In the Loupe
In the Loupe
Prepping for the Busy Season ft. Ray Lantz of The Diamond Center
Are you open every day between Black Friday and Christmas Eve? Do you close between Boxing Day and New Years? Do you have VIP events or "Guys Nights" to drive traffic? Do you stock up your best sellers with multiples or get a broad variety of products?
The busiest time of the year is starting, and Michael sat down with Ray Lantz from The Diamond Center in Claremont, CA to hear about what he is doing to get prepared, as well as what his strategy is for the end of the year.
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Welcome back everybody to In the Loop. What is up everybody? My name is Michael Burpo. Thanks so much for listening to In the Loop this week. I have on Ray Lance from Lance's Diamond Center. We're talking all about the holiday business strategy in the lead up to business time of the year and whenever we ask our jewelers what their favorite topics are for In the Lube, they always say I just love listening to jewelers and retailers talking about jewelry things and I thought that this would be an awesome opportunity. I know that Ray has listened to the podcast several times in the past and I wanted to just hear what his mindset is like going into this time of the year. I know that every store is slightly different in how they approach things and hearing his is really fascinating and a refreshing approach. I hope you enjoy Good luck out there.
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Speaker 1:And now back to the show. Welcome back everybody. I'm joined by Ray Lance from Lance's Diamond Center. How are you doing today, ray?
Speaker 3:I am awesome. I'm a big fan. We've emailed before, so I'm really happy to be here and be on your awesome podcast.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, Ray. I'm really excited and, like we mentioned, one of our Punch Bar clients, one of our jewelers and I guess I wanted to ask we are recording this on October 25th, so it is arguably in the holidays. When would you say is the start of the holiday season?
Speaker 3:So you know, we think about it all year and I feel like we kind of prep and plan for it all year, throughout the summer shows. You know, for us it kind of Q4 is a kickoff. So October 1st we're feeling like we're in the mode, we're preparing inventory, we're thinking about, you know, what we're going to backstock, what are our highest performing items and what's going to work the best, what are the trends that we're seeing. But a lot of times it's the last two weeks is when we really see that push. So we're constantly trying to get the store ready. You know, for our last minute dudes I love to say that jewelry is a procrastinator's paradise, um, because you can it is using here on on december 23rd or 4th and still have the best gift ever. So we have a lot of planners, but we uh love being a place where, uh, the last minute people can hit a home run too that's awesome, great, great way to look at it.
Speaker 1:I never even thought of that but honestly, I'd be lying if I didn't say my pops had done that at some point. But you mentioned high performing pieces. Are you like a big you know data analytics kind of guy? Or I feel like jewelers seems like they are all a mix of you know data and analytics and like seeing what pieces are actually doing the best and like turn time and things like that. But also it seems like a lot of jewelers are also operating a little bit by feel when it comes to like you know, this is the vibe that's going on right now. What would you put yourself into?
Speaker 3:So my nature is a feel guy, but I'm so fortunate in this industry to be.
Speaker 3:You know, basically so much of what works here is the result of great people in this industry that have mentored me, whether it's Don Gregg or Stephen Barnes or Chip Davis, who are absolute masters of data. Peter Smith is great at this and understanding exactly how inventory works, and so you know it is about getting that data right and knowing exactly which item through the fourth quarter is going to sell seven times, and having two of them here, one in the case and one in our workshop so that when it sells, rather than wait two or five days for it to get back into the showcase, you can put it back in in 30 minutes. There's great vendor partners that play a role in that too. So you know, for us, shout out to Allison Kaufman or Hearts on Fire or Midas or some of the great partners that you know sometimes will be really kind to us in the fourth quarter, and let us back stock up a little bit and then stock balance in Q1 if we need to. You know, if we over backstock a little bit, interesting.
Speaker 1:I actually had never heard of. You know backstopping. That's a really interesting kind of concept. So would you go in and like identify either collection or a couple of items that are, you know, your best turners and then carrying a couple of extra just because you know that you're going to be doing a majority of, not majority, a large portion of your sales in this upcoming, this upcoming segment? Are there any like pieces in particular that are that every year, or is it different every year?
