lots of specials. Put things that are NEVER on sale on sale. It’s time, right now.

These don’t have to be super deep discount sales. Especially if you’re a niche market, with lots of brands that never, ever discount. Customers know and understand that they’re not going to get 50% off some of these items — and that’s ok: they’ll buy at 10% off, when they may very well not have at full price.

Realizing 90% of a sale is a lot better than realizing none of it!

The most common mistake retailers make when times get tight is to stop promoting, to stop making deals, to stop reaching out to the customer base. That’s just wrong: this is the time, more than ever, that you’ve got to be out there, constantly, giving the customer a reason to buy.

“You know,” the customer told me, as she stood at the register, “online, you can buy Wellness for 41 cents a can.” We sell Wellness for 46 cents a can, a nickel more. She glared at me. “Are you going to meet their price?”

If you’re a retailer, chances are you’ve experienced this same scene — or something very similar. With the economy the way it is, news outlets all across the nation are encouraging customers to get over any shy side they may have and start negotiating for lower prices. Lower prices on anything and everything, from a new car to cat food. After all, the public is assured, it doesn’t hurt to ask.

The question isn’t painful. But the answer could be — especially if you’re the retailer!

Like many situations you face in your store there is no one cut and dried answer. There are a number of factors that go into the decision to match prices. These include:

Are you a good customer? If I’ve never ever seen you in my store before and you’re coming in asking me to match prices on the loss-leader sale the chain discounter is running, you’re out of luck. I know you’re just cherry picking prices — and once I give you the deal, I’m never going to see you again! What’s in it for me?

Does the deal make sense? I’m not going to drop my prices so much that it costs me money! Let me give you an example.

Years and years ago, there was a store called Edwards. Some of you might remember Edwards — they were the first to run super deep discounts on national products. They were so cheap, they didn’t even have bags! We’re talking real bare bones here.

At the time, we were selling 9 Lives Cat Food four cans for a dollar. A case of 9 Lives cost us $5.50, and we were making $6.00. Not a great margin, but we sell a LOT of 9 Lives.

A customer came in and told me that Edwards had 9 Lives five cans for a dollar. That’s $4.75 a case — less than my cost. She asked if I would match the price.

I couldn’t — and I told her that. So I was absolutely totally dumbfounded to see this same woman over at my shelves, picking out 9 Lives!

I had to ask her why.

Her answer: “They don’t have the flavor I like.”

I told her, “Then when we don’t have the flavor you like, we’re six for a dollar!” She laughed — because she knew the basic rule of negotiation: For a deal to truly be a good deal, both parties have to be happy with it. You’ve got to leave some money on the table — otherwise, the retailer’s never going to go for it! The trick is finding the balance where the customer gets a good deal and you’ve realized at least some profit.

That’s a good negotiation.

Later this week, we’ll be talking about empowering your employees, so they’re prepared when your customers come in and say “What can you do for me?”

Even if you don’t have a pet, I’m guessing that you heard about the pet food recalls that happened a little over a year ago. Because Dave’s Soda and Pet City sells a lot of pet food, this was a major event in my life as an independent retailer.

I have to tell you, never in thirty plus years of doing business have I ever seen major corporations handle a public relations event so poorly! This recall was massive: all of the major pet food companies were affected. Proctor and Gamble, Nutro, Purina, Hills — every one had to pull products. And the way these major companies handled the situation? It was so bad as to be mind boggling!

The news about the recall broke on a Friday evening. Saturday morning, I went into the store and called my Nutro rep. I wanted to know what I was in for. Are you ready for what he said to me?

“I was waiting for your call!”

He was just as clueless as I was. None of the local representatives had any information from their corporate headquarters about what was happening. They didn’t have any more of a clue than I did.

Now, you have to understand: it was the wheat gluten in canned food that caused the problems. Only canned food. But due to the sensationalistic news coverage the recall received, the customer didn’t know that. They thought every type of pet food had been affected by the recall, and they were panicking.

You would think that Purina, Iams, Hills, and these other huge corporations would provide signage, detailing the fact that all the dry foods were still safe to feed to pets.

You would be wrong.

You would think that vendors who had 8 feet of shelf space at any given store, only to have 4 feet worth of product pulled by the recall, would rush to ship replacement product!

You would be wrong. My store, and tons of stores just like mine, had all these gaping holes on the shelves, with no products to fill them.

All of the manufacturers just crawled into a shell and hid. The most interesting thing is the huge opportunity all of these major companies missed. I’ve got a database of thousands of customers. Pet Co, Pet Smart and other national chains have databases that contain many multiples of that! You would think that the manufacturers would approach us, asking to use our databases to reach out to customers and assure them of the safety of their products, offer up critical information, and provide contact details.

You, sadly, would be wrong.

In the next post, we’re dong to talk about the value of a damage control policy, and what you can do when your industry hands you a crisis to handle!