AGENT PROVOCATEUR
A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
W
ater shortage, what water shortage? Ironically it has rained every day since the hosepipe ban was introduced two days before Easter…..just a shame they couldn’t announce the hosepipe ban after the Easter holidays as it was obvious it
would rain over the bank holiday, it always does! The shoe industry is historically linked to the farming community
by weather. We have to have the right conditions at the right time of the year for profits to be made. We must have cold weather to sell boots, rain to sell Wellies and sunshine to sell sandals and summer shoes, all at the right time and in season – bit of a tall order and unlike the impoverished farmers, we don’t have any subsidies or grants we can claim from the government when the Met Office pass on the bad news. It’s simply no good having bad weather at Easter when the Spring orders have arrived; shelves are full of pretty colours with straps and cut-outs designed to let in the sun not the rain and shops are still trying to find space to store the Autumn/Winter stock that didn’t shift in the Sale. Consciences are heavy as there are bills to pay, and although surplus stock could be donated to charity affording us the benevolent ‘feel good factor’, there might be someone needing the peculiar shade of burgundy with stripy laces that was destined to be a best-seller, but somehow didn’t have the same wow factor as when they fell out of the salesman case. Needless to say as a Salesman still out selling we are finding retailers are not happy Easter bunnies Another downside to Easter is that it’s a
Our shoes are too expensive, will fall apart, were not the right colours, did not arrive in time, were too similar to someone else’s, were cheaper on the internet, we supplied someone 20 miles away…etc. We all have the same conversations with our customers, and all agree how frustrating it is to have to smile and nod knowing that the shoes have sold but we still don’t have the money for them!!! Still we dutifully spend our money on diesel and hotels to listen to the various tirades in a multitude of regional accents, our pens poised over order books or our fingers poised over laptops, hoping, just hoping that the burgundy patent with the stripy lace is not the first shoe out of our cases. With heavy hearts and heavy cases we sigh, shake our heads, sympathise and look heavenwards for divine intervention – or indeed a drop of rain, ray of sunshine…whatever will give a little reassurance.
It’s simply no good having bad weather at Easter when the Spring orders have arrived; shelves are full of pretty colours with straps and cut-outs designed to let in the sun not the rain and shops are still trying to find space to store the Autumn/Winter stock that didn’t shift in the Sale.
moveable feast (particularly in our household when there is a half-eaten chocolate egg in every room). Religion generally has much to answer for, but this festive period based on the fall and rise of Jesus, changes its position on the calendar every year. Unlike Christmas, Easter can be several weeks one way or the other. Here are some interesting facts about the timing of Easter Sunday. Next year Easter Sunday is very early on the 31st March. In 2014 it will be the 20th April - 2015 it will be the 5th April.- 2016 it will be 27th March (hope you are taking notes!). In the years between 1875-2124 the 7th April and the 17th April are the most popular dates for Easter Sunday, happening eleven times each. So what will the weather forecast be for next Easter? Unlike the dates there are no guarantees and even more unpredictability. There is one sure thing we guys and girls on the road know, one
positive uniting fact that we have all learned to live with regardless of the problems retailers are facing, it is that whatever their problems are, it is all our fault. As we are perceived to be higher up the food chain it goes without saying that we have to be richer. The fact that our debts are far larger doesn’t seem to count for much. Suppliers and their respective agents are always to blame.
12 • FOOTWEAR TODAY • MAY 2012 So Easter is over and we concentrate on reassuring our
customers that things will pick up, the sun will shine (eventually), they may still be able to enjoy a couple of weeks in Dubai (when we are camping in the Costa del Cotswolds) and that yes the government are always to blame, we are not offering 25% discounts or ‘sale or return’, and no we are sure that the agent that sold to them before did not always take them to dinner at the posh bistro round the corner, as his commission would have been non-existent. If I ‘egg’agerate a little I am sorry, this has been quite a difficult
journey as retailers bravely live in hope of better things to come and do need someone to vent their concerns to. But please bear a thought for us when we knock on your door. We do care and we do listen, but life is not a box of chocolates or a Cadbury’s crème- egg for us either. This somewhat shell-shocked Easter chick is very much looking forward to a well-earned rest and a few cheques coming in to feather the nest, before we start planning for next season!
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