Cheap shopping to attract Nelson students (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Can Afford to give discounts to Students but only by Overcharging everybody else.

This is worth a try, but the equation is complicated.

Participating retailers must be relieved that there is no direct additional costs to them since the discount is activated on production of the student identity card.

Currently there will be existing college students that frequent shops in the town and make purchases, and this group will now receive a discount. This amounts to a direct reduction in income to the retailer.

I imagine that the calculation - or more likely hope - is that the offering of discount will attract other students that currently do not make purchases in the town to do so. This will provide additional income to the retailer, albeit on reduced margin.

Unless the latter group outweigh the former group then the scheme may increase footfall and turnover, but do little for margins.

However, if the extra purchases made in Nelson are merely things that would have been purchased in shops elsewhere in the Borough, or in the collge, then the effect in aggregate is merely to transfer the place of purchase so that retailers outside Nelson, in Colne and Brierfield for example, suffer a reduction in turnover.

This is an interesting experiment. Let's see how it goes.

Students, in my experience, are people who live in towns in order to get an education and then when they are qualified they move to where the jobs in their chosen field are located. This is not a bad thing and students do have a more difficult time of it it now, than when the policy makers of today received the free university education that is now denied to today's young people. However, would it not be a more magnanimous gesture if the retailers dropped all their prices for all sections of society? I may be naive, but surely such gestures would encourage spending and therefore help kick-start the economy.

On a personal note; back in 1984 a local baker offered a student discount to those enrolled at Southampton University, (a nice gesture). However, the residents of the Swaythling, (the district of the city where the University is situated), boycotted the shop. Bearing in mind that this was a period of mass unemployment the baker rethought his promotion and both students and residents benefited from his re-examination of the situation. Perhaps if really had a "Big Society" mentality, (not Cameron's con), things may change . However, I really do believe that Britain is now a spent force and if we really do want to survive we should stop pretending we are a world super-power.

Kevin, Colne wrote:
This is worth a try, but the equation is complicated. Participating retailers must be relieved that there is no direct additional costs to them since the discount is activated on production of the student identity card. Currently there will be existing college students that frequent shops in the town and make purchases, and this group will now receive a discount. This amounts to a direct reduction in income to the retailer. I imagine that the calculation - or more likely hope - is that the offering of discount will attract other students that currently do not make purchases in the town to do so. This will provide additional income to the retailer, albeit on reduced margin. Unless the latter group outweigh the former group then the scheme may increase footfall and turnover, but do little for margins. However, if the extra purchases made in Nelson are merely things that would have been purchased in shops elsewhere in the Borough, or in the collge, then the effect in aggregate is merely to transfer the place of purchase so that retailers outside Nelson, in Colne and Brierfield for example, suffer a reduction in turnover. This is an interesting experiment. Let's see how it goes.

Surely if there is enough margin to offer students a discount, would they not be better offering a discount (if slightly smaller) to ALL shoppers and therefore encouraging everyone to shop????? or am i being logical? Vote Hectic Big Boy next elections, i will try without taking the bungs etc

It doesn't make sense to offer students a discount card to shop in places that they do not want to go to.

We're not going to get 2000 college students into Nelson town centre, because they can get a 10% reduction at Wilkinsons!

'young students' - odd expression

HecticBigBoy wrote:

Kevin, Colne wrote:
This is worth a try, but the equation is complicated. Participating retailers must be relieved that there is no direct additional costs to them since the discount is activated on production of the student identity card. Currently there will be existing college students that frequent shops in the town and make purchases, and this group will now receive a discount. This amounts to a direct reduction in income to the retailer. I imagine that the calculation - or more likely hope - is that the offering of discount will attract other students that currently do not make purchases in the town to do so. This will provide additional income to the retailer, albeit on reduced margin. Unless the latter group outweigh the former group then the scheme may increase footfall and turnover, but do little for margins. However, if the extra purchases made in Nelson are merely things that would have been purchased in shops elsewhere in the Borough, or in the collge, then the effect in aggregate is merely to transfer the place of purchase so that retailers outside Nelson, in Colne and Brierfield for example, suffer a reduction in turnover. This is an interesting experiment. Let's see how it goes.

Surely if there is enough margin to offer students a discount, would they not be better offering a discount (if slightly smaller) to ALL shoppers and therefore encouraging everyone to shop????? or am i being logical? Vote Hectic Big Boy next elections, i will try without taking the bungs etc

I suspect that margins are already being compressed and that the offering of discount to a group that currently may not undertake much shopping in the town offers the possibility of additional revenue without significant adverse impact. I imagine that the marketing impact of offering a 10% discount to a segment of your clientele or potential clientele is greater by far than a 2% discount to everyone. Discounts have to be substantial, otherwise they don’t work.

To be quite honest, the team running the Portas Pilot has a big job on their hands and if the experience now emerging from Margate is anything to go by then things could get very difficult.

Retailers are now fighting for slices of a pie that is no longer growing. This is a real game changer, in my view. Last week Wm. Morrison reported results and the CEO painted a picture of tough times as far as the eye could see.

The Big Secret is that policy-makers have absolutely no clue what to do. They’ve tried everything and still the place is moribund.

The Portas Pilot is the last role of the dice. Here’s hoping that it works.

The problem with Nelson is that no-one wants to shop there. What;s the point of encouraging the students when its the families & workers who are the main target customers. Totally pointless