It's 4:55 p.m. on December 24!!

It is 4:55 p.m. on December 24 and we are about to close the doors on the Christmas/Holiday season.
This year was both different and the same.
We began on Thanksgiving with the joint celebration of Thanksgivukkah...the coincidence of the first day of Chanukah occurring on Thanksgiving Day. We celebrated (and so did some of our customers) with delicious cookies from Cookiedoodle.  Two designs:  a Turkey Menorah and a Dreidle with a Turkey and the greeting:  Gobble Tov ("Tov" means good).
Because Thanksgiving occurred on the last Thursday of November (or correctly on the 4th Thursday of November) we had a great rush of 3-1/2 weeks until Christmas.  Time went by so quickly that we are just now catching our breath.
As usual, we saw many of our customers who visit us once a year, at Christmas time.  When they volunteer that information, I signal that I have been struck in the heart by that news and tell them to try harder next year to visit us at least 2 times in 2014!
Significantly as far as I know, we didn't have any customers who told us that they were shopping at Sweet Tooth because what they ordered online didn't come in, or came in and wasn't what they wanted.  I am taking this as a sign that more Tulsans are seriously shopping locally!!
We have a jovial time at the store...laughing and joking about the fun or unusual things that happen.  We rarely have grumpy customers and if we do, we work really hard to cheer that person up.
No bounced checks so far!!  If it is going to happen, it would happen now.  Let's cross our fingers on that one.
At Christmas people really love to combine a candy gift with whatever else they have purchased.  We see lots of fun stocking stuffer ideas and we are occasionally asked to help create something special.  We love doing that!
A few local celebrities have shopped at Sweet Tooth.  I won't divulge their names but we did have a couple of Tulsa mayors (hey Dewey, we didn't see you!) and some very talented musical folks. 
We are taking 2 days off.  Our After Christmas Sale begins on Friday December 27th and in January we will be off to the Gift Market.  More on that later.  In the meantime, Happy New Year from all of us to all of you.

Sweet Tooth: A Happy Place

In the midst of all the flurry which is what our store is all about at this time of the year, I realize how much I really like people!!
Most every person who comes into Sweet Tooth is looking for something special and different for their loved one or their friends.  They make such an effort to pick just the right candy or gift....they are pleased with their choices, they love getting a complimentary gift bag and they thank us over and over for what we do.
And what we do is simply what we do all the time.  It is called "doing our best".
If I every retire from Sweet Tooth I will truly miss our customers more than anything else.
Today we had a customer who brought in a glass boot.  She wanted to give the boot to her son-in-law, filled with layers of Jelly Bellys.  She was a tiny bit apologetic, asking me for the extra time it would take to get the jars of Jelly Bellys, measure out each one, carefully put them in the glass boot and then figure out a way to make sure the Jelly Bellys don't blend with each other.
As for me, I thought it was a clever idea, something fun, something that she put a lot of thought into and I really enjoyed helping her. 
In the past 20 Christmas seasons we have been asked to do all sorts of different presentations of gifts and candy.  And it is generally one of the most fun activities we have all year long.
So, hats off to Sweet Tooth customers, for their caring, for their clever ideas, for their gratitude and for being joyful people.
If you have been seeing our ads in Tulsa People and in Intermission magazine, you will know that we are thinking of Sweet Tooth as a "Happy Place".  Now you know why. 
P.S.  We have some bragging rights!  Gift Beat magazine's December issue has featured our "Happy Place" ads in their issue.  We've gone national...how fun is that?

Shopping Small

Shop Small Business Saturday, November 30 appeared to be a success story for American Express, its sponsor and many small businesses across the country.
According to a poll of shoppers, consumer awareness of Shop Small Business Saturday was up to 71% from 2012's 67%.  At Sweet Tooth we had a number of people tell us that they came into our store to shop on that day because they wanted to support small businesses like ours.
Those comments really made our day!  We gave away all the free tote bags which American Express sent us and could have used more.  And guess what?  Not all the shoppers used an American Express card.
Today on KWGS radio I listened to part of a discussion about pop up ads, banners and other advertisements on the internet.  What I heard was that people were paying less and less attention to those ads.  Occasionally I find those ads annoying...they pop up right in a middle of something I am researching and I can't find the button fast enough to get rid of them.
What does all this mean for small business in America?  One customer told me she was surprised to find out that small businesses generate the majority of consumer purchases in the U.S.  Talk about being sheltered!!  Until that moment when the customer said that to me, I had been thinking it obvious that all us "moms and pops" were the basis of consumer sales and that everyone knew that.
We've got to start all over again making people aware of how important shopping locally, shopping in individual stores, etc is to our general economy.  Think of the loss to Tulsa of Steve's Sundries store when it closes at the end of December. 
Going into a store like Steve's Sundries or Sweet Tooth where staff know your name, where they provide real customer service may still be of value to Americans.  That would certainly make our 21 years well worth all the time and effort we have given to Sweet Tooth.  Thanks, folks!! 
PS:  21 more days until Christmas.  If you are shopping for Christmas, remember to please SHOP SMALL.

