My excerpt:
Finally, some notes from Mathias Eichler of the Olympia, Wash., European home and kitchen goods store Einmaleins. He saw November sales up 63% so far compared to last year, when the holiday season did not really pick up until Black Friday. His customer count is almost double, though his average ticket (that is, the total spent by each customer) dropped by $8 to $40.
“I don’t think we’ll be able to hold those November numbers into December — basically I don’t have enough product in the store and don’t have enough money to buy more product right now,” Eichler said in an email. He discussed the challenge of anticipating demand and stocking accordingly a few weeks ago. Last year Einmaleins ran out of some items. The store’s limited credit from lenders and suppliers also makes inventory management more difficult.
But Eichler says his business, founded just over two years ago on the edge of the Great Recession, has persisted. “I suppose this is quite unique, but we opened the business already in a downturn and are growing now not just with the slow recovery, but also are utilizing social media tools better and are extending our reach, way, way beyond our storefront.”
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