Is anyone else open on Thanksgiving?

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equineart

equineart

CGF, Certified Grumble Framer
Joined
Apr 3, 2002
Posts
125
Location
Lexington, KY
Happy Thanksgiving all!

I have some work I need to get finished so I decided since I was going to be here anyway I would open the door and put out the open sign.

Is anyone else open today???
 
no

Just checking mail from home
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I miss the old days when EVERYTHING, even the gas stations and grocery stores, were closed on Thanksgiving.

Tough on travelers and people who forgot to buy their turkey, but very nice for the employees.

My wife, the nurse, has worked more than her share of Thanksgivings. This year, she's doing mostly clinic nursing and we're glad to have her home (only partly because she's a **** of a cook.)

For what it's worth, I'll be in the shop for a few hours today packing a moving some boxes, but I'll be home for dinner with my family.
 
Yes, we are open today. In our neighborhood 95% of the stores are open and it is generally a fairly busy day.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!
 
paying some bills, hung the flag, going home

ghost town here
 
I don't think there is a retailer open in town today. I am going down for a little while to get my Christmas window in place. We have a large lighted parade down main street tomorrow and I am not ready with the window. After that back to family for dinner.
 
Printing up the newsletter for Dec 1st. Going to Cracker Barrel tonight. I'm not quite up to cooking a big meal this year. I'm sure I'll be back at it by Christmas, though!

Betty
 
Open? Never. But I am sure there were times when I had to go in to catch up. Or I used catching up as an excuse to not to have to stay and watch football at the in-laws. You can tell how much I like football, since I'd rather work than sit through a game.

I am pretty sure the people I am helping out were planning on being in their shop today. They did some mega-business the last four days, but I doubt they are open.
 
Well, I was open from 9-5 , got alot done and has a customer pick a peice up and made $250.00. It made it all worth while!!!!!!
 
Well, I was open from 9-5 , got alot done and has a customer pick a peice up and made $250.00. It made it all worth while!!!!!!
 
I wasn't open, but was here playing catch-up

Lady knocked on my door when she saw lights on...picked up a $ 600.00 job.

Dave Makielski
 
Well, I had all the intentions of coming in yesterday (Turkey day) and setting up a sale for today but, after doing an 18 lb. turkey, carrot cake, and stuffing myself about 5 hours after stuffing the bird, I kicked back, watched about 10 minute of a DVD, and fell asleep!

So I got up early this morning and have been running in overdrive ever since trying to get everything labeled and get the big "Sale" signs strung in front of the frameshop.

Betty,

The last year I spent up North my sons and I decided to go to Ryans for T'giving and they had a really excellant turkey spread!! I haven't tried Cracker Barrel yet but you know my opinion of that restaurant so I am sure that they put on a good feed for y'all.
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Well, here comes more people!

Buy, buy, buy!!!

Frameguy
 
No but I will bet I would have done more business than I did today.
 
For any Grumblers experiencing their first Black Friday: Don't be disappointed if it was a slow day. Despite all the hype about it being the busiest shopping day of the year, it has always been a less-than-average Friday for me.

People are shopping the sales and the mall on that day. And even the mall shops are finding that the busiest shopping day of the year is coming later each year.

I was closed yesterday while finishing up my move. I made one delivery and it was one of my better Black Fridays.
 
Definitely NOT open on Thursday. We're still trying to dcide about Friday. It's always been inconsistent, business-wise. Kassandra went in to do some work on another WW2 shadowbox (pictures to come - great story) with NO intentions of waiting on customers. Sweats and sneakers, don't-answer-the-phone kind of day.

Great, long-time customer called (oops, forgot about not answering the phone) and asked how long we're open. "For you, until noon."

He dropped about $600. Not a bad day. We'll probably be open next year.
 
Have been open on day after T'giving in years past and have to agree w/Ron. Most people are shopping the big sales and framing is not at the top of their priority list. They'd rather wait till the wk. before Christmas for putting in their framing orders! LOL
 
Thanks Ron. It was in fact a lackluster day. I closed an hour early and went to hang out at my favorite BBQ joint. That was time well spent if you ask me.

I did get a lot of framing done and at the top of every hour one of the news stories was, "You may not know this but retailers make most of their money for the whole year from today until Christmas. That is why...” I heard it so many times that I have it memorized. I laughed every time. Once I thought about moving my truck right up to my front door so it looked like I was open. Oh well its a new day.
 
