[cuush.com]

The American economy is in a downward spiral...
this in turn is affecting every other country in the world (and our international sales).
The word from Washington: this is just the beginning.

It's a given that Christmas is a bust this year, as it was last year.
Personally, our t-shirt business is feeling it now (eBay and website).
We work full-time and make our living with online retail, it's not looking good.

So what about you experienced sellers out there...

- Are you full-time? Retail, wholesale, printer?
- How's business on eBay? Your website?
- What are you doing about it?

We may go from $5k/M...to out of business.
Have to go back to robbing banks soon.

 

[novanutcase]

Since I have my own line and sell to boutiques and major department stores I'm currently not selling on ebay or online but I can say that sales has slowed considerably. Retail is scared. Especially here in SoCal. The rest of the country isn't quite so bad but orders are still much less than before.
John

 

[cuush.com]

Retail is scared. Especially here in SoCal.

Yeah, this article I just read mentioned Cali being in trouble right now...
Best and Worst Bang for the Buck Cities - Yahoo! Real Estate

As I mentioned, our International sales have disappeared, that's the biggest spook of all...
when British Sterling is double the US dollar and our UK customers have stopped buying...things look bad.

I think everyone in brick&mortar retail are one bitten-twice shy right now, last years Christmas was rough...
to have it happen again the very next year creates serious business volatility. Retail NEEDS Christmas.

We're just trying to decide which way to take things these days, there's plenty of marketing avenues...
but when you know the return is minimal, it doesn't offer enough confidence to go spending much, trying to ramp up business.

Rock and a hard place.

 

[TshirtGuru]

We're printers and things are actually looking good right now. Sales are surprisingly up from last year.

Although I notice our customers a little more picky and frugal of what they spend their money on.

We're in a warehouse, currently 60% are from online sales, 40% from local sales. I started business this way on purpose so that if the economy were to go bad in our immediate area, there was still business coming in from out of state. We have fairly low overhead, while other shops in the area have multiple full time employees, machine leases, large rent, etc. Once again, I did this on purpose. In tough economic times like this, the larger shops will resort to using their last pile of funds just to survive, they will have to fire employees, etc. Not to be evil, but now I'm just waiting for the large shops to go down to take their place.

Last year we were looking around to move into a retail spot, but I realized the economy was already headed south and was unsure. Now I'm glad we didn't move into retail. Look on the bright side, NOW is the time for you to think more creative about your sales plan and branding.

 

[CUSTOM UK]

Hi. The current economic climate hasn't had too much of an impact on sales. We keep ahead by having a wide diversity of products, aimed at multiple niche markets.

Even if it gets as bad as the 1980's where some places had ten percent unemployment, the other ninety precent of folks still have an income and money to spend. At least working for yourself, you have some control over what happens to you. A lot of companies will just use this as an excuse to get rid of certain staff.

If it makes you feel any better about things, recessions even occured over one hundred and twenty years ago, when industry was still developing, so it's not a new thing at all.

 

[Adam]

I've seen sales dip in many niches but sales are still out there for the taking. Like DreamGlass I try to be diverse and longtail, which I'm sure isn't that easy in b+m retail.

 

[cuush.com]

I've seen sales dip in many niches but sales are still out there for the taking. Like DreamGlass I try to be diverse and longtail, which I'm sure isn't that easy in b+m retail.

I'm seeing sales too...
but they've dropped dramatically in the last few weeks,
and there's LOTS of companies going out business these days.

CircuitCity, BestBuy is right behind them, even Walmart is shaking...
I mean, the institutions are crumbling around us...it won't be long before it reaches everyone.

It just means everyone hasn't figured it out yet...head in the sand syndrome.

We're looking at "the beginning" of bad times...Paulson's speculation is at least "a few years" of struggle.
(So what did we get, 2 years of low-interest rates, right after 5 years of struggle from the tech market crash?)

TBO, I don't trust that dude at all...
he asked congress for 700 billion with NO PLAN on what he was going to do with it!
It's a joke that he could even do that, never mind that we gave it to him.

