You Sleep When You Die

As we enter the holiday season, there are three steps consumers need to take right now to begin the big job of digging out of the massive economic hole our country is in.

Yes, there are some heavy pressures on some consumers right now.
Yes, there is a lot of uncertainty in our economy as a whole, and in the retail sector particularly.
Yes, there are far fewer discretionary dollars for consumers to spend than there were a few years ago.
But I don’t believe that any of this means that consumers are now destined to be permanently wary of anything but store brands and coupon-driven purchases.

If you are pissed off at the economy, you should be taking to the streets. But you shouldn’t be occupying Wall Street. You should be heading for Washington. And you should be occupying Obamaville.

My advice: Take off your war paint, drop the sign, and go do something Jobs would have done. Find an unmet need, have a great idea, start a company. If you don’t like a bad bank, start a better one. Build something. Find something that pisses you off and work constructively to change it.

The big reason Party City is a great role model for today’s retailers is that they treat the customer’s money and time just as though it were their own…Party City now has an extremely successful marketing methodology in place, one that’s resonating powerfully with consumers … even when discretionary dollars are tight.