From the What it's Worth Department:

In my mall, there were a few smiles

For example, that store that has a Mouse for it's leader did $38,000 before 10am

My next door neighbor, the one with those great looking runway models display lingerie, did over $200,000 and sold more gift cards than most framers will do all month.

My daddy always told me that if you want to go fishing and catch the big ones, you ought to at least go to a lake where the big ones swim

Fishing and business, it's all about location

I guess
 
I closed Thursday and Friday. I never do any kind of business on Friday and it gives me a chance to catch up at home. Now I'm ready to hit the Christmas Season hard.
I feel refreshed and rested. Working at home is fun work for me so even though I didn't sit down much, the metal rest was worht it.

I am going to be open all day today, I hope we are busy. :D


Jennifer
 
Originally posted by Ron Eggers:
For any Grumblers experiencing their first Black Friday: Don't be disappointed if it was a slow day. Despite all the hype about it being the busiest shopping day of the year, it has always been a less-than-average Friday for me....
Click to expand...
Ron is absolutely correct Jay.

The Post-Crescent, our local newspaper called for an interview on Wednesday about how "Specialty Retailers" compete with the Malls and Big Boxes on Black Friday. This was the business section calling for an upcoming article, and they wanted to know how we competed in general, and requested to come in on Black Friday to interview customers, and ask them "why they were in our shop and NOT out at the mall?"

I was in the shop for about an hour Friday morning, and talked to one good customer who stops in on his way to visit family from Minneapolis (5 hours). I told him about the upcoming Newspaper story. He said that, "This is the only shop I will visit today!". My response was , "I wish you were here this afternoon when the reporters showed up."

Later that afternoon, as we drove past the Mall, heading out into the woods to cut down a Xmas tree, the roads were backed up going into the mall, and the parking lots were packed! Being curious, I phoned the shop to find out that the newspaper people had waited 10 minutes for a customer to walk in, but did interview two, anyway.......I'm hoping these were good customers. :D and they said nice things!

The day was steady, but not crazy busy.....if you really think about it, that's pretty much what we should expect. We're not giving away product at -10% mark up, nor are we opening the doors at 5:30am to let the crowds in. :D Thank goodness.

Today, we have three on staff, and the shop is very busy with typical Saturday traffic.
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John

BTW - We were closed on Thursday - Thanksgiving Day. I was glad that the small gas station near our home was open at 11am....I didn't have enough butter for baking!
 
Thanksgiving and Christmas are two days that we will never open....and I refuse to shop or buy anything on those two days - which means I better not run out of milk or butter and have my tank filled with gas.

Two days a year reserved for family, imagine that! No one should have to work at a supermarket or walmart....and if no one shopped there on those two days, they wouldn't be open. The only ones who should have to work on Thanksgiving or Christmas should be protecting life or property.

I'm afraid that I'm alone in my crusade.
 
Whoa, now Maryann, we might be alone together.

It looks like Less, Pam, Kassandra, Sharon, CAGallery, Ron, Equine, Dave all worked on TDay, past or present.

Tom would have but he feel asleep.

We are definetely closed on those days and I'll add another-Easter.

I guess with all the framers that do work on TDay, maybe we aren't a lot better than Wal-Mart
 
Since Easter is always on Sunday, it may not require the choice to be open, unless one is regularly open on Sundays anyway.

Christmas and Easter are supposedly "Christian" observances. Why would anyone else care?

As with most things in life, it is not so much what one does, or doesn't do, it's their attitude toward doing or not doing that is the real issue.

If one choses not to "work" on Thanksgiving, but then either wears themselves out preparing for people they'd rather not prepare for, or spends the day "veging" out in front of the tube, what have they gained?

Thanksgiving is for giving thanks, but if we don't do that 364 other days of the year as well, working or not working is a bit meaningless...

Betty
 
I like to take time at the end of the year to look back and think about the good things that have happened. I also like to recognize, in some way, the people that have been important to me. Christmas is as good a time as any to do that.

Celebration of life and friendship is a good way to shake off winter blues.

Reserving a day specfically for family is a good way to renew bonds that may have been neglected in the rush of business, school and other projects.

Taking a REAL day off is also a good way to recharge, and treat myself. (I spent most of Thanksgiving in the tub)

I'll be closed on Christmas. I like the idea of a day when EVERYONE gets to stay home. (we can do it on Hannukah, or Yule, or the Solstice, I don't care, but I like the idea)

I'll close early New Year's Eve, and be closed on New Year's Day. These are days when customers expect you to be closed, and you can take care of other things.

It's good to get away from business once in a while.

Happy holidays to everyone, it's a good time of year for both business and family!
 
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