Rain, Rain, Go Away

  If there is one thing society can agree on, it is what we want to do when clouds roll in and rain pours out--crawl up and get cozy in bed.

   Like anyone else, I used to believe that it was me personally that felt drawn in, unmotivated, and sleepy during an overcast day, but after going to college, I realized that no one really actually feels chipper on a rainy day.  This type of weather is proven to affect mood, which is why it is normal among all.  In addition to overlooking its effect on others, I have never thought about this behavior's effect on retail.

   This weather and effect on shopping behavior really stunned me a few weeks ago during an overcast day with sporadic drizzling.  It was not a particularly awful day but it sure was not desirable.    It did not take long that day for me to draw the connection between the weather and consumers' unwillingness to leave their beds to shop.  However, in terms of how long I have been with Loft, it did take me almost 9 months to consider this.  In retrospect, I have worked slow days due to weather, especially during our atrocious winter storms, but I always just attributed that to safety being that the roads were unmanageable and sidewalks were icy.

   So a few Tuesdays back, this overcast day got me thinking and analyzing the effect of weather as a whole on shopping behavior.  I especially had time to do this since the store was absolutely vacant and I was begging the managers for any sort of tasks so I did not have to stand with no purpose for six hours.

   As I mentioned, less than desirable weather has a direct effect on behavior, influencing people to be in similarly less than desirable moods.  The same goes with beautiful weather.  When the sun is shining and the temperature is at its prime, people are typically happier, more outgoing, and more motivated.  Over my last ten months at Loft, I have seen these patterns with weather and human behavior have a direct effect on shopping behavior (despite just picking up on it).

  These patterns affect retail in multiple ways.  The most significant being that weather is unpredictable, meaning shopping behavior is also unpredictable.  During these slow days due to weather, we typically fall extremely short of our goal and our numbers overall are difficult to look at. Again, as mentioned throughout multiple posts, I love numbers and statistics, but this goes to show that these numbers are nothing without analyses.

   With all of these unpredictable forces, it is hard to really know until the day of if it is even realistic to reach or surpass our goal.  Like with anything else, Mother Nature sure has a way of putting a spin on things and surely succeeds at creating rain delays in multiple areas of life.