DECEMBER

2 Cider Monday! We like this date: It’s an invitation to shoppers to visit a real store and touch real products and be greeted with a warm cup of cider. First observed by Toadstool Bookshop in New Hampshire, it offers a delightful twist on Cyber Monday, which kicks off the online shopping season today.

JANUARY

1 Too many people think of new year’s resolutions as if they were prohibitions. In 2020, forget the things you want to stop doing and fill your list with goals that excite you. Learn to speak Spanish. Fully utilize your POS system. Don’t worry about how you’re going to achieve these goals. You’ll find a way.

2 National Mutt Day, also known as National Mixed Breed Dog Day, is designed to raise awareness about the great majority of dogs — those of uncertain origins. Ask your customers to share how they will be celebrating National Mutt Day with their beloved pooches.

11 Two weeks to go until Christmas. Time to hang those stockings. This year, take inspiration from Just For Paws’ “Stocking Stuffer Extravaganza.” The grooming salon based in St. Charles, IL, hands out Christmas stockings to customers and gives them 15 percent off anything they can stuff in the big sock. It’s a great way to leverage the festive-season shopping mood to move a lot of goods at a marginal discount.

22 What does Old Man Winter have up his sleeve this year? Tempt your customers to make a bet with your own snow promotion — a percentage point discount for every inch that falls in the week before Christmas.

31 Farewell, 2019. NEW YEAR’S EVE means “Auld Lang Syne,” well-deserved toasts to your hard work and success this year … and resolutions for 2020. Think big (Best Year evah!) and think small (eat more fish oil, floss daily, join the PETS+ Brain Squad). It’s going to be a terrific year.

6 Wheel of Fortune, which premiered on this day in 1975, is a format Americans never seem to tire of. That’s also the experience of Wags to Whiskers in Plainfield, IL, which rolls out its own Wheel of Fun every year. “Clients get to spin a wheel for fantastic discount and free product opportunities,” explains owner Janelle Pitula. Do your own “spin” on the concept to mark Wheel’s 45th birthday.

16 National Weight Loss Day is held on Jan. 16 to mark the date most people start giving up on their new year’s slimming resolution. Of course, humans aren’t the only ones with weight issues. A whopping 59 percent of cats and 54 percent of dogs in the U.S. are classified as overweight or obese. With your nutritious pet food offerings and knowledge, you’re ideally placed to help fight this epidemic. A few years back, Wags to Whiskers (see Jan. 6) introduced its Hounds Losing Pounds club to help dogs lose weight. What can you do?

21 It’s NATIONAL HUGGING DAY, and you’re encouraged to hug anyone who will accept one. If you’d rather not come in physical contact with most of your customers, temp staff or your vendors’ sales reps, think of “hugs” the way retailing legend Jack Mitchell did: as personal touches that impress your customers and business partners. Go on, squeeze!