Home of Economy News

Friday, April 30, 2010

The Sunshine Savings Flyer

This is the flyer coming out this weekend in the Sunday papers, if available.  This is a big change for us.  We’ve ALWAYS been a weekday delivery.  Unfortunately the newspaper industry is losing a lot of customers during the week. 

We’re hoping that the greater exposure gives our sales flyers even more of a boost.  Over the last few years we’ve doubled or tripled the effectiveness of our sales flyers.  We feel that this is a way to keep the momentum going. 

This flyer goes out on Sunday, but we usually have our flyers running a day before to give our regular customers an heads up in the store.  We’ll have copies of the flyers available for you to pickup tomorrow. 

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Greenhouse Opens May 1st

Sorry for the poor picture quality.  I took this one through the window in the advertising office.  It was raining you see, and I didn’t want to get my hair wet.

This should be a great year for the Greenhouse.  Planting the last couple years has been later and later because the weather hasn’t cooperated.  We’re almost a month ahead of last year.  If a person gets their basic garden down by mothers day they’ll likely find some other projects they can add to their wonderful garden.

This rain is going to help as well.  It should warm up the soil as well as cut the dust.  My farmer friends are going to be happy as well.

So check us out this weekend.  Our greenhouse customers tell us we have the nicest plants in town year after year. 

Grand Forks Snack Bar Menu

DAILY LUNCH SPECIALS
SERVED AT 11:30

May 3 - May 7
Monday - SPAGHETTI – GARLIC TOAST
Tuesday - CHICKEN STRIPS – AU GRATIN POTATOES - COLESLAW
Wednesday - BURRITO – SMALL BEVERAGE
Thursday - ROAST PORK – MASHED POTATOES. GRAVY – CARROTS
Friday - BACON CHEESEBURGER – MAC. SALAD – CHIPS

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Size Deca-Ought Shotgun Shell?

Sometimes walking through the store can surprise even me.  I hadn’t noticed this until someone pointed it out to me.  This is a cool marketing idea. 

What we have here is a thermos made up to be a shotgun shell.  Cool idea. 

This would be a perfect gift for fathers day.  Unfortunately we’re almost sold out, so if you’re interested get your butt in soon.

The thermos says that it keeps liquids hot or cold.  How does it know what to do?

Monday, April 26, 2010

Weber Grill Headquarters

A couple years ago we decided we would make every effort to become the go to place for Weber Grills. 

The Grill market seems to be splintering.  The big box stores have decided to focus on their own brands of grills so that they can make a better margin.  That pretty much left the number one known brand in the market to businesses like us. 

We’ve been very happy with what we’ve done so far.  For last week our sales were up 300% over two years ago. 

We’re running this commercial to let the public know that they can get Weber Grills at the Guaranteed Lowest price at Home of Economy.  You won’t find them advertised cheaper anywhere. 

Friday, April 23, 2010

Spring Lawn and Garden Flyer

Here’s our new Lawn and Garden Flyer.  Earlier this year we changed the people that design and print our flyers due to the new guys giving us a fantastic price. 

We couldn’t turn down the bid, but we did have some concerns about keeping the quality of our flyers.  This is the second one and I think it looks pretty darn good. 

This flyer runs a couple more weeks and it looks like we for once guessed on the weather.  You hate to have a spring flyer when the weather’s crummy. 

Thursday, April 22, 2010

April Science Diet Ad

Here’s the latest, greatest Science Diet ad. 

Science Diet has been reducing their pricing in order to make themselves more affordable by the consumer.  We’re glad to be able to offer these lower prices. 

This ad features large breed dog food that’s been tested to help the joints and other problem areas on large breed dogs. 

The St Bernard in the ad is our Sabocca.  He’s coming up on seven years ago.  He had to have some surgery done a year ago.  He tore a ligament in his knee.  The veterinarian told me that all of the blood levels on him were perfect.

The small puppy in the show is our Felina.  She’s now a mother herself.  We made sure to let our friends and family that adopted her puppies were to use Science Diet puppy food.  The food is tested to boost both brain development and agility. 

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Nike Bauer Hockey Stick Recall

Nike/Bauer Hockey has a recall on their hockey sticks. The models that have been recalled and information pertaining to the recall are in the images below. We have all of this information posted in each one of our locations. If you have any further questions about the recall you can call any one of our stores or go to http://www.bauer.com for more information.

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Carhartt and Boots Meeting

Yesterday we had a first of a kind meeting (for us).  We pulled almost all of the full time clothing people and store managers and had an all day training meeting for them.

We started with a very interesting meeting on Carhartt Flame Resistant clothing.  This is an area that we are growing very quickly in.  They had quite a few videos in their presentation of mannequins getting burnt up and some real life pictures of injured people.  The picture that amazes me the most is the one where a worker had rolled up the sleeves of his FR shirt.  The exposed arm was blackened (ugh!).  The skin underneath the shirt looked just fine.

One thing to keep in mind is that this isn’t fireproof clothes.  It will burn when there is a flame applied to it.  However it self extinguishes through the magic of technology (meaning I don’t understand it) within two seconds.  The clothing will of course be ruined, but it should give a worker a chance at life.

After the FR program we had a lesson on displays of Carhartt merchandise.  Carhartt is our #1 Vendor in both sales and gross profit.  It’s important that we do the best job possible with this line. 

After that we shifted to workboots.  We had factory representatives from Carhartt/Red Wing, Wolverine, Justin Boot, Georgia Rocky and Caterpillar Boots.  We do great with all of those lines and it was really interesting to learn about all the neat advances in boot technology that they are offering. 

A real growing area is waterproof boots.  We were surprised to hear that they don’t recommend treating waterproof boots with mink oil.  That plugs the pores of the leather and make the boot hotter.  Also the moisture will stay in the boot rather than leaving.  They said you can use silicone or camp dry if you want to protect the leather.

The water proof boots generally have a layer of water resistant product (such as Goretex or a product that does the same sort of thing.) 

They all agreed that wearing proper socks is vital in the case of waterproof boots.  You don’t want to wear a cotton sock, because it will retain moisture and get your foot wet (and cold).  They recommend a layered system to pull the water away. 

Clothing and boots are a growing category for us.  We think that having more meetings just with the clothing sales team is the way to keep that going.  Our next meeting will be via computer and we’ll see how that goes for us.