Speaker 3:It's. There's some that go like multiple years in a row, but then there's some that are kind of like newly emerging fast sellers that really kind of start performing. You see trends develop. So it might be that this one pair of hoops was amazing in white gold for three years and all of a sudden it takes off in yellow. So it does shift and change over time and you have to watch that.
Speaker 3:Or you know, ideally we're paying attention to that and trying to build out, okay, well, if that one works in this price point and in this color, what's similar to it or what's a little bit different, or what's the next price point up, or what's the bracelet that matches, or what's. How do we build that, build around that to make it work and maybe find the winner that complements that. But yeah, like in December, every day is like a week. You might see the equivalent amount of customers in one day on December 16th that we'll see in a week in July. So we have to adjust our processes to be able to accommodate that.
Speaker 3:And if I know having that great pair of hoops in the case, uh, for a day, then uh, I can miss dollars. So you know we gotta do what we can to get it right. And you know, like I said, I love to fly by the seat of my pants, so that's not an original me idea. That is, um, being fortunate and having had great um, you know, mentorship along the is. You know, probably my favorite thing about this industry is there's so many cool people, whether they're consultants or just store owners, that will take the time and stop and whether it's at IJO or the bar in Antwerp, and tell you hey, you need to do it this way, this really works, this will improve your business, and I think that you know there's some I don't know of other industries that that exists to the same degree.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree. I think that that's one of the parts of jewelry that I've said a million times but that I find so endearing is that people are so transparent and willing to collaborate and share their, their I don't want to say secrets, but their um, the way that they do it. But I guess I want to stay on the topic of of trends, because trends are kind of kind of secrets, a little bit Like what are you seeing that's doing? Well? And you're located in a Claremont, california, and, uh, I wanted to um kind of ask about are you seeing any trends right now going into this, this jewelry season? I think that people are probably going to be doing their like their final preps. What do you kind of expect that is going to be up this this holiday season, just beyond, like the normal? You know run of the mill, engagement rings, you know wedding bands, that kind of stuff, yeah, so we're seeing more and more yellow, but that's not new.
Speaker 3:you know running the mill engagement rings, you know wedding bands, that kind of stuff yeah, so we're seeing more and more yellow, but that's not new. You know, across different categories You've chosen to be a lot more conscious about our lab grown offering. I think you know this is probably not new either. I think I was just kind of like a bit of a knucklehead about it. We've sold lab grown for many years.
Speaker 3:I don't see us as a place that tries to do everything. I see us as a place where we try to. You know you talk about Huckberry or you have before in your podcast. We try to kind of narrow it down to. We want to be a store where we've taken the jewelry industry and narrowed it down to the most compelling options for our clients, where we've made their life easy by giving them really great choices, compelling choices.
Speaker 3:And so the way that I viewed it with labs is we had a few compelling options for them, but at the same time I kind of was like I'm still a cheerleader for natural diamonds. I kind of hate this so, but it dawned on me earlier this year like I really need to treat this like a real category, have a you know, a little more robust offering. So you know, I did some work on that earlier this year and we're seeing a lot more movement in actually having you know all the you know bracelets and having everything represented, not just some loose and some bridal there. And I was going to say, is that a?
Speaker 1:lot of people buy it Is that kind of like, um, that that's a real investment. Because what I hear when you say that is like it's not just about, yeah, offering you know one or two styles but you know there's like seven types of of of jewelry you know from earrings and necklaces and bracelets and rings and watches, and is it taking lab grown and then like building out your offerings to hit each of those? Or I guess I don't really know how to go about making that decision, because it just seems like, yeah, pretty substantial investment to build out that kind of display.
Speaker 3:It's still kind of a you know the vendor part, or the vendors are still really willing to partner with you to you know, to put that together and from a cost standpoint. That's you know, for you're close to you know from my, from the jeweler's vantage. But it's an investment of time and trying to figure out OK, what are the price points that are going to work? What do my customers want to see? Do they want necklaces? Do they want bracelets? What sizes are meaningful?
