Here is a little different Twofer Tuesday for you – a couple of Buzzy business trends that have bounced around the 17 years that I have been behind the counter. The trends involve credit cards and beer. (I know, you were probably expecting beer to be one of the entries, but I hear you asking “Credit cards? I didn’t even know Buzzy’s took credit cards!”)
Well, we do and here is how that came to be.
When I took over in 07, I immediately noticed that most tourists and younger folks preferred to pay with a credit/debit card. In fact, many of them carried little to no cash at all. After I would inform them that we did not accept cards, they would ask where the nearest ATM was and said that they would go there and come back with cash.
Guess what? They never came back. That the nearest ATM was located in front of Ridge Market, it wasn’t hard to figure out that once they stopped in there to get cash, they then spent it there too. I used to leave their about-to-be-purchased-items on the counter awaiting them to come back. However, after awhile I simply put the items back on the shelf because I knew that they were not going to return to buy them.
I remember telling Dad at the time, “We need to get a credit card machine.” In typical Buzzy fashion he responded “No way. We aren’t paying someone else to take our money. Folks will figure it out that they need cash if they want to buy here.”
I went along with his advice for awhile. However, after the above “Where’s the nearest ATM” scenario continued to play out over and over, I went ahead and got a credit card machine. By that time, Buzzy had reached the point where he didn’t really care what I changed up doing in the Store and thus, said nothing about it.
Initially, the first couple of years, credit card sales were a very small percentage of overall sales – less than 10%. However, thru the years the percentage increased to the point where over this past Labor Day weekend I actually did more in credit card sales than in cash sales.
Whereas previously, it was mostly tourists and day trippers using cards, now several of my local Buzzy friends are regularly using credit/debit cards for their daily purchases. And yes, all of this does mean that, as Buzzy correctly noted back in 07, less is made on any given credit sale than on a cash sale. That explains why some other businesses and restaurants have recently implemented card fees. Something I have held off doing but am starting to think about. (I think I know what Buzzy would recommend doing.)
The second trend I want to discuss, has to do with Buzzy beer sales thru the years. Specifically, 10 ounce Budweiser sales. When I first took over Buzzy’s, we would order 100 cases of 10 ounce Bud and the split would be 90 Bud and 10 Bud Light. Glenn Guy once told me that of all his customers, Buzzy’s had the highest ratio of Bud to Bud Light purchases. Everywhere else in the County Glenn noted that it was the other way around with Bud Light being the most popular.
However, thru the years, the Buzzy ratio of Bud to Bud Light sales began to come way down. But as much as Bud Light gained in popularity, my regular Bud drinkers held their own. Eventually, the Buzzy split between the two was 50/50.
And then you know what happened – the Bud Light Holocaust. (How come no one has mentioned that this Loomer lady bears a close resemblance to the Bud Light trans influencer who sparked all the anti-Bud Light malarkey?)
As they did nation-wide, Bud Light sales in Buzzy’s plummeted significantly with most folks switching over to drinking Mich Ultra. It didn’t take too long before I was back to Buzzy’s original 90-10 split between Bud regular and Bud Light. Although Bud Light sales have bounced back some, that 90/10 Buzzy split still holds.
I sell Bud 10 ounce cases just a little above cost. However, anytime, someone whips out a card to pay for it, I can hear Buzzy beside me saying “Way to go dummy, you didn’t make anything on that sale.” Some things never change I guess.
I had to smile when this Kinks’ song played as I wrote that last paragraph. However, when I went looking for it on YouTube, I had forgotten that the Sopranos often used it as a background tune for conducting their business:
