Friday, September 28, 2012

Gator Parties and Vanity Sizing

In the morning, getting ready for work, I listen to KWGS, the NPR radio station housed at the University of Tulsa.  I'm not the sort who wants to know the weather for the day.  I have taken care of getting that information the night before on the 10:00 p.m. news.
I do like knowing what is going on in the world.  So KWGS gives me enough of a taste of world events and Tulsa events in the 30 minutes or so I have to listen in the morning.
This week I found out on KWGS about Gator Parties and Vanity Sizing.  Who knew?
A guy down in Florida is hosting Gator Parties (for a fee) for kids' birthdays.  Can you believe it?  The idea is that kids come for a party, the owner of the alligators tapes the gators' mouths closed and kids can "play" with the alligators.  Oh my gosh!  I just don't know what to say about that, but I hope people come to their senses and go back to cake and ice cream and Pin the Tail on the Donkey!!
Now about Vanity Sizing.  This is a clever, manipulative method for making all of us, men and women, believe that we are a size 8 when we are really a size 12 or as the reporter telling the story....was he really a size 36 waist or something like a 40 waist?.
It works like this.  Clothing manufacturers have tagged clothes with smaller size tags although the piece of clothing itself is actually manufactured with larger patterns.  The news story did not say which companies are doing this and to tell you the truth, I'm not sure I want to know.  Talk about vanity!!  I have my share of it.
Being in the retail business, I am not certain whether I should praise the creativity of Gator Parties and Vanity Sizing or stand aghast at how clever entrepreneurs can pull the wool over all of us.
I just want to assure you that when you come to Sweet Tooth and you try on a Kameleon Ring or we weigh out a pound of candy, we are not "Vanity Sizing" your purchase.  And Gator Parties are not going to become the latest and greatest theme for our Candy Buffets.
I am now in the midst of researching one other news story I heard this week.  What do you know about Doc McStuffins...a "doctor" doll which talks and diagnoses your symptoms.  Where is House when we need a reality check on the world of medicine?  When is a doll just a doll?

Sunday, September 23, 2012

It's a Hard Knock Life

One of the biggest moments in retail is when an order of merchandise arrives at the store.  That moment is so full of promise, unless, as you know, we have to "break up" eventually and put the merchandise on sale.
This past week we had at least 60 or 70 boxes of merchandise arrive at the store.  That was a mountain of a project.
We had everyday candy, we had Halloween candy (from 2 distributors), we had Halloween gift items, Kelly Rae Roberts new merchandise, Halloween, everyday and Christmas Embellish Your Story and Lindsey Phillips shoes.
After getting over the quantity of arrivals, you might just want to know "What's the big deal?"
Among other things, retailers like Sweet Tooth are more than just purveyors of merchandise.
We also qualify to be Quality Control Managers.
When merchandise comes into the vendor, their staff simply logs it in and then their warehouse fulfills orders for stores like ours.  Generally speaking, no one at the vendor ever opens a box to inspect the new merchandise.
So when it arrives at Sweet Tooth, we become the people who guarantee that the merchandise is in good condition, its quality is excellent and there are no defects or damages.  We don't just slap a price on the items and put them out for sale.  We inspect each piece for any problems.  We want our merchandise to stand up to the quality which we would purchase ourselves if we were shopping in another store.
Sometimes the headache of following up with vendors who send us defective or damaged merchandise is really a pain the in the neck.  I won't even go into what amount of patience that takes to get everything straightened out.
On the other hand, being the Quality Control Manager for a candy shipment is not such a bad job..  We take our job seriously.  After all, if we don't like the candy we can't really stand behind it and sell it to customers.  So we need to taste a bit of every candy to be able to answer that age old question:  "Is this candy any good?"  Or our other favorite inquiry, "Is this candy fresh?".
There's always the customer who says, "I couldn't work in this store....I would (1) gain so much weight  (2) My whole pay check would go to buying everything in sight or (3)  How do you all stand being around all this candy?"
Now you know:  it's a Hard Knock Life having to assess the quality of gift items, jewelry and especially candy.  But we can't think of a place which is sweeter and a whole lot of fun!

