Once upon a time, in a beautiful land not that far away lived two brothers who were sick and tired of the jobs they were and they decided that the only way for them to succeed in life is to go into business for themselves.
After a few weeks discussion with their friends and family they decided that they would go into the fruit business, in particular the watermelon selling business. So they bought a truck, made some contacts at the markets, opened a business account and were ready to go.
Every morning they would get up really early because they really loved what they were doing, they would drive to the markets, buy a truckload of watermelons for a 1.00 each and park by the side of a busy road.
Every day they would sell all their watermelons they bought and after listening to their family & friends and getting pricing advice, they sold the watermelons for a dollar.
So, every day they would buy watermelons for a dollar and sell them out for a dollar. Not a day went by when they wouldn't totally sell out of all their watermelons. What a successful business.
Their family and friends congratulated them saying, "You two are so busy, you sell all the watermelons you buy . Fantastic."
A few weeks went by and one of the brothers says to the other brother, "You know, we've been really busy buying watermelons for a dollar and selling them for a dollar and every day we sell everything we buy, but we're not making any money. What do you think we should do?"
The other brother advises him to go and talk to his family and friends again, so off he goes.
He comes back after a whole day getting advice and comes back to see his brother, who is a bit excited to see him.
"Well," says the other brother, "what did they say?"
"Well " said the first brother, "they said we should go and buy a bigger truck."
Does this sound like 9c Prints to anyone?
If we sell enough things at cost we might actually make some money! Huh?
Sadly the industry has conditioned our customers to wait for watermelons to hit the $1 price point before buying.
One of my least favourite quotes from a customer came after a store ran a $0.99 8x10's 'special' price.
He wrote to say how fantastic the quality was, how fast they were delivered (internet order) how well packed they were. He was the stores newest biggest fan.
The bit I didn't like about the email?
"I can't wait for you to do $0.99c 8x10's again so I can order some more!"
Woo Hoo - they didn't win a customer - they bought a parasite.
Selling cheap never wins loyalty - I wonder when the 'big' players will learn that!
