Tuesday, November 29, 2011

You Can Count On It

ShopperTrak is a company that provides counting services for malls, letting them know how many people are there on a daily basis. A couple of weeks ago they released their predictions for the slowest days of this year's holiday season. The top four are this week. (In order of slowness: Tuesday the 29th, Monday the 28th, Wednesday the 30th, and Thursday the 1st.)

Since I'm now working at a mall, I was pretty interested in their forecast. Yesterday I worked a five-hour shift in the morning and early afternoon, and the traffic seemed to live up to the ShopperTrak predictions. Although I fielded more phone calls than normal, and answered a few more questions, for the most part the shoppers ignored the Customer Service desk. The ShopperTrak people were right on the money again today. This time my shift started after lunch. I sold a few gift cards, and answered a few questions, but I also spent a lot of time watching people go by. When I left at 5:00, it didn't look like things would be picking up anytime soon.

If I'd been smart, I would have gone out after dinner tonight to do some of MY shopping, but instead I sat down on the family room couch and lost all my ambition. I don't have to work tomorrow, though, so I'll try to take advantage of the relatively slow day to get things done.

4 comments:

  1. Doggone it! I've got a mess of doctor's appointments tomorrow and my tai chi class on Thursday. That wipes out my slow shopping days. This is a good warning for me to try to get some shopping done early rather than waiting till the last minute. Thank you for the push.

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  2. Surprising to hear this week is a slow one...good to know!

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  3. What mall are you working in? I always thought that late November would be good period for malls.

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  4. This is the first year we rang the Salvation Army kettle bell on a weekday, December 1, and it was very quiet. I like to shop on days like that, but to just stand and watch people, not very interesting. Next year I'll sign up for a Saturday like I did when I was teaching.

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