Well, it is Friday morning….only one day left to prepare for our Annual Christmas Party and Sale.  Tomorrow morning at 8AM, we will have divers lined up at the door to get in and enjoy the bargains, the food, the games, and the conversations with other scuba divers.  While our annual sale is a retail event, it is increasingly taking the appearance of a social event.  Our customers look forward to having this event to reconnect with dive buddies that they haven’t seen lately.

When it comes to scuba gift giving, one item will be very popular….the Dive Sports Gift Carde.  I just finished printing the Christmas cards that will accompany our Dive Sports Gift Card sales.  It is amazing how popular gift cards have become.  Tomorrow, we expect to sell over 100 gift cards, activated for various amounts.  Gift cards are a great way to get a friend or loved one a good gift, while avoiding the risk of purchasing something they don’t need or want.  This is uniquely important in this sport of scuba diving.  Divers have brand loyalties, specific dive mission requirements, and other considerations that affect what they need and want.

A Dive Sports Gift Card allows your friend or loved one to purchase what they want, when they want it.  According to a recent post by Ellen Cannon, managing editor at bankrate.com, this very flexibility explains the popularity of retail store gift cards.

The primary driver for the growth of gift cards is that a gift card allows a recipient to choose the gift they really want.

“The desire of the gift giver is to help the recipient,” says Tim Sloane, director of the Debit Advisory Service of Mercator Advisory Group in Waltham, Mass. “They think, ‘When I give someone the gift card, I hope they’ll use it on something they really want.’ If they decide to buy something that they couldn’t have and now the gift card makes it attainable, that’s good too. As a recipient, I would remember what it was that helped me get that gift. Satisfaction with gift cards is great.”

Dan Horne, a marketing professor at Providence College and an expert on the gift card market concurs: “Consumers look at a $50 gift card and think, ‘I can get a $75 item and it only costs me $25.’ Recipients are getting cool things for a cheap price. And the giver thinks, ‘I gave you the means to buy that thing.’ The perceived value is very strong.”

Click Here for Full Text of Bankrate.com Article

We also expect big traffic on the single most popular item we offer at this annual sale…..the dive tuition gift certificates.  I blogged about this great gift at this thread earlier.  On this one day, we give our customers an opportunity to give the gift of learning to dive, or expanding dive knowledge for existing divers, at a reduced price.  Our dive tuition gift certificates allow the holder to take the dive class anytime during our 2008 dive training season.  This is the ultimate gift of flexibility.  The holder chooses when and where they choose to learn.

I will attempt to post a couple of blog threads tomorrow to let you know how things are going.  It is going to be a crazy day, but posting a couple of blog threads would give me a good excuse to take a couple of breaks.  If you are within a couple of hours of our store, drop by and visit us.  Thanks.

Phil Ellis

Give Scuba Gear for Christmas at Great Savings!