Making Time

Among calendar suppliers, the various deadlines for order discounts seem to fall between the first of May and early August, and can also vary substantially in structure. For instance, some suppliers like Warwick Publishing offer a flat discount, and others like American Calendars will break it up into different tiers, slowly decreasing the savings as monthly deadlines pass, so its a good idea to verify the details with a given supplier as soon as possible. Regardless of structure, the early discounts can be quite substantial; Kilday cited American Calendar’s earliest discount as 25 percent.

200 A.D.

The Romans start bulk commodity trade routes over water, not only revolutionizing the way goods are distributed, but also creating a whole industry of people who are very attentive to schedules and time’s passage. Almost 2,000 years later, the maritime freight business may be vastly more complex and competitive, but knowing the date remains just as important in that industry.

“They’re big buyers of calendars,” said Kilday. “You’ve got the ships that transport the goods across the seas, then you’ve got their freight [and] their trucking lines that are an extension of that. There’s a lot of stuff that’s imported now, and most of it’s coming by sea, then it’s being loaded by truck and taken somewhere. Those are markets that are really growing, I think.”

1595 A.D.

The first compound microscope is invented in the Netherlands, and from then on, people start realizing the value of paying more attention to smaller things. “Distributors want to get the big order, it seems,” said Martin. “[But] it’s main street America, it’s the small business who utilizes calendars in a lot of cases.” Martin listed numerous examples, including plumbers, electricians, barber shops and beauty salons. A type of small business Martin singled out for particular growth was the restaurant industry. “For us, they’ve been able to use them in a coupon-type program,” he said. “They can put right in the ad copy ‘bring your previous month’s calendar sheet and receive 10 percent off’ ... and we’ve seen kind of a growth in that.”
Kilday pointed out material distributors as another strong market for calendars. “It can be plumbing distributors, it can be any electrical distributors, it can be distributors of clock pieces or anything,” he said. “Those people are probably the best prospects.”