All this year, I saw dips in sales and held the same attitude as you guys...
it's not really affecting me, it's just hot air. It'll pass.

Now I'm seeing the crash and changing my tune.
Sorry for the negativity, but it's got me freaked over here.

 

[amy_schutt]

There was an expose on the local tv this last week in my low-income area about a screen printer whose sales had gone up by 40% over the last year. We keep waiting for the downtime to hit and are somewhat nervous about dealing with it if it does happen, but so far so good.

I am amazed at how many churches order shirts for each of their divisions, even in the fall and winter. We expect to be somewhat slow in November and December but are enjoying every order we can get for the time being, while those around us in other businesses close their doors and lay off.

 

[oldkush]

The US economy [along with many others around the world] is in big trouble. For those interested in seeing a running tally of the enormous US debt, look at

US National Debt Clock, News, and Resources

It's worth checking out at least once .... but too depressing to watch constantly.

Bob

 

[oldkush]

The US debt is now in excess of $10 trillion dollars and most of us can't even begin to imagine how much money that really is.

To help understand how big a million, billion and trillion really are and how they relate to each other, consider the following time calculations:

- a million seconds is less than 12 days ago
- a billion seconds ago takes you back almost 32 years
- a trillion seconds ago it was 29702 BC and this was about the time Neanderthal man seized to exist

- a million minutes ago you were 23 months younger
- a billion minutes ago takes us to 105 years after Jesus died
- a trillion minutes ago mammoths walked the earth and were hunted by early caveman

- a million hours ago takes us to 1894
- a billion hours ago early man lived in caves, had fire and shaped stone weapons
- a trillion hours ago the earth was inhabited by dinosaurs

So when you see the US debt in excess of 10 trillion dollars, know that is a VERY VERY BIG number.

Bob

 

[Binary01]

i might end up dancing on the corners for chump change....

due to the crash of the banks/etc...construction loans are frozen so no funds to build so architecture firms are laying off/etc/etc....

it's really depressing..... i hope something happens soon.......

 

[seattleprintshop]

Local up 30 % and online retail down 30% so its a wash

 

[cuush.com]

Local up 30 % and online retail down 30% so its a wash

That's interesting...
we don't do any local business, but someone mentioned earlier their local was up too.

Hmmm, maybe it's time to hit the street!

 

[kaylesleigh]

http://www.polo-shirts.co.uk/As T-shirt guru said, customers are being a bit more picky and frugal. I'm wondering if anybody is seeing a move away from more expensive organic options back to non-organic tees?

Some pundits say the organic brands will ride the recession better because their customers will be loyal to their core values while others say you can already see a move away from more expensive organic food and this will extend into clothing - it's difficult to tell who's right!

 

[novanutcase]

In my office building there is a showroom that caters strictly to organic and eco friendly product. My friend works there and she says sales are down 30% from a year ago.

John

 

[kaylesleigh]

Oh that's interesting - that's a real drop off in turnover - what's their product base if you don't mind me asking?

 

[oldkush]

When push comes to shove, economics will over ride environment for most customers.

Bob

 

[novanutcase]

Oh that's interesting - that's a real drop off in turnover - what's their product base if you don't mind me asking?

They deal with clothing lines that strive to be as eco friendly as possible.

John

 

[Rodney]

Thread note: some political posts have been moved out of this thread. I know the economic situation right now is a hot topic for many, but please let's keep the drama of politics out of this t-shirt discussion place

Any questions about this, please feel free to contact me via email or PM so we can keep this discussion on a general track of discussion "how business is" across the many different sectors of our industry.

 

[imeccentric]

We have been lucky and this is the best year we have ever had and continuing to grow. Just had to buy another embroidery machine to keep up. I don't shotgun my market though and focus on specialty areas. I also stress to businesses that advertising on clothing is far cheaper and is noticed by more people than other forms. If you are designing your artwork, it might be tougher out there, but businesses and specialty groups always have to spend. Sales are already up for holiday gifts for "family" prints on different items too. Knock on wood, so far so good