Speaker 3:There's the merchandising part of it. They're just putting it all in the shipping back and forth. How do we take a product that maybe is not our normal product and then streamline it into our system, stand behind it in a way that we just stand behind everything? If somebody breaks something that we sell, we just fix it. It's fine. Like we're used to having a certain type of thing where when you were selling something that sells at a lower price point or a different price point that's made differently, like, how do we square that and figure that out? So you know, there were some kind of questions to answer around that.
Speaker 1:What is that education process like for your, for your staff? Is that something that you need to? That you had like a I don't know, like a seminar with them to? How can you educate on on lab grown diamonds? How can you the differences between lab grown and natural? Because I do find quite often the the conversation very often skews to lifting one up by putting the other down, regardless of which side of it you're on. When it comes to stores that are selling both, it's like, oh, the reason why you should choose this one is because it's not that one, and I find that that's not kind of really setting you up for a super successful sale for for both. How do you go about educating your staff to actually sell without really putting down half your products?
Speaker 3:Sure, you know the staff we kind of learn. You know we have team meetings of core once a week. You know, talk about product and many of those. What we find is that oftentimes the customers have decided for us before they ever walk in. So it's our job, you know, knowing that that's pretty generally their minds made up. We it's very seldom here that we have somebody walk in and go. I'm not sure I'm an undecided voter about lab or natural. Um, they're pretty much it's done at that by the time they see us they are either shopping naturals or their shopping lab. So it's not very often that we um have that conversation. It's more, um, you know, we do run into this situation where we're we're selling a natural and we have to like check the box of going. Now you know there are lab grown diamonds out there, right, um, just so they go. Yeah, and I don't want that.
Speaker 3:Um, just because I don't want to, you know, go like hey, why didn't they tell me that? Um, I don't want to feel like we pulled a fast one on somebody, and so we do that sometimes. But yeah, and in virtually every case, people have fully made up their mind and research before they walk in here and then it's just a matter of identifying within those categories what are they looking for and what's the option that matches that. You know, one trend that we continue to see year after year is just couples choosing to shop local. This happens to other jewelers too, but we have a lot of people, especially younger people, walk in here and say I found you because you're a family business. Oh, how cool is that? An awesome thing.
Speaker 3:And then, you know, one of our designers that we've really grown with over the last few years is an amazing company. It was called Omiprive. They make some of the nicest gemstone jewelry on the planet in my view. But the designer, navit, lives in my town, so he's my neighbor, basically. Wow, so he can zip by Like I see him with his kids like walking by.
Speaker 3:But people already like seek out the local family business, part of us, even people that don't like. You know, when you live in a place, like my grandfather was born in my town in 1925. So when you live in a place for a long time, you already have connections. But there's people that we don't know that seek us out and say, okay, we're here because you're a family business. But then when we present this designer that also lives in town, when people like kind of doubly respond to the local part of that. So in talking about trends, you know, one thing that we really see is that power of like the local community connection and we really feel that love when you know people feel like they're, um, keeping their money in and supporting their hometown and not, uh, you know, like kind of sending it to a big you know corporation somewhere else.
Speaker 1:Certainly, yeah, what a cool, uh like trend. I guess that's. That's fantastic. I recently moved back to um, to my hometown, and, uh, just in the process of like going back and then seeing that there are these businesses that are, yeah, just, there's no chain, it's just one, one location, it's like the family spot and then knowing that and having that connection and and I really want them to stay in business, you know, if the local hardware store goes out of business, well, I'm going to have to either drive way farther, I'm going to have to buy all my paint online. It's just like I don't want to have to do that. So I'm totally with you.
