well, I'm confused.....
On thursday - opening day- we had a lady who came in and complained about their "sale price" being the same as our regular price. (not to mention that they didn't seem to know what they were doing...) We were greatly encouraged that someone noticed this on the 1st day. We ended up framing her picture for her and she also bought one we had already framed in the store.
Today, a customer came in, who we've done work for before and she had 4 prints that were just posters and she wanted them done the same way we did the other ones.
Neilsen frame, laminating and mounting. Pretty basic. Well, our price was way higher - and she was sure it was the same frame.
Now, with just the frame, mounting and laminating I don't know where such a price difference could come from. Does anyone know what type of lamination they use? I'd imagine it's pretty much the same as ours (drytac, heat vacuume)
I discounted as much as I dared, but we were still more, So, although the lady was apologetic, she went back to Michael's with her framing.
Now, someone will probably say that maybe we are too expensive then - but there are 4 frame shops in town (independant ones) and we've always considered ourselves to be pretty much in the same ball park, so I don't know about that.
Does Michael's start off soft with prices and gradually go up just to get the intial customers?
so then why was the first lady's job so much more than ours, and the second lady's so much less? I'm confused by this. And today I'm feeling a little bit in "panic mode" and so out of sorts.
I know it's probably just panic depression and by tomorrow I'll feel better about it all - but we are a small town and were always told that they would never come here because there weren't enough people.
My gut reaction today was to just keep discounting to keep the sale, but then do we really want to get caught up in lowering so much that there's no profit anymore at all? I think that can be a very dangerous game to play. But then again, letting a customer walk is dangerous too..........