Easter is one of the more unusual annual holidays. It moves around the calendar, to the extent that no-one is ever sure when it falls from one year to the next. I also recently found out that different countries have different approaches to Easter when it comes to how much time and which days off work people have. Here in the UK, those of us who don’t work at retail have a day off on both Friday and Monday to look forward to, so the Blog is coming to you a day early this week.
This year’s Easter is an early one, which is not generally the preferred option for most toy retailers. While Easter is seen as a good opportunity to boost toy sales, that arguably tends to work better when it falls later in April, especially here in the UK, by which time the weather may be markedly different (I have a memory of visiting the seaside one Easter in my early twenties and getting badly sunburned – I doubt many will suffer that fate this year).
An early Easter also plays havoc with like-for-like sales comparisons over March and April. But it is what it is, and right now, anything that can help to provide some impetus and stimulate retail sales will be welcome. Like me, I am sure you have seen LinkedIn posts from prominent indie retailers like Dave Middleton here in the UK and Rick Derr over in the US, suggesting that footfall has been disappointing in March (I tend to hum Ghost Town in my head when I see pictures of deserted shopping centres.…). Hopefully the Easter holidays will see consumers getting back out into stores, especially if the weather is patchy (sorry seaside-based retailers, I fear you may have to wait a few more weeks for traffic to pick up).
Read the rest of the blog here.