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

You know, one of the most difficult things a retailer has to do is face the facts about a line of merchandise which isn't really selling or has somehow slowed to a snail's pace.
There are all sorts of retail scientific theories which tell us how long we should have a line of merchandise in our store before the axe falls.  Some say 3 months, some say differently. 
The real problem is that we get very attached to that merchandise and we just can't face the fact that our customers are (1) tired of that line  (2)  never liked it in the first place  (3)  think it is too expensive  (4)  all the above and more.
On the other hand, we are married to that merchandise line...it is so close to us, we loved it the minute we saw it in the showroom or the catalogue.  We are happy to see it in our store every day.  It appeals to our taste.  We would even consider putting in our home.
And then reality sets in and it is now up to us to decide to put the merchandise on sale.  Sometimes that is all that it takes.  25% or 50% off is just the right price for our customers.  If they have waited to see if we would bring the price down, they are now ready to snap it up for a discounted price.
If only we knew from the beginning that this merchandise we truly love isn't going to make it in the store, we could have saved ourselves the anguish of letting it go.
Occasionally we pick through the shelves and find those special little pieces that most appeal to us.  Where do they go?  Well, usually they go home to the garage, stay in their boxes for year after year until we finally face the fact that we don't even have a space for them or (ugh?) we don't really like that stuff anymore!!
So, breaking up with an inanimate object like a figurine or a piece of jewelry is just about as hard as breaking up with a person.....cuz that person we are breaking up with is our old self that bought the stuff in the first place!!

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Listen to the Retail Beat

Sometimes Jeff and I have a conversation about the music we play in the store.  Sometimes I tell him that a few of his selections are not "walkin' around, shopping music".  I think I have finally gotten through to him on this point.
Have you ever been in a store, ready to shop and all of a sudden you notice that something is missing?  And what is often missing is MUSIC.
When that happens, I begin to feel a little wierd, like the air is stale, people are watching me, I don't feel "upbeat" and I sort of want to leave the store. 
We are so accustomed to having a little white noise in our lives that when we find total silence, we just seem to be out of our element.  The same thing happens when you are in the movie theatre and all of a sudden, there is no soundtrack.  You begin to notice all the little people noises around you and it becomes very distracting.
Selecting "shopping music" is really a part of our job.  It can't be music which is too somber and slow.  It can't be music unfamiliar to most people.  It has to be music that sounds familiar, occasionally makes you want to sing along, kind of puts a skip in your walk and the world seems brighter and happier.
There is one time of the year when music becomes a little intrusive.  Holiday time, holiday music, right?  And if stores start playing holiday music before "the right time", then we notice that someone has jumped the gun on holiday music.
And there are those holiday tunes that sort of get on your nerves.  You've heard them over and over until you want to use ear plugs.  Those are the lyrics and melodies that roll around in your head even hours after you have been shopping.
Jeff has the largest collection of Christmas music I have ever seen.  He can't pass at $5.95 rack of Christmas C.Ds without stopping.  We literally have to forbid him from buying any more Christmas C.Ds.
So when you are out shopping the next time, tune into the tunes playing in the store.  Check the music against your own play list and see if that store has scored a few points with their choice of music.
At Sweet Tooth we are always trying to refine the Retail Beat!!

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

You Say It's Your Birthday

September 1, 1992:  the day we bought Sweet Tooth.  It was really my sister's idea.  We already owned laundromats and why was that?  Our dad started his own business and somehow once upon a time we thought it would be good for us to learn how to own and run a business. We are first generation Americans and America for our family was a "golden land".
After a few years of laundry, my sister thought we should buy another business....something near to where we both lived.  At the time we lived on either side of Sheridan, about 2 blocks from each other.  Sweet Tooth was in the Farm Shopping Center which was close to both of us.  The asking price was right and we simply went ahead and did it.
The owner at the time was moving to Houston.  She had taken over the store from the original owner who had put the first Sweet Tooth in the back room of Baskin Robbins.  She was a gourmet cook and the store had both candy, some greeting cards, a few gifts and a section of gourmet cookware.
We knew nothing about gourmet cooking so the next summer, during the sidewalk sale, we put all the cookware on sale and began a journey into the "Gift Industry".
You should have seen us at our first gift market that September of 1992.  We wandered around in the Dallas Trade Mart and World Trade Center without a clue as to what we should do.  Our first few years of purchasing gifts had both hits and misses.
We stayed with the candy, though, and with our first sales rep, Gary who sat with me in the tiny back room of Sweet Tooth, my chair up against the door to the bathroom and helped me order candy.  The one line of candy we have carried for 20 years was already in the store....Sweet Shop Truffles.  They remain to this day the very best chocolate for the price and our customers would pitch a fit if we decided to switch.
I really love Sweet Tooth...at this point I don't know what I would do without the store.  It gives us the opportunity to meet new people, to hire good staff who are dedicated and knowledgeable and it is an outlet for whatever small amount of creativity I have.
On Saturday, September 1 we had a number of people come in to shop who remember the 2 stores we had in The Farm.  They are all treasures to us because no matter where we are, they are still with us. 
When we had the laundries we tried to make them the sort of place we would like to come to.  And with Sweet Tooth, we have tried to create a home away from home for our customers.  In your home, aren't you always re-arranging the furniture, buying new decorations, adding good food, greeting your friends and family?  Well, that's what we do at Sweet Tooth.
You say it's your birthday....yep, our 20th and more to come!!