Home of Economy News

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Flame Resistant Clothing At Home of Economy

We are the leader in Flame Resistant Clothing in North Dakota.  We’ve been selling FR clothing from Carhartt, Wrangler and Walls Manufacturing.  We don’t sell a lot of it from Walls but they’ve got sizes up to 5X.  Last year with the new OSHA regulations we made a commitment to be able to supply FR clothing to our customers that need it.  These include electricians, welders and petroleum workers.  (I’m not an expert on the requirements.  If you have a question you should ask the safety officer in your company who ultimately is responsible for ensuring compliance. 

We’ve been reviewing our 2009 year and one of the BIG winners was the FR category.  It went from nothing to being a big deal for us.  If the category was a stand alone vendor it’d be in our top 30 vendors.  Most of the business is special order through the employers but we carry a pretty good selection in our Grand Forks, Minot and Williston stores. 

2009 was great for FR clothing at Home of Economy.  We intend to do even better in 2010. 

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

We Sell Honda Generators In 4 Stores

Late last fall we started selling Honda Generators in our Williston, Jamestown, Devils Lake and Grafton Stores.  We’d like to sell it in all stores but Honda has a policy of protecting their existing dealers.  That’s ok with me provided they’d do the same for us. 

Honda Generators are a great product.  If you have a need for a quiet generator or a generator that’s going to be run a lot of hours you can’t do better than an Honda.  We’ll keep selling the lower priced ones because there’s a market for those as well.

Here’s a short video I clipped from their product DVD.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Feed Test

I’m just checking to see how the Facebook and Twitter feeds work. 

Update:  Our in-house pro fixed it so that the Twitter feed links only go directly to the Home of Economy news site here.  There’s no point to link to our Facebook page if the real content is here. 

Inventory Season

Sorry for the lack of posts last week.  We were busy getting started in our inventory season.  On Wednesday and Thursday we counted everything in the Minot store.

This weekend we’re doing the Grand Forks store.  We’ll be closing in Grand Forks around 3 pm and opening up Monday morning at 8 am.  We’ll have a crew working before we close counting the back rooms and some of the slower moving stuff.

Inventory isn’t any fun.  But if we have to keep our inventories accurate so we have the right products for our customers at the right time.  You can’t do that without an accurate inventory.  And it doesn’t seem anyone can keep them accurate without shutting down and COUNTING THE STUFF.

We’ll get done Sunday evening.  We will be back at in counting the inventory in Devils Lake next Wednesday and Thursday. 

I’ll try to keep somewhat current on the H of E news site, but it gets tough to do the extras during the inventory season. 

New Battery and Tire Ad

This is such a strong Battery and Tire Ad we decided to update it when the products in it became obsolete. 

We originally ran this last fall.  The one tire style got discontinued by our manufacturer.  The Battery company changed their labels.  Aside from that we kept the same ad. 

I suppose some will wonder why we didn’t just put together a new ad since we have run this quite a bit.  It’s our understanding that consumers don’t pay that much attention to television ads.  The more you can repeat the better off you are.  What we’re trying to do is to make people think Home of Economy when they need a new set of tires or a new battery.  I think this ad does that well.

I also like the ad because it was shot in North Dakota and people will recognize the terrain.  For a second I thought they shot the ad near my home. 

I also love the start “How do you get to be #1.”  We’re the hands down leader in tire and battery sales in our towns.  We’ve got to brag about our position because I don’t think the competition is going to do it for us. 

Thursday, December 31, 2009

It’s the Home of Economy New Years Sale

Save 15% on nearly everything on New Years Eve and New Years Day.  Even off of sale prices.  We opened a bit late today because on New Years Eve and New Years Day we’re running 15% off of nearly everything in the store. 

We started doing this a few years ago.  What we were finding that it wasn’t worth being here on these days unless we gave the customers a very good reason to come in.  While we might be losing some money, any sale is better than none.

We do have some exclusions that we more or less stick with during percent off sales.  Those exceptions are:

Ammunition
National Brand Oil
DeWalt and Makita power tools
Gift Cards
Power Ice Drills
T-Posts
Salt
Gun Safes
Electronic Fishing Aids (Depth Finders)
Honda Generators
Trailers

No Prior Sales Limited to Stock on Hand. No Special Orders. No transfers.

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Our 2004 Carhartt Anchor Ad

Yesterday I posted our great new Carhartt ad.  Back in 2004 we started a news anchor campaign to advertise Carhartt.

That ad campaign was very successful.  Before that our sales were very strong.  Now our sales are about 4 times what they were then.

We’ve worked hard to link the Home of Economy brand with the Carhartt Brand.  I think these ads were quite successful.  I’ve heard of people around town asking people in other businesses where “the Carhartt Store” is when they wanted us. 

Music to my ears.

Here’s the first (or close to the first) of our anchor ads just to let you know why we’re running ads like this.  Of course this ad is very old and the prices and offer aren’t in effect. 

Aaron there did a great job.  Unfortunately he moved out of the area so we can’t use him anymore. 

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

New Carhartt Ad!

Here’s our new Carhartt Video.  We had a lot of fun with this one. 

A few years ago we ran some distinctive “anchor” ads.  Those seemed to really work well for us.  Since the guy that was our anchor has left the advertising agency we needed to do something different. 

This was our idea for now.  I think that it’s an ad that will get noticed.  If you don’t get noticed the ad isn’t worth a darn. 

I thought the gimmick that we’re all wearing Carhartt in the board room was a neat gag to show how fired up we are about Carhartt products. 