Speaker 1:But just to the topic of new vendors, new designers and things like that, I guess I wanted to ask, for example, when you work at a restaurant and there's a new dish, a lot of the times they bring out the dish and the waitstaff, everybody tries it and the chef talks about you know the dish and he says like, oh, and this is how we cook it and this is what you should be tasting and these are the notes and things like that. It pairs really well with this and there's like a moment of education in there. Is that what you find? Is that what you do at your store when you add a new line of jewelry, like, do you have a moment where you sit down with your staff and just train and educate them about what adding this, this local line, is and hey, make sure you mention at this point they are local and they walk by all the time. Is that part of the education process?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it definitely goes like that. We all love jewelry and all have our favorite things within that. So you know what happens when something new comes in is, you know, people are, you know there's a process right where, you know, ashley is in the workshop, she's doing quality control, she's checking in the new items, she's entering it into the edge, she's getting it ready. People are, you know, like somewhat peeking or trying to figure out what it was, because maybe someone up front signed for the package. And so there's, you know, like some level of anticipation. You know. Then, once it's it's inventoried, it, you know, goes to the back counter before it's it's merchandised and scanned, to which case it's headed for, and it's, you know, there's like a whole, you know, anticipation that builds. And then it's, it's seen what it is. And then you know our, our team is familiar with the, the different designers we have. So then there's the excitement when people see what it is, especially if it's something new or something that's not like a. You know it's routine that we might see like, oh, that's that pair of diamond hoops that sold last week and now we're, you know, replacing it. But if it's something brand new, it's a new Sapphire or something from one of our favorite centers or something that we made in house that's brand new, that we've never seen before. It's super exciting. We might film some content or make a video about it or just talk about it in the moment while we're putting it out.
Speaker 3:But yeah, there's definitely some, you know, raised voices. Or who are we going to? Which client is going to freak out about this? That's kind of the fun of new merchandise is trying to specifically think about like which five or 10 customers specifically would like this, this ring, this, this pendant. Like who specifically is this for? So when something new lands, it's like oh, this is perfect for Judy. Like we need to texture it. It's so cool. Who sees this? Because she's got to get down here and look at this and try this on now. So there's like, as the anticipation builds, builds like that's the next. Like dot connected is who's got to know about this immediately and so, um, you know that's usually the way that goes, that's super cool.
Speaker 1:A lot of it is trying to trying to rehome it yeah, it's, it's really interesting again, just having worked, uh, I finished watching the bear pretty recently and, uh, just having worked in in food, um, the similarities I guess increasingly I'm starting to think about, like the similarities between luxury, luxury experiences like fine dining and jewelry and, uh, concierge experiences in general, just like, um, also like with, for example, taking private lessons for skiing, for example, and like what are the white glove moments that really kind of set these luxury experiences apart from just the day to day? And for me, it's like the extra thought and knowing that someone like I mean, who isn't a sucker for like, oh, I saw this thing and I thought of you. I mean, one of the easiest things you can do to like build, you know, deeper bonds and relationships with your friends is like, hey, I heard the song and I remember you talking about this and I thought you'd like this one boom, send it over to them. And I always laugh.
Speaker 1:It's just like that's a, that's a luxury experience unto itself, is just like these deeper connections and knowing that like, oh, like this is right up, like you said, judy's alley, and I think that you know she would love this set of earrings. She'd been mentioning them for a while. Let's get her down here and have her, have her take a look at them. That is such a again a luxury experience that that is befitting you know. An item like that that I definitely, I definitely agree, and that's the kind of stuff I really think sets local stores apart from the bigger ones, and I think that you're doing it right on. I love that.
Speaker 3:It's fun, man, and that's one of the kind of mantras that we, that we look at here when you're you know, we think of okay, so we're a family business, what's our Lego? Like we want to do what competitors can't and won't. You know, like we have to live up to the family people come here because we're a family business, like you know, we have to say like, okay, there's no fine print. Then you know, like it's been four months and you want to return it all right, like okay, I guess it's stuck in the moment, but, um, you know, if it, if it blows this person away, and then they're like wow, like that was, that was crazy, but it really fixed the situation. And then they tell somebody and it doesn't always work out, but there's definitely instances where it does work out and it creates a loyal, awesome situation and it works in our favor, nice, ray, we're, and it works in our favor, nice.