Who IS Doctor Who?

This year's biggest hit is Doctor Who mugs, ornaments and scarves.
Who IS Doctor Who?
Thank goodness Sabrina clued me in on this whole thing, since I have attempted to watch one episode a few months ago and was totally lost.
All I know at this point is that the final actor is playing the final Doctor Who and those who are big fans are following every little thing which happens.  There were some marathon t.v. shows this past week on BBC television and since we don't get that channel, I couldn't take a look to see if I could figure out Doctor Who is.
My friend's son is a big fan and when we went to the June Market, she told me that her son wanted me to look around for Doctor Who items. 
As we were walking around at the Market, I did attempt to find any Doctor Who items, but it wasn't until I got back home and was checking out a catalogue from a large Christmas ornament company, that I saw "the light":  the Doctor Who Tardis and Dalek ornaments from this company were numbers 1 and 2 most popular ornaments being ordered for this Christmas.
As a contrast, I asked my sales rep from this Christmas company about Downton Abbey ornaments....me being a big fan of that series.  I was told that us mid-Westerners were not big Downton Abby followers....in our neck of the woods Doctor Who is out numbering Downton Abbey.
What I did, of course, was put in a substantial order for Doctor Who mugs and ornaments.  My mom didn't raise a fool....as someone says....and I didn't order Downton Abbey anything.
But next year...watch out!!  It could be the year of D.A. and I, for one, will NOT be asking Who is Downton Abbey?
Can't wait until January for that series to return!!  30 days until Christmas.

Are We Going To Be Black Or Red?

34 days and counting until Christmas.  And only 9 more days to purchase your Advent Calendar if you are a follower of that tradition and don't want to gobble down 5 pieces of chocolate because you started your Advent Calendar on December 5.  Of course there are those people who would adore gobbling down a bunch of chocolate!!
We are winding down from our Obsidian Trunk Show and our 2 day Holiday Party.  And at the same time, we are gearing up for holiday gift baskets and other gifting ideas which our customers bring to us.
The days actually go by so quickly that we hardly realize how time slips by when you are busy and thinking about a dozen things at a time.
In the middle of the night I am liable to wake up and remember something I need to do, or a person I need to call, or an email which didn't get sent.  If there is no piece of paper on my night table, I repeat over and over to myself what I need to remember.  Do I always remember it in the morning?  Who are we kidding?
Somehow though one of our staff reminds me of what needs to get done.  What would I do without the constant interchanges with our staff?  I have found that delegating is the very best way to assure myself that everything will get done and will look perfectly wonderful.
Guess what?  We are also receiving phone calls from sales reps whose holiday selling is done and they are ready to sit down and look at Valentine's Day or Easter or just the new collections of gifts or candy which are coming out the minute we hit January 1.
Some of the clever sales reps, realizing that there is no time in December for retailers to think ahead to the spring, take their vacations, their cruises or simply their time off during December.  
You might wonder about personal time?  There isn't a lot of that to be had at this time of the year.  You  know, that is a good thing....it means that our end of the year will be black and not red!.

Have You Heard About Thanksgivukkah??

This year the first day of Chanukah and Thanksgiving are on the same day ...November 28.  This coincidence will not occur again for 70,000 years.  Wow!
Since the date of Chanukah is based on the Jewish calendar, a lunisolar calendar, the days of Chanukah seem to jump around every year.  Yet Chanukah is always on the same lunisolar calendar date each and every year.
Because of the coincidence of these 2 holidays some vendors are having a wonderful time thinking of how to combine the symbols of each holiday into one symbol.
What we have is a new name for this occasion:  Thanksgivukkah.  There will be lots of turkeys on spinning dreidles, new holiday greetings like Gobble Tov (which means Good Gobble) and a semi-feeble attempt to mix turkey and dressing with potato latkes and sour cream.
I just point this out not only for your edification but just to let you know that retailers are hustling to figure out what to do about all of this.  This is exactly what retail is always doing.  I think these 2 holidays coming together has caught many retailers off guard.
In addition, we are now at 43 days until Christmas.
Sweet Tooth will be attempting to provide some fun goodies for all 3 holidays.  Check out our Facebook page or come into the store and see what's cooking!!