Monday, December 28, 2009

Grand Forks Snow Pictures

Here’s some pictures of the Grand Forks Store this morning.  Our snow removal guys still haven’t got everything cleaned up.  You can see that it was quite a job. 

But don’t let the snow piles scare you.  We were 100% open as of yesterday at the opening of business.  I think the team did great doing what they could on Saturday to get what they could open open as soon as possible. 

My Great-Uncle Dwayne had a picture in his office in the old store of the 1966 blizzard from the highway.  That picture was taken apparently from the highway of the front of the store.  If memory serves the snow in that blizzard was as high as the highest snow in these pictures although it seems that the snow in ‘66 was that high all the way across the parking lot.  Of course that picture was destroyed in the 1987 fire. 

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Grand Forks, Devils Lake Stores Are Open

I don’t like to bump people’s elbow’s when they’re doing their best.  I haven’t talked to the store managers lately but we’re showing sales in all of the stores except for Minot. 

Grand Forks to Open Up at Noon

I just heard from our associate store manager that we will be able to open up in Grand Forks at noon.  He’s been struggling to open the lot. 

Right now we don’t have anyone in there to answer the phone, but we have two cashiers coming around then. 

The Grafton manager is in the store.  He opened a bit late as he had 3 feet of snow around his pickup.  Not many people are out.

The Great Christmas Snow Storm

We take it very seriously to be open on snow days because we sell so much emergency gear.  But when our crew can’t make it in then the customers can’t make it in either.

As of right now we have some people trying to clear out enough snow in the Grand Forks store so that we can open sometime today.  As of right now we’re not open, but we will later if we can.

The Minot streets are pretty much shut down and we aren’t open there but we’ll try around noon. 

The Jamestown store is open for now with the manager and one other.  Our Williston store is open.  I couldn’t get through to anyone in Devils Lake or Grafton.

I’ll update this as I find more information. 

We certainly don’t want anyone stranded (or getting stuck making the problem worse) trying to get to work.  On the other hand we have to balance that out with doing the best we can for our customers. 

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Cut Your Dog’s Nails Safely

Now you can cut your dog’s nails safely without worrying about cutting them too short.  I bought one of these clippers because twice in my life I’ve cut the dog’s nails too short.  It’s awful.  It takes forever them to stop bleeding and I felt terrible that I did something to hurt them.

I’d gotten where I was going way to long and cutting them way too long to avoid any danger.

With this clipper you get a red light if you’re going to cut into where there’s blood. 

We’ve only got these in Grand Forks for now to see how they sell.  They are a bit expensive. 

You can learn more about them at their website:  http://deluxe.quickfinderclipper.com/

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Save Your Life With a Pie-Plate Candle

The Winter Storm Season is here!  This 14 wick candle in a tin foil pie plate can save your life.  Keep one or two in your car so that if you get stranded in a winter storm you will have one reliable source of heat.  These make a great Christmas Gift for all of your kith and kin.  They’ll appreciate it right away as they put it in their trunk.  If they get stranded they really appreciate it.

I’m offering a H of E News Special Price on it.  Regularly it’s $14.99, but if you print this out and bring it in we’ll sell them for $12.99. 

I’ve not used one in a car before but I have had reason to use it.  In 1997 I was going to move into my house on the 5th of April.  Those of us that were around back then will remember that as the viscious Blizzard Hannah.  I didn’t get moved in.  When I got to the house my large upstairs bathroom was frozen up.  I put two of these candles on a board and let them go to work.  Within 90 minutes the two had warmed the room up to 50 degrees.  The pipes melted with no damage.

You do have to be careful as they do get pretty hot.  Don’t leave them unattended.  We had one customer upset back in 1997 who was upset as they put a candle on their coffee table and the heat ruined the finish.  All I can say to that is that common sense isn’t that common.

That was the year of the blizzards and we sold a ton of them.  What really set it off was a lady in South Dakota got stranded in her car and it took days and days for the authorities to find her as he cell phone battery got weaker and weaker.  I think we sold about ten times what we normally sell in a year.  I don’t see that.  If you’re driving in North Dakota you need to have one of these before the storms hit. 

These products are made in Williston North Dakota so you’re helping your neighbor as well. 

They’re 14.99 regularly

  Make sure you get them before the storms.  Oops, I don’t know what I was thinking.  They aren’t on sale right now, but I made them an H of E News special.  Print this page out and we’ll sell them to you for $12.99 until the end of the year. 

Monday, December 21, 2009

Fiestaware Sales Up 50% in 4th Quarter 2009

Our Fiestaware sales are running 50% up for the 2009 fourth quarter.  I had a strategy meeting over the summer with the buyer and we decided that this was a line that we could take leadership on in the market.  It has worked out real well. 

What we decided to do was to make the commitment to have it in every store.  Of course we can’t yet have the full selection in every store.  That gives us the opportunity to give Fiestaware a prominent place in our advertising.  Since it’s not one of our top lines overall we have to advertise it in our flyers rather than run electronic advertising on it. 

We’ve been doing that and keeping it stocked up in the stores.  We’ve identified it as a priority in our housewares department for display.  It seems to have worked. 

Fiestaware has been around a long time.  My grandmother had a nice collection that she passed on to my sister. 

The history of Fiestaware is interesting. The Fiesta Red made in the 30’s and 40’s had a small amount of radioactive uranium added to it as a pigment.  After World War Two the US government confiscated all of the manufacturers stock of pigment.