Black Friday

Retailers jokingly refer to this day as “Black Friday” because the stupendous amount of shoppers that annually flood stores may mark the first day all year that a chain has actually been “in the black” financially. I always thought the reference was more biblical. Everyone who works retail seems to dread the day due to the masses of humanity. Like people dreaded the death of Christ. That explanation makes more sense to me.

At our store, Black Friday isn’t particularly ominous. We never have ‘door-busting’ sales. Other than our own marathon-sales, we’re not exactly in the business of the one-day blowout deals. And I’m ok with that. Still, I was expecting a good turnout as most of our colleagues on Michigan Avenue had super-attractive deals.

I was not disappointed. There were definitely throngs of people thronging through the store for a good part of the day. Most salespeople seemed unimpressed with the business, however. Particularly in my department there is a frustrated general sentiment because of recent staffing additions that have seen the sales floor oversaturated with salespeople. Today was no exception. And though it seemed most customers were merely passing through, passing time, just looking, every now and then a gem would emerge: An overlooked young man behind our counter bought a pair of Gucci sunglasses; a neglected older hipster bought two shirts and a Zegna tie in just a few minutes; and then there was Ethan.

I first noticed Ethan as he and a friend were holding/ fawning over our biggest D&G leather bag. It’s a good looking bag, for a grand. He was seemingly jokingly saying aloud, “I have to have this bag.” Many people gush similarly, so I just walked up and played along, “You sure do.” To my surprise Ethan let me take the bag and proceeded to walk around our designer bag department. He looked at a few Guccis and others, but kept coming back to the D&G. I am starting to seriously talk up the bag, as it seems he is actually serious. It should be noted, Ethan is sporting a LV duffel on his elbow, toting the 2K luxury sports bag as if it were a paper tote with a few groceries. The rest of Ethan’s dress is not particularly flashy but the more we talked the more it seemed he was a serious shopper and had no qualms with price tags. This type of customer comes around only once in a while and I was ready to run with him.

Ethan says he wants me to hold the bag aside while he goes to look at jeans. I acquiesce and offer to come find him and help with the jeans. Once you get a customer like this you don’t want to let them go. I should’ve taken my own advice. After I get a brand new bag and set it in the back stock room I come out and meet up with Ethan in the sportswear department. He has several casual jackets. We start looking at jeans and it becomes clear through my line of questioning that we really ought to be in the designer department. We end up looking at some high end leather jackets and sweaters. Ethan picks out about eight pieces to try on. After a ten minutes of him trying on and handing me the yeses and no’s we emerge from the dressing room. I have a take and a discard pile from him, and it doesn’t seem as if we’re missing anything. Ethan asked if I would put his choices with the bag. “Where are shoes?” he continued. My eyes are already WIDE and they were only getting bigger. This guy was going to drop several grand with me. I send him down to the shoe department, instructing that I’ll be over in just several minutes. Major mistake.

It couldn’t have been five minutes and I am back in the shoe department. Ethan is nowhere in sight. I wait for a few minutes. No Ethan. I walk back towards sportswear – it seemed like the guy got distracted easily. No sign of Ethan. I make several trips around the men’s floor over the next ten minutes. No Ethan. He had mentioned his husband was downstairs looking at handbags for his mother. The thought crossed my mind to go down there and see if he had joined his apparent sugar daddy (Ethan remarked while in the dressing room that hubby had just recently gotten him a ludicrously expensive Cartier watch). But that felt desperate. I had worried enough and paced the floor plenty without taking it to that next level. Sure, it would have been close to a 4K sale, but would’ve been tactless to seek out a customer in another department if he hadn’t even spent a dime with me yet. So I go back to Furnishings and wait.

And I wait. And I help other customers, sort of. Dink, dink, no dunk. The later it gets the more I remind myself Ethan had mentioned having a 10pm flight to NYC. The later it gets the more I remind myself that with a designer customer the margin of difference between buying and not is very slim. These people with money can be fickle and impatient. If you don’t have just the right thing for them at just the right time they’ll pass. That window for spending is but a sliver. Timing is everything. And I think it was a matter of timing with Ethan. Sure, he could have just been playing with me and trying on for fun, for attention. Or maybe he stole something after I put him in the dressing room. Maybe he figured the sports-designer wear wasn’t my specialty and after we took so many garments to try on I wouldn’t have kept track of what went in and came out. But I had a good feeling about the guy. I have been known to be gullible or too often giving the benefit of the doubt, but I felt positive intuition about this guy.

Because of the rush of the afternoon and Ethan’s hectic shopping style I didn’t think to stick on him. Most likely his husband called and insisted they hit the road. Surely they had some extravagant social plans prior to leaving. Or Ethan told his hubby he was buying things and hubby pulled the plug. Any way you slice it, this guy was ready to throw down some serious green and I let him out of my sight before he could do so. I’m going to site my major mistake as actually holding the bag all the way back in the stock room and then adding the jackets to the back as well. The round trip each time was at least five minutes. That is plenty of time to get bored/ reigned in by your sugar daddy. Had I brought the back to Sportswear in the first place, then we could’ve kept everything together and gone to shoes. If he got called and had to leave right away he could have at least made a game-time decision about which items to take, if not all of them. I might have looked like a walking closet organizer but I would’ve forced Ethan to close the sale.

What I continue to find frustrating, after my unfortunate timing, was Ethan’s decisiveness. He knew what he did and did not want, and quickly. He seemed good for the things he wanted. So many customers hem and haw over fit, price, color, need, etc. They agonize, they role-play, they puzzle. It is great to have a customer with resolve and a clear sense of yes and no. Of course, our loss prevention courses also list this trait as that of a shop-lifter. It is particularly prevalent when you get someone going into a dressing room. They will pick-out things without knowing the size, quickly, just checking prices. I honestly can’t remember if Ethan was checking prices. He was asking what sizes things were. He didn’t want to show me how things looked on him, but rather informed me he would put his likes on one side of the dressing room door opposite his dislikes. Still I say the guy seemed legit. If only I had slowed down to plan my moves and timing better.

Any time a customer leaves your sight they have an opportunity to bug out. In this business, this economy, there isn’t room to let probable paying customers escape. This sounds creepy and selfish, and it is a little bit. But it’s the truth and Ethan was a great example. I didn’t give myself the best opportunity to get a purchase out of him. Since we were splitting up I also could have asked for his full name, in case we stayed separated. Having the items so far away from the floor really handicapped the situation. They didn’t need to be so far away to be safe. If I’d had them close at hand, just at one of the cash wraps, I could’ve been back with Ethan much sooner. Or I could have insisted Ethan come back to my department while I grab his things. Then we go to shoes together and check-out there. Ultimately, I think the lesson here is to keep your customers close, your designer customers CLOSER. Maybe Ethan wouldn’t have gotten everything but I could’ve given myself a better opportunity to close the sale one way or another. Instead of just fizzling out like it did.