We here at CampLeadership.org are not a fan of early bird discounts. Dave and I have talked a length about this topic, and have written about it in the past. We understand why camps do them, but we just don’t like them.
But then again, millions of people woke up at 4 am on the Friday after Thanksgiving to get one-time special deals on thousands of sales — everything from $180 computers to $1 DVDs. Personally, I think those people are crazy. I don’t think they are crazy because they are willing to stay up so late, or wake up so early. I think they are crazy because they believe they are getting a good deal on something. Why are you willing to pay $180 for a computer that is normally sold for $800? Don’t you realize that the computer is only worth $180 and the company is taking advantage of this ignorance? More importantly, who will now pay $800 with the knowledge that someone now owns it for $180?
I accidentally ran into this situation this past Black Friday. My niece was being baptized the Sunday after Thanksgiving. I was asked to be the Godfather. I wanted to get her something special, and I finally settled on buying a nice necklace with a gold cross. Something she could wear on special occasions when she was still a young girl, but something she might wear all the time when she was older. I went looking for this necklace on Wednesday night, the day before Thanksgiving.
After looking in a dozen jewelry stores, I found a really nice necklace at a Belk Department store — the Macy’s of the South. The salesperson took the necklace out of the case and told me the price. Perfect! I found it. I got my wallet out and then she said this, “If you come back on Friday morning, this necklace is 60-percent off. But, the sale is only from 4 am until 1 pm on Friday.”
I had my credit card ready, but then she told me I could get it cheaper if I waited two days. I looked at my schedule, and I had something at 10 am on Friday, but I could head back to Belk beforehand and save a lot of money. I told her I’d be back on Friday.
Friday morning came, and I woke up early to head to Belk. I then remembered there was a closer location to where my 10 am appointment was. Since they are all the same, I went to that location instead. To my surprise, this Belk did not have the necklace I wanted. They actually didn’t have any cross necklaces. Apparently I was looking at the Belk Signature Collection, which is only in a handful of stores. The salesperson failed to tell me that.
I headed to my appointment, which ended at about 1 pm. I was too late to get to the sale. Now that the necklace was back to full price, I no longer wanted it. I couldn’t imagine paying full price for it now that I knew how cheap I almost had it for. Two days before I had my credit card in my hand, but now I no longer am willing to pay full price. The salesperson made a huge mistake. Not only did they not get 100-percent of my money on Wednesday, they didn’t get 40-percent of my money on Friday morning, and they now get 0-percent of my money on Friday afternoon. Big mistake Belk.
I wonder how many times this has happened to camps with early bird discounts? I wonder how many times someone has planned to sign his or her child up for camp in December in order to save some money, and then forgot to actually sign the child up for camp in December? I wonder if anyone had ever decided to sign up for a different camp in January because they were too late getting a deal on the camp they actually wanted to sign up for, but were too proud to now pay full price? There’s really no way to tell.
I understand why we do early bird discounts, I truly do. But, if we stop to think about all those people not willing to stand in line at 4 am to get a great deal, we may be losing out on those who are willing to pay 100-percent because they got to sleep in.
6 Comments
9:46 pm
Curt "Moose" Jackson
Hey Mike, I have to disagree with you. I think it was a nice thing for that salesperson to tell you about the sale. She could have screwed you and taken 100% without saying a word. Wouldn’t you have been more upset if you found out later that you could have gotten the necklace, that you paid full price for, at a discount, but were never told about the sale? That would not have been good customer service.
How about this one, just because ACA has early bird discounts that I decide not to take advantage of doesn’t mean I won’t be going to their conference because I have to pay more. I don’t see the conference as not being worth the full price anymore.
I think that many parents who like a specific camp will pay the full price even if they knew there was a discount months prior. Their kids are worth it. Just like your niece is still worth that necklace, on sale or not. By the way, what did you end up getting her?
3:10 pm
Mike
Curt, I see you’re point, and I completely understand that many people love early bird discounts and getting a great deal. I, on the other hand, am part of a different group of people who think discounted items are only discounted because it means they are only worth the discounted price.
I hate using coupons, and I don’t like sales. And the point of this post was to illustrate that there are indeed people like me at there. We only hear about the ones who camped out all night at a Target to be the first one to buy a cheap TV at 4 a.m. because the media loves this story. They never talk about those of us who slept in and paid more on December 20th.
Maybe the focus of my next post will be on what type of incentives we can give to parents who register early that are not financially related.
Oh, and I bought her a similar — but nicer in my opinion — necklace from Helzberg Diamonds, for the same price as I would have gotten the other at 60-percent off without a sale.
11:55 pm
Curt "Moose" Jackson
Thanks for the reply, Mike. Personally, I love sales and see it as the stores trying to get me in and purchase other, regularly priced, items as well (loss-leader items).
I think a post on incentives would be great. And I’m glad you found an even better necklace for your niece, which was a great idea for a baptism gift, by the way.
2:10 am
George DeTellis
Wrong. I totally disagree with your post about discounts. You story does not correlate with early bird discounts at camp. You give no statistical facts relative to revenue or camp attendance. Early bird discounts are for parents who pay in full for camp, months before the first day of camp. Sometimes they pay thousands of dollars in advance to earn the early bird discount. The reason why camps should do early bird discounts: 1. Because we want parents to complete the paperwork in the winter and early spring when our workload is slow compared to 16 hour days in June. 2. The earlier we start filling up camp and selling out weeks the less money we have to spend on last minute marketing. In conclusion, why should a mother charge $3000 on her credit card in March when she can wait until June? Answer: To save $200.
10:53 am
Mike
I think we actually agree George, we just have a different “means to an end.” We want people to sign up early, but we want parents to do so because the camp is AMAZING, not because they get a discount. Any incentive to get campers registered early is good, but don’t do it just to fill up your camp. Your camp should be full because it’s a great camp, not because it’s a great deal.
10:37 pm
Evan K. Summers
I’m 4 months late to this thread but my question is this:
Which will be the first summer camp to offer a Groupon, Daily Deal, Living Social Deal on their program?
I work with a ton of retailers (majority restaurants) that have been burnt by the lure of easy customers. My crystal ball prediction is this: There will be summer camps that try to capitalize on the mass market coupons out there only to get burnt bad.