Speaker 1:Ray, we're going to take a quick break and when we come back I want to hear about your holiday strategy and your decisions around the store. So, everybody, stay with us one minute. Punchmark is so excited to announce the launch of our email marketing campaigns crafted specifically for jewelers. Take your jewelry store's marketing to the next level with Punchmark's email marketing service. We created tailored, data-driven campaigns that will not only engage your customers, but also boost your sales. Whether you want to be hands-on or prefer a fully managed service, we deliver everything you need to stay connected to your audience and increase your ROI. Let's grow your business through the power of strategic email marketing. Learn more at punchmarkcom slash email dash marketing. Again, that's punchmarkcom slash email dash marketing.
Speaker 1:And now back to the show. All right, everybody, I'm still speaking with Ray Lance from Lance's Diamond Center. So, ray, I want to talk about the holiday strategy. So, apart from sell, sell, sell, do you have any, I guess, nuanced strategy when it comes to your store? I've never worked in a jewelry store, so I'm always wondering is there like any? Do you just do you first of all, do you have any days off? Do you guys close any days? Or are you open for 60 days straight. Like what does that look like?
Speaker 3:So a couple of things to be. Um, you know, 10 plus years ago, we would open, uh, the friday after, uh, thanksgiving, and then, uh, be open until christmas eve, basically, and I would, I remember like feeling this countdown for whatever reason, like I can remember, yeah, like doing the countdown, I'd be like taking a shower and I'd be like, okay, day 11 of 22 or whatever, like being like would happen. What I found, personally, is that, you know, by the time we got to the 21st, the 22nd, the real, you know, busy days that were critical, we were kind of worn out, so we stopped that. And now we rotate. We have days off for people. We close on Monday. So we're the way it falls this year. I think we'll be open like the last seven or eight days, but we'll still mix in some staff days off in there. So we're not trying to. We're lucky that our customers and community cooperate with this too. That's critical. You know the numbers haven't suffered because of this. So from a scheduling standpoint, we definitely take it easier than we once did.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm kind of spoiled too. I, you know, I purchased the business from my parents almost three years ago, so we're in year 52. So I don't know that I have the. I guess what I'll say is I'm lucky to be at this point in the proceedings. I'm well suited for this point in the proceedings. My parents worked at a point where this high level of grit and hours and grind was required and they really did that and I witnessed that as a child and admire it. And I'm really lucky to be at a place where there's a different level of balance and a different bag of tricks that is required. I'm just grateful that my skill set is this and theirs was this and this all works together and it's nice.
Speaker 1:I think I guess I wanted to ask about also you said, the old bag of tricks and stuff like that. So I can think, in the beginning, when it comes to a newer store, you're establishing yourself in a community A lot of times there might be pressure to attract business. I guess is maybe the. There's almost two different kinds of mindsets. There's the attraction mindset, where you know you need to have a reason for people to come in, and then there's also, like the you know, just the availability and the wait and see kind of mindset that it seems like you're, you know, a little bit more leaning towards where it's like, okay, we're going to be available and we know that people are going to be coming in, they're going to, like you said, it's like the ultimate procrastinator's dream, so just we just need to be there. Do you plan to do any, any promotions around around the holidays? Do you run? Do you run sales? I guess is, do you need to run sales or what are your feelings on that earlier this?
Speaker 3:week about this. I was like, oh dude, I'm totally behind this year. It's you know, we've had a great year, we're a bit, we've been, we're ahead this year, but I'm behind in my holiday planning. But then, as I reflected on it, there's a bunch of things that we automatically do. So we had a party at my golf club on October 2nd where we had our best clients out. It was kind of one part designer showcase what can we do? We had my friend Navid, who's my neighbor from Omi, preve there with some of his like amazing jewelry. It was stunning. And then some of our best customers there. They received a cool swag bag with gift certificates back in varying amounts, kind of like a ticket. So we will see many of them to spend their gift certificate. It expires on December 24th, so we've already had that party. It was. It was awesome.
