By Louis Iannaco
During this challenging economy many retailers have been forced to do things differently—make progressive, proactive moves to generate profits or suffer the consequences. And while their methods vary, many dealers have either experimented with something new or implemented the “tried and true” such as private sales.

According to Jim Mudd, owner and president of Sam Kinnaird’s Flooring Outlet in Louisville, private sales are extremely viable in a down market as “the higher-end customer still has money and a lot of pent-up demand. She is waiting for a legitimate sale and since we have been running these for over 10 years, she knows it is legitimate. And when you add a name like Stainmaster to the sale it is going to be a winner.”

Mudd added that when it comes to private sales, you get out of it what you put into it. “Our salespeople work the sale hard by calling and sending invitations to their old customers.”

During Sam Kinnaird’s warehouse sale last year, the retailer actually sold a higher dollar volume than normal even though traffic count was down. “Our typical warehouse sale will have over 300 people come through and last year we had approximately 275. But our dollar volume was higher because people were buying more high-end products, especially hardwood and better Stainmaster carpets as opposed to inexpensive items we are trying to get rid of. We sold a lot of that, too.”

Sam Kinnaird’s advertising consisted of broadcast and cable TV all week and newspaper teaser ads starting on the Wednesday before the sale was held. Larger ads ran on Friday and Saturday. “We had yard signs placed around town and started handing flyers out to customers leaving our stores on Saturday,” Mudd said.

Roger Voge, senior vice president and general manager of flooring for Star Flooring in Wichita, Kan., believes private sales are still working relative to market conditions. “The response and traffic levels have reflected less of a decline than the general market conditions. The biggest decline relative to the events has involved a decrease in the average sale amount. This has involved both the average price point of the products purchased and smaller size in terms of square feet.

“We’ve been experiencing a more conservative customer in regard to both regular traffic and sales events,” he explained.

Recently, Star held a “$70 install sale” event to help generate additional profits. “We considered this to be a very successful event,” Voge said, adding that the company is likely to do it again in the future.

Bruce Solomon, vice president of residential sales for Country Carpet in Syosset, N.Y., believes private sales still can work. “You can’t have too many and that seems to be one of the major downfalls. Three years ago the private sales everywhere had an excellent response, but many dealers had too many of them. So that, of course, took away the urgency and, frankly, the validity of such promotions. We do well with private sales because we don’t do them that often.”