DEC. 8 I HOLIDAY SALES I BY KATIE KAILUS & JENNY DOMINE
Overcome Shopper's Guilt

Consumers will be spending again this holiday season, but they might not spend as freely as in pre-recession years. According to a Dec. 2 American Public Media report, shoppers may be experiencing shopper’s guilt — feeling bad about spending money when they know others are struggling to make ends meet.

So, several major retailers are using a charity angle to drive customers into stores. For example, for every letter to Santa a child brings to Macy’s, the retailer will make a donation to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. When customers purchase Target Giftcoins — an adapted version of the company’s gift card — $2 of that sale will go to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Overcoming shopper’s guilt is nothing new in the music retail industry, and there are plenty of examples to look to. In case you missed it, the October 2009 issue highlighted three of them (“Holiday Promoters”).

Instrumental Music Center in Tucson, Ariz., held a canned food drive during Thanksgiving 2008 called Tin for Ten. If customers brought in 10 cans of food, they received 10-percent off anything in the store.

Owensboro Music in Owensboro, Ky., celebrated its 35th anniversary with an open house last year. During the event, attendees were asked to make food and money donations for the Make-A-Christmas-Wish program, a community-based organization run by the local Pioneers volunteer organization.

Nearly 300 people showed up to Watermelon Music’s Strings for Food event in November 2008. The Davis, Calif.-based retailer restrung, cleaned and tuned guitars, basses and ukuleles of customers who brought in a can of non-perishable food. MI