Hats off to Gary!!

Here's what I was doing on Tuesday.  I have been doing this same thing over 40 times in the last 20 years.
The first time I did this was in our original Sweet Tooth store right after we bought the store in September, 1992 and I have been doing the same thing 2 times a year since then.
It's no secret that I have a special relationship with our candy sales rep, Gary.  We first sat down together at Sweet Tooth #1 to order candy for Christmas, 1992.  Our back room which served as office and storage was so tiny that the back of my desk chair was up against the bathroom door.  And I worked alone for those first few months, so sitting down to order candy was a real challenge.
It used to take about 8 hours to order Halloween/Christmas or Valentine's/Easter.  We have gotten that time down to around 5 hours, 5 intense and sometimes humorous hours.
Gary brings his big catalogue binders and samples of candy.  He spreads out the samples on the counter and we tenderly hold each one, while at the same time judging whether this candy item is going to sell in the store.
We go through our last year's seasonal order, telling Gary which items sold well and which were a big mistake.  It is amazing that Gary is able to keep every comment in his head and remind me when I lose track of what happened a year ago.
We joke about some of the candy experiences we have had.  We hem and hah and occasionally Jeff and I differ in our opinions.  Just to be frank, I usually win the debate.  Or sometimes when we each have such differing opinions we joke that one of our names is going on that item and if it sells, we get the credit.  If it sits on the shelf and has to be put at 50% off after the holiday, then that person gets the ribbing and the blame.
The real trick, though, is that we have to think at least 6 months ahead.  We are just getting into the Halloween season, but we are ordering candy for Valentine's and Easter/Spring.  How do we really know what the trends and tastes will be 6 months from now?? 
For the past 20 Easter seasons we have ordered the same item every year:  I call it DUCK WITH A HAT.  It is a foil covered chocolate duck wearing a hat and it used to be the first Easter candy to sell out.  Now my favorite duck sits quietly on the shelf, not attracting much attention anymore.  It doesn't sell out, but there is a special sentiment attached to that Duck and we will keep ordering it until it is no longer made.
There is no crystal ball.  There is no survey of candy favorites.  There is no history of what sold which could guarantee us that certain candies will sell again.  We pretend that what happened last year will happen again or be even better next year.  And most of the time we get it right.  But we couldn't do any of this without Gary whose years of experience, conversations with other retailers, sales meetings in Dallas and his own "gut feeling" that really counts the most as we go through each seasonal order.
So hats off to Gary, to the real work of ordering candy, the sampling (of course!!) and to 2013 when we will find out if we were right when we sat down on October 2, 2012 to place our seasonal candy order.