Speaker 3:Um, we do a lot of personalized clienteling, so our top 500 people will receive that. I will probably I'm working on it now take a page from, uh like stephen barnes playbook and we will personally deliver like a tea towel and some cookies. Uh around thanksgiving to some of our very best customers also. Uh, I love things that live in people's houses that have our logo on it. So like I love like magnetic chip clips, my logo on it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like that's a good one tea towels.
Speaker 3:I like throw like stuff like I just did a like a this really cool. Uh, the swag bag was at the party. Was this? Uh, like clear, like luminescent, like tote bag. Uh, I just like stuff like that but that, like, people hopefully keep and it sits on their fridge or something. So we're big on that kind of stuff. We don't do big sales.
Speaker 3:The one that I love that was super buzzy. I haven't decided if I'm going to do it this year I'm still kind of working on the details is we did 83 and it's free when if it's 83 degrees on Christmas day, you get your money back. Oh yeah, it was one of the weather promotions. We did it two years ago and it was like everybody in town talked about it. It was really fun. And then it was 82 degrees on Christmas. We almost hit it and everybody was texting me. It was a blast. Last year we did it. It wasn't near as buzzy and the weather was nowhere close. So I've got to kind of make up my mind here pretty quick as to whether we're going to do that again, or not, but it is kind of a fun thing.
Speaker 3:I like the concept of it because the idea is Well, with all your other gifts, you definitely won't get your money back.
Speaker 1:Wow, at least this one has a chance, yeah.
Speaker 3:The odds of it being 83 are obviously really slim because I couldn't afford the insurance. Otherwise you might get your money back. But it's kind of a fun gamble. So I've got to call the insurance company. We've been emailing a little bit back and forth and see if there's a way I can put that together in a better way.
Speaker 1:So just to just to just to ask about that. I actually was thinking about doing an in the loop episode about those weather promotions and I got to ask is there like a, is there a specific company that like this is what they do? They like man. That's so wild to me because like what if they get it wrong? And that's like a lot of money. It just seems like like a gamble on their part too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's a few. It's Tokyo. Marine is the one that's affiliated with IGO, and Robin is the person she's delightful and she's great to work with. There's a kind of an expert that does it with snow.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I've heard that one, james at Stucky Jewelers. He's really cool Speaking of like cool mentors in the jewelry industry. He's a great guy. Had dinner with him in Chicago at IJO and we talked all about weather promotions and it's fascinating. I would love to do one on that it just sounds like really creative.
Speaker 1:And, like you said, the buzz is kind of really what you're trying to capture, that little bit of like letting the promotion kind of stand up and like walk away as well, the fact that like people will do the promoting for you and like start doing the word of mouth. I guess that. Have you done other things related to that Like that? Have gotten that buzz beyond? Just like weather Cause man, that sounds like like a really nice. And if it's not 80, 83, do you say. If it wasn't 83, then you don't have to pay anything besides the insurance company, I'm assuming.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's like. My dream is to have a huge party and give everybody their money back, because the party itself would be a blast.
Speaker 1:Imagine that.
Speaker 3:Not that I can think of off the top of my head, but that's generally my goal is. I want to kind of try to turn up the fun rather than turn up the discount, if that makes sense, like I want to try to have an event and have fun and personalize, customize, let people know that we're thinking of them, you know, rather than make it all about like are you getting the cheapest deal.
Speaker 2:That's not who we are.
Speaker 3:We can never chase that to its to its end.
Speaker 1:It's never going to be.
Speaker 3:Someone can always do it cheaper, for sure. So you know the the question we're trying to answer is you know, how can we listen better, connect better? That's one of the things that we it's you know it's not new or it's it's not something uh unique, but one of the things we really talked about as a team in the fourth quarter and at Christmas time is there's so many screens there's, so you know people are so busy, especially in December. How can we make this store a place of eye contact, of presence, of taking just like one, like one little bit of, like one moment of you're being looked at and listened to, uh fully, and and not like rushed or like even sold to necessarily, but we're just like trying to like take a beat and hear you, um, just slow down for just a sec. Wow, and that's not always easy because you got, you know, like even for like 50,.
