I came across an invite to a Kambo's VIP sale where all electricals were priced at Cost + $1 for invite only vips who were allowed to bring a friend. It was one of their first such sales and apparently companies such as Lycopodium got invited. I can't remember where I saw the invite but it was online, not via email.Anyway, I went to have a look to see what it is like.
The parking situation was crazy when I arrived 20 minutes after the sale began (6pm). Cars were everywhere streaming in and out of the car park, searching in vain for a car park before resigning to parking on the grass or any other makeshift parking spot.
There was a free sausage sizzle which didn't last any longer than half an hour. Drinks were still available an hour later, with people helping themselves to can drinks in the fridges. It was PACKED. If you wanted to buy something, you needed to see a sales person who would enter your name and phone number into the system and then specify the price of your product. It seemed quite possible you could specify whatever price you wanted (maybe they need to check that).
Then it was on to the massive queue as people lined up to pay. Some interesting observations:
- Massive success pulling in people to see the store. Many would have been there for the first time that night.
- At the door, each person had to give in their invite, as well as tell them their postcode.. useful information to find out how far the promotion spread.
- Cost plus $1 is a great way to move your stock in one night
- Not everything was on sale so they could have made quite a lot of money on ancilliary purchases or complementary goods
- People didn't think twice, buying things that they need and much of what they want as well
- As people had to line up a long time, one effect was that people would buy more stuff to make the lining up more worth it
- For others, the long line was enough to drop your iron and leave the store, opting to pay full price than spend half an hour lining up to save $6.
- Staff took too long sorting through invoices that had been printed out, trying to find people's names from four different printers.
- More staff processing payments would have improved their total revenue for the night.
- Perhaps giving customers a number on their invoice would have sped up the sorting through paperwork.
- Many people would have signed up to be a member of Kambo's that night or when their friends told them about the sale the next day
