Tip of the day. Beware December markdowns. This last Christmas season I ran into a few retailers who were offering deep discounts on a lot of their merchandise because of inventory problems. Turns out they were holding on to too much stock and were desperate to recuperate some of their investment so they turned to markdowns. Bad idea. The typical retailer makes up to half of her sales (and most of her profits) in the period between Thanksgiving and New Year's. This is the one time of the year that you are almost guaranteed your stores will be full of customers looking to spend. This is the time for impulse buys. Save your markdowns for January, when you'll really need to get creative to get customers through the door and to the cash register. Sure, markdowns in December will move a lot of merchandise, fast. But you are killing your business. If you are offering deep discounts around Christmas time, it's time to take a hard look at your business and see if it's even worth staying in business.