At about 5 AM this morning I finally gave up and hit the hay. Apologies to everyone who stayed up with me last night as I was clearly wrong about markdowns this morning. I did see staff pulling clothing to mark down yesterday. My guess is that the home office changed their minds sometime after I got my tips. So it is possible that the store will have markdowns today and online won’t kick in until tomorrow. At least I got to catch up on “The Good Wife.” We’ll play the Sale Guessing Game tonight as we wait to see!
Combing through the comments overnight, I was a little disappointed by the tone the later comments were taking. Since I was pretty slap happy myself I didn’t respond in the Sale Guessing post last night but I do want to address them here. One of the great things about this community is that we are lucky enough to have an indirect pipe to Anthropologie — we know that they read this blog and use the feedback here (as well as on the other wonderful community blogs) in part to determine their course. So I think it’s very constructive to hear comments about price point, quality, store selection, and staff. I think it’s very important for Anthro to see that feedback from some of their most loyal and devoted customers.
But some of the comments last night were over the top. Maybe, like me, you’re just exhausted from being up overnight during a week where you’re entertaining guests, prepping for Thanksgiving, and doing your normal work on top of that. I noticed several comments lamenting that Anthro was ‘playing games’ by not putting up sale on Tuesday as usual or by having a week where there will be a 25% off sale promotion and a 50% off promotion. Quite frankly I don’t get those comments at all. There is no set calendar by which Anthro does markdowns. And they’ve laid no expectation of such a thing. We have to remember that Anthropologie is a business, and their primary goal is to make profits. It makes sense that promotions would be for a limited time because they want to sell their items for as close to full price as they can. One of the unspoken difficulties about their rough third quarter is not only did they not hit the profits they expected but they now have to spend more to try to right the ship. That’s a little scary when you’re not sure how the customer will respond. Discounting is generally seen as a sign of weakness in the retail sector. And if you don’t like the current assortment of product on the floor, it follows that you’d also be disappointed with the 25% off and 50% off sales, because 50% off something you hate is still something you hate.
These promotions are nice to haves but the real goal isn’t to reward customers. It’s to clear out inventory that isn’t moving. Don’t expect to see the most popular or fastest-selling items get marked down or put on promotion. It makes sense that Anthropologie would keep them at full price as long as possible. That doesn’t mean that Anthropologie doesn’t care for its customers. It just means it’s trying to bounce back. Also keep in mind that Anthro has barely peeped about Black Friday — the only one sharing info is me, and that’s coming via tips from store employees and home office employees.
Which brings me to my next point. We have several Anthropologie employees who are kind enough to stop by the comments section here and leave information that helps the community. While I think it is fine to give feedback about bad store experiences, it’s disheartening to see SAs or customer service reps called clueless or stupid (comment was deleted) in the comments. It’s unnecessary. I know those comments come from a place of frustration but try to keep it constructive. Keep the comment about your feelings: your frustration, your disappointment, etc.
Most importantly, this is just supposed to be fun!! It’s called the Sale Guessing Game for a reason. We’re guessing and it’s all just a game for us. About clothing (and shoes, accessories, etc.). No life or death decisions, no hirings or firings, just plain old relaxing around the fire with some tea, coffee or hot chocolate. I think of you all like my friends and family and I hate it when we get mad! So let’s all relax and come back tonight and hope for better things to come tomorrow. In the form of markdowns, of course.
