Barking Mad

Pramland’s John Barker is taking an overview this month of customer buying behaviour while we all ride the storm of a cost of living crisis.

Well, there goes another month and yet more strangeness is afoot at Pramland towers! August continued the way July left off with peaks so high you end up with snow on your head (at last my balding dome has something on top of it) and troughs so low I was a risk of disturbing a Balrog (a little Lord Of The Rings reference there for those of you also excited about the new show coming soon!).

I like to think of myself as a positive person but the past couple of months have really tested that. I really don’t like the expression “cost of living crisis” and I have a fair few reasons for this. Firstly, and I may be wrong with this, and you may very well disagree with me completely here but to the average person on the street so far we’ve all been hit by a rise in food and petrol prices. Petrol has been around £1.90 per litre but is falling again (the nearest petrol station to me charges £173.7 per litre – that never makes the news does it?) and food has got more expensive. On what was your average £100 weekly shop one can now expect to pay £110 or maybe £115?

Savvy shoppers could always shop own brand instead of branded on certain items and that would invariably get us back in the ballpark of the original amount. How could I forget Gas and Electric? That’s right they’ve shot up - almost as fast as how quick we all turned our heating off weeks ago once the better weather arrived. Just like we only have to turn the living room lights on at 9:30pm thanks to the long evenings. Energy prices will increase, we all know this but for the vast majority of households they haven’t changed yet! My point being that in real terms your average family is currently spending £20 per week extra on petrol and £10 to £15 extra per week on food.

Now call me cynical but if your average household is living so close to their income that they cannot live with an extra £30 - £35 per week coming out of their pockets they’ve really not thought long and hard about their household spending. Where am I going with this? Well, it all comes down to the conversation I’ve been having in the store with customers (to be). The vast majority of them are either delaying ordering and therefore

john@pramland.co.uk

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handing over a deposit (what for I have no idea? Are they aware of a big cash prize coming to them that means the longer they wait to order the easier their lives will be?) or when they do punt up with a deposit you struggle to get more than a few pounds out of them. The reason for this is that they are concerned that tomorrow they’ll have less money than today, so to commit to a £1000 pram that they need in four months time really isn’t something they want to worry about today. The truth is that this thought never entered their minds when they decided to have the baby. We have seen countless people over the past few months that have left ordering their prams until the last couple of weeks! We’ve never seen anything like this before. In addition to this order later really is very counterproductive. Not only will they have to spend more when the prize increases but they have less time to pay it in too.

Over the years we’ve all seen, lived and traded through numerous recessions but this is something different. During recessions people are losing their jobs and homes, money is tight, and businesses slow their growth plans down. However, unemployment is down, the job market is saturated with positions available (anyone looking for staff will even tell you finding people is hard!) wages are at an all time high (we won’t get in to a debate about them keeping up with inflation) and people are still spending. Last weekend I treated Mrs B to a trip to Next Home, I am not exaggerating when I say that there was not a single empty parking space in the car park, and it is a HUGE car park! The shop was full and people had arms full of items. Every till had queues we can all be envious of and the cash drawers were overflowing with money. Pramland on the other hand had its worst Saturday in four years. The staff that worked told me about how many people they’d had in, but it was like pulling teeth trying to get orders out of them. It’s all about priorities which is odd given that what we sell is an essential item.

The fact of the matter is that these same people will be back in over the coming weeks and months and they eventually give us their orders. We’ll then have to run around trying to complete their orders despite continuing stock issues with some brands. And when we manage to achieve the unachievable will they We have seen countless people of the past few months that have left ordering their prams until the last couple of weeks! We’ve never seen anything like this before. In addition to this order later really is very counterproductive. Not only will they have to spend more when the prize increases but they have less time to pay it in too.

leave us a lovely review? Nope but they’ll rip into us on every review the moment they break their pram.

There has never been a better time to re-evaluate. Ensuring margins are correct and that you are making money on every item you sell has never been so important. Likewise, tailoring your marketing to illustrate why you are best choice for parents to be once they are ready to order their pram. The next few months are going to test many of us, just try to remember that tomorrow is a new day and given how up and down trade can be tomorrow can only be better.

In a completely made-up survey conducted by me, and handed out to hundreds of imaginary nursery stores, none of which of them being you. I found that 99% of nursery store owners regretted opening a nursery store. They sighted terrible margins, stock issues and far too emotional customers when things go wrong as the main reasons for their longing to be doing something else. Oddly enough I also found that 99% of respondents also said that they’d keep at it as it gets them out of the house and life would be boring without it.