Admittedly, any vocation owes a debt to its originators, but for those who make a living off the passage of time, shouldn't particular attention be paid to history? And not just to the invention date of the calendar, but to all events critical to the industry?
There's no need to open a text book or browse Wikipedia for hours, absorbing half-facts and making your former history professors instinctively cringe. Sit back and relax for a reflective look at a few important dates in the history of calendars.
4235 B.C.
Not long after the concept of the "year" was invented, an enterprising young Egyptian decides to print calendars on papyrus and sell them for profit. His business initially struggles, only selling a handful of calendars until the Egyptian equivalent of November 1 rolls around. The sudden rush of orders becomes too overwhelming and he promptly closes his doors in frustration.
Thankfully, modern-day calendar salespeople know how to avoid the young Egyptian's plight. "All the calendar companies offer early order discounts," said Phil Martin, national sales manager for Warwick Publishing, St. Charles, Ill. "Some of them at different deadlines, but we all offer early order discounts, which are a huge advantage to both the distributor and the end-user."
John Kilday, president of Greeneville, Tennessee-based American Calendars explained the reasoning behind the discounts. "We just have tons of orders that come flooding in to us the later part of August, first part of September," he said. "Our pricing strategy is all based upon getting the orders in earlier because we're working regular hours until this time of year [about mid-May]. Then we start picking up some overtime, then we're working 60 to 80 hours overtime. Our costs just explode."
Among calendar suppliers, the various deadlines for order discounts generally fall between the first of May and early August, and also can vary substantially in structure. Therefore, distributors are encouraged to verify pricing guidelines as soon as possible. For instance, Warwick Publishing offers a flat discount, while American Calendars categorizes prices by different tiers, slowly decreasing the savings as monthly deadlines pass. However, regardless of structure, the early discounts can be quite substantial; Kilday cited American Calendar's earliest discount as 25 percent.
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