How's Business?

[Tommy P]

Ever since school started, Aug 16th, business has been slower than usual.

And now with what has happened in the South and with gas prices jumping I think it's somewhat worse. Just the psychi of the whole thing. Plus I think alot of people are staying home watching TV coverage.

I'm not complaining..at least I have a roof over my head and I CAN buy gas....but just wondering how it is affecting other shops?

Oh, and by the way. Tuesday night gas was 2.69...when I came to work Wednesday morning it was 3.50! Just not right.... graemlins/shrug.gif

[Dave]

Same here, Tom. Few smaller jobs coming in, but nothing to write home about. I'm still backed up for a few days, but sure would like to see more business brewing.

Earlier this summer was great, but about mid-August things slowed down. This is somewhat normal this time of year, but I am somewhat worried about gas prices affecting disposable income...or at least perceived disposable income.

Dave Makielski

[Grumbler F.K.A. Harry]

It's up. It's down. Overall August was slower than June/July. The worst being the middle 10 days. And today...well, let's not even go there.

Hey, I suppose it could be worse. A lot worse.

[JackBingham,CPF]

The world can produce about 85 million barrels of oil per day with a world demand of about 87 million barrels of oil per day. How to kill the demand? $7.00 a gallon gas by the end of the year. I thought around $5.00 by the end of the year should do it but I'm starting to think it will be more.

Is it affecting business? You bet, I've notice less cars on the road just over the last 2 weeks.

Jack

[JbNormandog]

We are slow but August into the first weeks of september are usually slow here.

It was what I expected but not what I hoped for.

GAS!!! Just got a 1969 Mustang to restore. Don't know if I can put gas in it when it is done.

[Baer Charlton]

We've been busy. Not huge, but not our historical dead zone either.

This fall should be interesting.... I'm on the road most if not all of Sept. Oct 6th the doc will open up my foot and "fix everythig he sees". 2 wks bed, 8 weeks, no-load with crutches, and 3-4 months more of fracture walker...

guess I'll have to get a new one, this one is almost wore out in the 2 1/2 months I've been in it now.

[Tommy P]

I'm certainly no economist....or rocket scientist for that matter....but I'm feeling real uneasy about the fourth quarter. Although watching the evening news it says the economy is still chugging along nicely. But this cost of ALL energies is scaring me...chugging may turn to choking.

But I'm trying to stay optimistic ..... graemlins/faintthud.gif

[JackBingham,CPF]

Last year I paid about $250.00 per month (Jan, Feb, Mar) for heating. In the August bill my gas supplier said to prepare for at least double last year rates if not more. Yesterday they announce a 11% increase for Sept. and more to come.

Should be interesting.

JAck

[artisteric]

We've been open for 2 weeks now and I just got my biggest order today. I guess I have yet to learn the ups and downs when I get there. Starting from zero, it's all up! smile.gif

As for gas? I'd like to think we could all consume less but lets be realistic, the economy is built on it so we shouldn't change the way we live. Just pay more for it.
Today I fueled up my Jetta for 3.39 ($45 total) feels like my old beaterdays. :rolleyes:

[LeighAnn]

Mid-August was extremely slow for us, we were expecting slow but not "extremely". We have been getting jobs in but mostly small stuff from normal clients. Thank goodness we have some corporate clients that are still having decent size jobs done.

We are looking forward to the fourth quarter. Things always start picking up for us around October.

[D_Derbonne]

I've had the best August since owning the store.
It has slowed in the past week but not as dead as in other years.
I just hope the threat of hurricanes and the gas situation doesn't bring everything to a screeching hault here.

[Mecianne]

August was great for framing & photography. This week has been dead, but we expected such. Gas is still $2.799 here since Wednesday evening. It went up from $2.499. There is an air of panic among some about a gas shortage and major jump in price. Thing is, we are a luxury business. What do people cut from their budget first when things like this happen? Luxuries.

Keeping my chin up,

Mecianne

[Matoaka]

We had a banner August! But since the hurricane, things have really gone south. Time to clean and reorganize.

Baer... Hope all goes well with you and your foot. It's hard to frame from bed, but I am confident that you'll find a way. :D

[John Ranes II, CPF, GCF]

Tom,

School starting is about one of the only real lifestyle event that I've noticed will impact traffic and/or sales in a frameshop (28 years of statistics).

