sharyl55 Posted August 9, 2005 Share Posted August 9, 2005 According to the July issue of HAPPI, YC had 12% increase in wholesale operations and a 6% increase in retail sales. A few months ago there was an article that candle sales were down so maybe this is a good sign. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sockmonkey Posted August 12, 2005 Share Posted August 12, 2005 I sell Yankees in my store. Last year was the first year I carried them, and I invested around $10,000 in them. This year, my sales are very sluggish. I know most of my sales come in the fall, but what I've spent so far this year does not even come close to what I spent at the same time last year.There are sooooo many candle companies out there all competing for the same dollar. I'm not even counting flea markets and handcrafted candles. Yankee's the big daddy of them all, but with last fall's price increase, I think some people are deciding to switch to other brands. A 12% increase may sound like something good, but I wonder what kind of increase they had the year before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sockmonkey Posted August 12, 2005 Share Posted August 12, 2005 I'm so mad. I see that Penney's is selling Yankee candles. I swear, I need to dump them. How is a small gift shop supposed to sell them now? I heard that Costco sells them too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glowlite Posted August 12, 2005 Share Posted August 12, 2005 I was just in Sams club yesterday and they had a set of two jars and votives. I was shocked to see them there. My brother told me he saw some at Ccosco too a couple of months ago. :undecided Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovesoy Posted August 12, 2005 Share Posted August 12, 2005 Hmmm, perhaps Y has been knocked down a notch. Finding them at discount stores doesn't sound good to me. Maybe we shouldn't be holding them up as our model to strive for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sockmonkey Posted August 12, 2005 Share Posted August 12, 2005 I've about had it with them. I get terrible customer service from them, and with everyone selling them, there really isn't a much of a reason for me to continue to carry them. I even saw them on QVC! A customer of mine told me she couldn't buy them from me because her church group sells them for fundraisers!They are still big sellers for me, but as I said before, sales are way down this year. I wish I could decide on something else to replace them. Any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tlc26 Posted August 12, 2005 Share Posted August 12, 2005 You could always put some candles from one of us in your store ..hint hint! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sockmonkey Posted August 13, 2005 Share Posted August 13, 2005 Oh, I knew that was gonna come up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candleessence Posted August 13, 2005 Share Posted August 13, 2005 I think the "little" people are taking a much bigger chunk then they ever expected, or any other large candle co for that matter. When the big CEO's see this the first that is ALWAYS affected is the quality b/c they need to cut corners.....well good for me (one of the little guys) guess bad for everyone that depends on them for profits. One of my mom's favorite sayings "your getting too big for your britches" maybe Y should take a note from her page. :/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Candle Man Posted August 13, 2005 Share Posted August 13, 2005 Speaking of them and other name brand candles. I use to compair myself with the name brand big boys but not anymore.Here is what I doI buy candles from my area name brand, dollar store & other candles in our gift shops and florist's then I burn them. Then in my store I have a display of all of them clearly marked as the name brand, from which stores they came from how much they cost & the burn time I got out of each of them. Then I display my burned candle samples/testers next to them to show how my candles will completly burn with little to no soot & longer burn time. I'm not putting down these candles or stores I just show my customers what they get if they burn other candles verses my candles. The other candles always have some problem, very little cold or hot throw, tunnling down the middle with alot of hang-up, very sooty black jars & very poor burn times.I've even had customers bring in Home Interior candles that only burned for a few hours then they could not find the wick. They would ask if I could melt this candle down and put in a new wick. I said sure, but then show them my candles and tell them if you buy my candles you will NOT have this problem. Then they start buying from me.Like I said I don't say anything bad about my computition I just show the results and that always makes the sale & a new and lasting customer for me.Candle Man Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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