Speaker 2:I'm the one saying it.
Speaker 3:And here I am with like I got four customers texting me, I got my homies sending me some meme. I got, you know, like a vendor calling and I got an email. I got to respond to it. Like you know, I'm here like preaching that, but I'm saying it to myself as much as I'm saying it to my teammates or anybody else. But that's the goal is to try to be that place where people come in here and they feel, even if it's for a repair, they feel like oh, that was a little bit of human connection.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a good place to go into. I'm definitely with you. What a cool, cool concept, though. I really like that and that's one of those little bit of like mantras that you can kind of pass on to your store to give it that unique, a little bit of branding or personal touch. So I'm totally with you and I guess, as we kind of bring this thing home not looking past the holidays by any means, but what does the 26th December, 26th through New Year's, look like for you? It's one of the few things I might even do a poll in the in the punch bar community at some point. Do you stay open or do you close down and then open back up on new year's, new year's day, like, what does that look like for a Lance's diamond center? We close, good for you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we close. It started with the year I got married. Actually, I didn't work here then. My anniversary is December 30th. My mom that year decided, you know what, I don't want to be open that week. I want to like go to the my son's wedding and enjoy it. And so that was the first year the store closed and we just kept the tradition going and you know, everybody gets a week off. We kind of ramp up our team bonus structure so that you know the way it usually works is everybody gets a paid. You know the bonus is at least going to pay for a paid week off for everybody. Um, and they don't have to take vacation time and uh, and everybody's off and chilling that week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and honestly, you guys deserve it. It's like you were saying there's like a almost like a countdown to to Christmas sometimes, especially in retail, where it's just like so impending and it's just it's looming over everybody. And I remember I can't remember who the conversation was with it might've actually been with Stephen Barnes or with Scott standby and he was like you know, one day I would really love to enjoy Christmas fully. But a lot of the times I feel like Christmas for retailers is like man, it's go time. I'm in the shop Like we're, we're crunching and it, which kind of makes me sad.
Speaker 1:But I do think that the getting that day that week off um punch work does the same thing. We um, we close on on Christmas Christmas Eve, I believe and then we come back, um, I guess, on January 2nd, and what I've found is just it's really nice to just get a reset, like we come back and everybody's like a little bit fresher instead of, like you know, doing both, or you're coming back from like a little little hangover from from Christmas day. It's like what, what are you actually accomplishing during that? So good on you guys for for recognizing that and I hope that the you know the the cost benefit is it makes makes it make sense for you as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we're spoiled band. We have awesome uh community and customers that you know uh cooperate and and uh support all of that and make it happen.
Speaker 1:Well, ray, I'm going to let you go. I know you're a busy guy, but I really appreciate you sharing what a look inside your store leading up to the holidays is going to be. I know that it's go time, or it's about to be go time in like one week, but I'll be rooting for everybody, all the listeners. I hope you all have a very successful holiday season and I hope you get a moment to at least breathe and sit down for a moment. Drink some water, get some sleep, ray, anything before we wrap up.
Speaker 3:Oh man, Honor to be here. Thanks so much for having me and cheers.
Speaker 1:Cheers everybody. We'll be back next week, Tuesday, with another episode. Cheers Bye. All right, everybody. That's the end of the show. Thanks so much for listening. If you'd like to be a member of a retail roundtable or interviewed for this podcast in the future, you can always reach out to me at michael, at punchmarkcom or on punchmarkcom slash loop. That'll go right to me. This episode was brought to you by Punchmark and produced and hosted by me, michael Porto. This episode was edited by Paul Suarez with music by Ross Cockrum. Don't forget to rate the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and leave us feedback on punchmarkcom slash loop. That's L-O-U-P-E and we'll be back next week, tuesday, with another episode. Cheers Bye, thank you.
