To help you understand I’ll use the Rocky Boot Brand as an example. Rocky has 3 separate boot divisions within it’s brand. They have a work, outdoor, and uniform division…all branded under the Rocky name. Now these different divisions all have a line of boots designed for different environments. If you buy the wrong boot for your working conditions then you could end up with a boot that performs poorly in your working environment.

One of the common errors customers make is buying a boot from the hunting or uniform division and using it in a work environment. Hunting boots will perform no better as a work boot than a Corvette will as a pickup truck. Try using a $60,000 Corvette as a pickup and it won’t last 6 months. Same deal with using a hunting boot as a work boot. You’ll get about 4-6 months out of them. This is were the brand gets blamed by mistake. If you mistakenly buy a work boot for use in a hunting or uniform environment the wear won’t be an issue as they will hold up. You’ll sacrifice some comfort and features though that are present in the proper boot for those uses.

So when out shopping for footwear ask a clerk what’s the best boot for you. They should ask you what you are using the boot for. If it’s for work they should ask you where you work, what your job duties are, and what a normal day is like on your job. They can then point you towards the right boot for what you are using it for. This will prevent you from buying the wrong boot for the wrong purpose.

Brian
Hanks Clothing

Even at the busy shipping season we don’t rest until the UPS truck pulls out of the lot on Dec 23rd. We can pick, pack, and place an order for shipment in 3-5 minutes if need be. No one in the industry is faster or more accurate than Hanks.  If Hanks can’t get it to you no one can!

So when you need an item and want to know when it’s going to ship and don’t want to hear in 3-5 days than Hanks can get the job done!

Brian

Reading through the endless postings on blogs and the forum on Apples own site the biggest mistake was not saying anything to their customers about the mess. People are upset about the meltdown but are livid about the lack of communication. An excerpt from a posting on the Apple forum says it best:

“Apple hyped this release up big time. And they let the majority of users down. And they remain silent? Not a single press release, blog posting, video announcement saying, “We KNOW. We KNOW. We’re sorry, we’re working on it. We promise it’ll be working as soon as we can get it to work.”

he went on to add:

“A promise they made that could be made right by a simple “sorry.”

I have to agree. I have an I Pod Touch. When the software upgrade wouldn’t go through I went to Apple’s site looking for an explanation.  Nothing..nada…zip.  On their site they are advertising the new phones and all the apps and you can buy all their computers but not one mention of the meltdown going on worldwide. Not a good PR move. If I saw a pop-up on their site that said “Click here for software upgrade information” with a small explanation of the problem I would probably turn off the computer and try again tomorrow. I’d sympathize with them instead of being annoyed.

It’s a priceless lesson for business’s and we should all take notice. Here at Hanks Clothing we make mistakes with the best of them but move fast to make them right on the few occasions they do occur. 99% of the time when people know you are working on resolving the issue and you give good communication  they are more than patient. It’s an easy fix and Apple has surprised me by dropping the ball like this. It would take less than 5 minutes to implement a statement. I think that geeky Mac guy is going to have to stop picking on the Vista man.

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Hanks Clothing is now accepting Pay Pal Express payments as an alternative payment option at checkout. I think it is going to be a popular option. It wasn’t live on the site for 5 minutes when we received our first order using Pay Pal Express as a paymet option. One more reason to shop with Hanks Clothing!

Brian

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So enjoy these warm summer days as they won’t be here for long. Jump in the pools, fire up the grills, and put on the suntan lotion. Fall will be here before you know it.

Brian

Adding to the cost increases on Footwear and Clothing are the following two factors:

• Mandated increases in workers wages and benefits are affecting the cost of goods produced in Asia.
• The weak US Dollar vs. other world currencies makes importing goods, whether components or finished products, more expensive.

Also the price on store supplies that you normally wouldn’t think about have risen drastically. Plastic bags for example that cost $35.20 per thousand in November of 2007 and are now at $98.50 per thousand. To counteract this we searched around and found bags slightly smaller than the ones were using at a cost of $36.49 per thousand.

Hanks is aggressively searching out value for our customers and everyday we continue to search for products that we think are of exceptional value. We look at price, quality, and value for the dollar all combined in our purchasing decisions.

Gas is going to go up more. I am convinced of that. Read this article here that states the good that will come from $8 a gallon gas (not that I agree totally just an interesting take). We’ll do our best here at Hanks to offer products that give you the most for your dollar.

Thanks for listening and conserve that gasoline!

Brian
Hanks Clothing