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Have No Fear, Crazy Days Are Here |
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By Nina Lah
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Wednesday, 08 October 2008 |
 Cycling through Oulu this Wednesday morning, it’s difficult to miss the bright yellow bags walking around. If by any chance you haven’t heard, Crazy Days–Hullut Päivät in Finnish, or Galna Dagar (Swedish)–is Stockmann’s twice-yearly sales event. And in 2008, the store’s going all out to get your cash.
“It’s great marketing for Stockmann and people can buy things for cheap prices,” gushes Pentti Koronen, store manager. The idea for the four-day campaign was copied, he says, from a Dutch Store, Magazin du Nord. Since it arrived in Finland in 1985, Stockmann have been developing it feverously. “All the products are brought in especially, and sold cheaper while the campaign lasts.”
Before launching my own shopping trip, I ask Pentti for hot tips. What is his pick of the best offers this year? “Electronics and cheap flight offers,” he answers. If I want the flights, I’d better get up early. New flights become available daily, but the first numbers are given out at 7.30 am, and shoppers usually gather at 7.00 or earlier.
Thinking of buying some tickets myself, I decide to check out the scene in the late afternoon. But reading the information about the flights more carefully, I decide I need to buy as soon as possible. Getting on my bike I cycle like crazy, hoping my ticket is still there waiting for me. Walking inside, I get slowed down by a flood of yellow walking very slowly. It’s impossible to go as fast as I want to–need to. When I finally get to the fourth floor, my ticket reads 137. I glance at the number being served: 41.
No problem if you have the whole day to wait, but I don’t. Luckily three self-service points seem to promise quicker service. I rush up to a machine and start punching buttons in relief. But when I get to the payment part my anxieties come back. Apparently I need another number. What sort of number, I don’t know: just that I don’t have it.
With nothing to do but hope the line for the sales desks moves with lightning speed, the unthinkable actually happens and I wait less than five minutes before my number appears. Turns out a bunch of people took a number and went shopping in between, so they got skipped.
More fool them. I get my ticket to Vienna, cheaper than expected – only 261 euros from Oulu. That is crazy, I think, recounting the price of my previous trip.
 Now delirious, I wander around the store, understanding what had escaped me earlier. The slow people have already got what they wanted. I wonder what they’re actually buying. According to Mr. Koronen the highest demand is for flights and cosmetics, and the average sales growth resulting from the Crazy Days is almost 10 %.
Marianne (35) comes to look every time they have Crazy Days. This time she found cheap body lotion and some other cosmetics. Maija and Päivi, two friends (both 21), say they normally don’t like the event because the store is so crowded. “Some things are cheaper than normal but others marked with ‘Crazy Days’ have normal prices,” remarks Päivi. But they’ve both found something they like: Päivi a pack of Desperate Housewife DVDs and Maija a PC game, Civilization.
Over the next four days Stockmann will be open already from 8.00 on. You can look at their online catalogue at www.hullutpaivat.com, and check out the destination and prices of flights on www.finnair.fi (selecting English and clicking on the yellow ‘Travel the world at crazy prices’ banner) – though you can only actually buy the tickets at the department store.
All I can say is good luck.
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