The other is January and/or February weather (but then we live in Wisconsin) :D

We've had a record July and record August. What we all should be examining, is what makes sales strong or weak?

In our case it is four things over these past two months: 1) large corporate orders, 2) large pricy custom framing surge, 3) increase in website gift traffic, and 4) A sidewalk sale table clearing out slow merchandise.

I've always been a strong believer in that the small things WE do can be of more significance in impacting our business than the larger things that happen around us.

John

[RozR]

Originally posted by artisteric:
We've been open for 2 weeks now and I just got my biggest order today. I guess I have yet to learn the ups and downs when I get there. Starting from zero, it's all up! It's definitely all up!!! And then down, then up... etc etc etc.

It's been steady here... not off the chart in either direction. I'd love some "off the chart" in the upward direction that continues!!

Gas. Gas is gas. I remember when it was 19 cents a gallon (am I dating myself)... My helper just said it used to cost her 1 gal to get back and forth from college (about an hour's drive)... and then it was +/- $1.. now it is + $2.75 and climbing. Glad I got rid of my gas guzzler SUV last year! Still not into a real economical vehicle but with framing - you have to have a larger one!

[Sister]

Originally posted by JbNormandog:
We are slow but August into the first weeks of september are usually slow here.
Same here. We used August to catch up and clean up. If yesterday was any indication of Sept. flow, it's good!

[ERIC]

In the past, my August's have often been the #1 or #2 best month of the year. July is never a month to brag about.

This July was painful. It was shockingly slow compared to the first 6 months of '05. It was the same for the first two weeks of August, so I was starting to freak out.

BUT - during the last two weeks it surged and made August one of my best months ever! graemlins/icon21.gif We shall have to wait and see if and how the gas/Katrina ripple affect will hit New York.

My thoughts are certainly with all those down there and people like our Buddy, but I am also feeling a sense of dread for all of us.

[Paul N]

June was the worst month (everybody in town was complaining too and nobody knew why).

July was the our busiest month of the whole year. August was good too, despite predictions that it would be slow (I took a week off for eye surgery thinking it might be slow, and I was wrong!).

But I think September will be slow, so I might take a long weekend off before things get busy again in the fall.

As for gas: Months ago, some gas stations here were charging $3 / gal. Now, I am afraid to look, but I bet it is around $4!

[Manny]

Our August was up from last year but last year was bad. We are now entering the worse month of the year and I'll be glad to get it over with and get into the Chirstmas season. Lets keep optimistic, and hope everybody has a great last quarter.

Marie

[Merlin Framers]

Hey Guys and Gals. We are the same across the pond in UK. Slow June/July, some pick up in August when interest rates went down very slightly.

As for Gas or diesel fuel as I use, well today I paid $8.40 USD for 1 Uk Gallon.
Yes it is affecting our haulage industry as well.

[Tommy P]

$8.40!!!! OUCH!

graemlins/shutup.gif Okay, I'll stop my complaining now....

[Terry Scidmore CPF]

Business in my neck of the woods is about the same as last year. More ups and downs, but equaling about the same.

I keep a journal along with my business records, where I record the headline events in the news along with my business comparisons.

Last years headline news for this time was:
Business in WA state still in a slump.
Joann's pushing 60% off sales for month of August.
People unhappy with changes in the state elections proceedures.
Kerry/Bush bashing gains momentum as each candidate lashes out at the other.
Iraq war stalemate, not going well.
Gas at $2.35 per gallon average.
Lots of hurricanes/tropical storms in SE Florida/Carribean.

This years news headlines:
Katrina.
Boeing workers out on strike.
Gas at $2.85 or more.
Joann's runs 60% off sale for month of August.
Iraq war still problematic.
Both parties are bashing each other over just about everything.

Now whether this means anything or not is anyones guess!

[Julia]

Greetings:
Anybody want to share what they mean exactly by "slow" or "a banner August"?
Just curious.
Thank you,
Julia

[EllenAtHowards]

At the risk of tempting the Evil Eye (Mal'occhio)[spit over the left shoulder twice ptu-ptu] we have had a great August-into-September! We judge such things not only by what the register shows, but by the number of pages of frame orders. Fullcalc prints out a listing, one line for each job number. Usually summer is about 2/3 of a page, but the last two weeks have been 1 1/2 pages! That's the good news. The bad news is the guy we had trained as assembler (who was really good) has apparently quit on account of he no longer comes to work. So we have hired someone else and thus the training begins again. Sigh.

