School sales are over and Halloween is still a good month away. Small businesses everywhere have flocked to the Fall Festival Sale idea. Whether the sales are actually worth getting excited about, seems less to the point than the fact that a sale is going on. Life in many ways is setting into a school year routine, and lots of people just want to spend money on what sounds like a good deal. Not a bad way to battle the September Slump – between the school year’s arrival and the holidays.

How to capitalize on bored people? The idea seems to be to make the sale itself seem as interesting as possible. Now I haven’s seen anyone go quite as crazy as That 70’s Show’s Bob Pinciotti, but gimmicks abound. A store doesn’t even have to be selling fall related items… just decorating with fall colors.

So, how to get customers to the sale? Email invitations, of course.
Just in time for fall cleaning in my inbox…. but I’ll probably check out that sale anyway – just because they sent me a coupon.