At the end of March, the money-man of the shop (the husband of one of the owners) made a decree that The Bridal Emporium would be open seven days a week during prom season. He called it "promamania." I kind of liked "promarama" better. Because it rhymed with "drama." And that's what you get when high school girls from all around central PA come to Etown to visit the store in hopes of finding that "a-ha" dress that will take the breath away from everyone who sees her on that special night. Throw in a prom mom, and it's show time.
The Bridal Emporium carries higher-end brands of prom dresses and the owners keep a log of what school the girl goes to so that the same dress will not be sold to another girl from the same school. Apparently, that would be a terrible disaster. No, the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan is a terrible disaster, you and another girl having the same dress, not so much. Nonetheless, the owners go to great lengths to insure that this horrible event does not happen.
Since the money-man announced that the store would be open every day for the month of April, I suggested that he stand outside in a bunny costume, telling people to "hop" on in to see our vast selection of prom dresses. Or he could dress up in a burlap sack waving palm branches, shouting "He may have risen, but our prices haven't!", while riding on the back of a donkey. Now that would be a crowd stopper, surely. Or, on even a grander scale, he could dress up as Rhett Butler, from "Gone with the Wind", and say to people on the street, "Now, I do declare, our dresses are mighty fine, mighty fine...why don't you waltz right in and take a gander at our grand attire." I told him that if people said no or ignored him, then he could just say "frankly, my dear, I don't give a ****."
Needless to say, our dogmatic money-guy was not impressed with my suggestions. We stuck with a sales promotion of 15% off. Being open on Sunday has been good for prom season. Actually, I must say that most of the clients have been good to work with; no real problems. Until the mother sees the price of the dress...let's use the term "sticker shock." Here, the girl is in love with the dress, it fits almost perfectly, and then the mother almost has a coronary when she sees the price tag. It's usually at this moment when I walk away.
I tell you something though, I know about the horror of seeing the price on the tag. I had to look at it after sucking up the hem of a brand new white chiffon gown while vacuuming one evening. You know that dreaded squeal of the vacuum when something gets wrapped around the bristled tubing and the motor stops. Yep, that's what happened. The owner yelled over to see if everything was ok, and I yelled back "yeah, it's all good, it's not like I just sucked up the hem of a prom gown, or anything." Well ok, so I left out the details about the hem and the vacuum. I did manage to free the hem and was completely dumbfounded to see that the fabric was not damaged. Just a little wrinkled, but no black marks or tears or rips. Oh, thank you sweet Jesus. I said it again when I saw that the dress cost $522. I think I said something more to the effect of "shut the front door!"
Prom season is almost coming to an end. The girls who come in now are ither desperate or picky. We like that because time's a tickin' and they're usually not concerned about the price at this point in the game. We still have a great selection of dresses left and the owners want them gone. Maybe if they try some of my marketing suggestions, they just may reach that goal.
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