[frmallday]

I have definitely noticed a relation between what is in the news and how business is going.
Even people with disposable incomes will stop spending based on consumer "confidence" which is a result of bad news. Unfortunately I feel that confidence will be dwindling due to the hurricane.
I had a great September last year but I'm not gonna hold my breath for it this year.
Prices will be going up for all of us and that is going to make selling picture frames more difficult.. I hope for the best.

[Rick Granick]

We had the best August since 2002, but things have slowed since katrina. People are following these events for now. We'll see how September progresses.
I too am apprehensive about price increases across the board due to energy and raw material costs, as well as for utilities costs at the shop. (Gas costs are going up 30% over last year for the winter.) Plus, wait till the insurance industry passes along its Katrina costs to the public at large.
:eek: Rick

[Patrick Leeland]

June was ok, July was down. August started to come around...So far so good for this month. I hop ethings keep going well despite all else.
Patrick Leeland

[Elaine]

September has absolutely been rotten compared to last year's september. the prior months have been decent, moving up little by little after our move. Not sure what is up besides the economy, gas, etc. Are people still glued to the TV watching hurricanes??


elaine

[Dave]

July: smile.gif

August: graemlins/thumbsup.gif

September graemlins/cry.gif

Sure hope the last few daze of the month pick up... Ever since Katrina hit it has been deader than a door nail. I've even had two jobs cancelled and had to refund deposits.

The only person through my door so far today was the policeman who took a report on the window next to my front door which got broken this weekend by vandals!

At least I'm catching up on jobs that I've put off for some time...some restoration type work and relative's work, etc.

I know September is not a gangbuster time of year, but...

graemlins/faintthud.gif

Dave Makielski

[JbNormandog]

We have been surprisingly better than last year.
September was a decent month, October will hopefully be better, our commercial starts and we have an in store event planned for the end of the month.

[HB]

Elaine Says:

September has absolutely been rotten compared to last year's september. the prior months have been decent, moving up little by little after our move. Not sure what is up besides the economy, gas, etc. Are people still glued to the TV watching hurricanes??
P r e c i s e l y what I say for us here!

[DB]

We are way up over last year, although yesterday and today (so far) have been DEAD. I'm not too upset. I have a lot of big orders to catch up on and my office is approaching a level of organization that it has never seen before! Plus, I've had a little free time to Grumble. I am just marketing as much as possible to keep things moving. Direct mail still gives me the best bang for the buck.

[RozR]

We have had a steady stream of customers... but oddly, yesterday and today have been deader than dead. I look at it as an opportunity to catch up on paperwork, backlogs and slow the pace a little for a while.

Roz

[JRB]

Julia, that question, "Exactly what is a great month" can not be answered. For everyone, it is different as far as dollar amount is concerned.

For me it is when I pay all my bills, myself, and put something into savings, that is my great month. A bad month is when I can't do those things.

A store that averages fifty thousand dollars a month, a bad month would be a fourty thousand dollar month. To me, that would be a really great month. I have owned a store when that was a really bad month. All depends on the store.

John

[Grumbler F.K.A. Harry]

It has been slow here too. All in all it is not a terrible month, but down from June, July, and August. I am killing LY, as I just opened last September and it was my first month open. I have a couple of good orders that I am hoping to get in the books before the end of the month. If not Oct will get off to a great start.

I know some of the big chains are hurting as well. In some cases dropping double didgets for the second year in a row. Things must be tough for Michaels too. They ran a 50-60-70% sale up here last week. Why give all that away if business is good?

As for the state of things in general. I have to beleive that the cost of gasoline and the looming threat of home heating costs are effecting people's spending habits. I know they have effected mine. My home heating costs have risen by 75% and that is the norm here. I can't remember the last time I went out to dinner or bought something I just really didn't need. I can't be alone.

Hopefully, we will not suffer any more terrible acts of nature and within a few weeks things will begin to return to normal. You know, freezing cold temps and Nor-Easters. Ah, winter in New England.

I think I am going to go into the oil business. Seems to be one place where you can charge whatever you want and people still have to pay it. "F" them.