49 Days Until Christmas

Here's what I am thinking about.  49 days until Christmas.  49 days to get everything done that a retailer wants to get done during the 4th quarter.
Why, you ask?  Because the 4th quarter in retail either makes or breaks the year. So much of what happens in the next 49 days is due to the consumer's interest in what we have, to the choices we make for publicity and marketing, to the possibility that we are missing some critical trendy item, to the overall confidence in the economy......in other words, it is a partnership between the retailer, the consumer and the economy.
If I had to pick out the "trendy item" I would point to the Dr. Who ornaments, mugs, watches and scarves we have this year.  And I really know nothing much about Dr. Who except what my daughter tells me.
If I had to pick out the best marketing and publicity for the store, I'd have to say the great relationship we have with the people at Tulsa People magazine.  Our latest "My Happy Place" ads which have featured Connie Cronley, Eric Himan, Teresa Miller, and for our December pin up, Karl Krause as Scrooge have really taken off.  The staff at Tulsa People have given us such great feedback and turned our ads into glorious color and fun.
Picking out what the consumer's interest will be is a lot harder.  Each year we have some definite repeats, particularly in the Candy Section of the store.  But if a manufacturer decides not to produce last year's best seller, we are really out on a limb about that.  What sells big in our store may not be the best seller nationally.  And just to let you know, sometimes the candy biz has trouble recruiting candy makers.  Candy manufacturing, although industrialized, is still a hands on business and less people these days are into being craft people.  As we always tell our customers, seasonal candy and gifts are just that:  SEASONAL and no one down the line in the retail business wants to be left with seasonal stuff.
As for the economy, it is locally an election year and believe me, that effects people's buying patterns.  In addition, what is going on nationally eventually finds its way to Tulsa.
Stay tuned for the On The Spot Reporter...ME...to find out what happens during the next 49 days.

5,000: a magical number

What is the magic number of readers of a blog?  According to the stats on this blog, we have passed 5,000 page views.
For me, that is pretty exciting.  There must be some people who write blogs who feel like I do.....is what we have to say worth someone's time to read the blog?
Now please be careful if you want to reply to that question.  Be gentle and realize that writing this blog must be like news anchors who sit facing a camera and never see an audience.  That is kind of a weird feeling.
Years ago I was part of a small panel being filmed for a television program.  The interviewer was there and I think 3 of us were set to talk about theatre in San Diego.
Somewhere in the middle of the program, with absolutely no audience in the room with us, I had a brief moment of panic and seemed to be transported out of my body.  I began watching myself and my fellow panelists....it felt like the Twilight Zone.
When I sit down to write this little blog, I attempt to imagine that I am talking to a friend, someone who is truly interested in what I have to say about our store, our merchandise, our choices, etc.  I've yet to give a name to that imaginary friend, but I feel that he or she has sensitive eyes and a look of concentration.
Because I love musical theatre, all of a sudden I am thinking about the central question in the musical RENT. "How do you measure a year in the life...........How about love?"
I have learned to love writing this little blog and it is my hope that those who read it find something of interest, something which increases the information they have about what it is like to be a small retailer in 2013.
How do I measure that?  Not only by numbers, but by what effort I put into the doing of it.

Go Fly a Kite!!

The visit of author Kaled Hosseini sponsored by the Oklahoma Poets and Writers headed up by Teresa Miller inspired a bit of creativity at Sweet Tooth.
I suggested that everyone who works at Sweet Tooth take a kite which we purchased and decorate it.  We planned on hanging our kites up by the door....oh, I don't know......just for the fun of it.
In years past we have dreamed up some similiar projects, which have had absolutely nothing to do with what we sell here at Sweet Tooth.  One year we took brooms and created "people" out of them. Then we put them in the front window to greet our customers.
The kite decorating proved to be a challenge.  Jeff's kite, in particular, with its Superman theme and at least 1.15 pounds of candy glued to the Superman emblem was the most messy and the most time consuming project!.  Sarah's kite proves that left over cupcake cups can be turned into objects of beauty and art. 
Doris' love of owls inspired her to make her own owls out of felt and someone out there in Facebook land asked if she could buy Doris' kite!
Jesse and Janet journeyed down the Road of Bling.....both of them distracted by shiny objects.
Alyssa had been wanting to take multi-colored cord and turn her kite into a tribute to LOVE....
And guess who discovered that she has crafting abilities?? Lisa, whose kite is a souvenir from her recent trip to Northern California.  And just to prove Lisa down deep was ready to decorate a kite, Lisa had saved all sorts of tickets, maps, a cup, and more from her trip.  Better than a scrapbook page.
Any day now we are expecting Sabrina to turn up with a Girl Scout kite....or maybe one illustrating musical theatre.
Each time a kite appeared at the store the staff oohed and awed over each other's work.  We laughed, we questioned, we smiled really big smiles and after all was done, the kite decorating project which seemed so difficult at first turned out to provide moments of fun and comradery.
Flying Kites at Sweet Tooth ...  I said it had nothing to do with what we sell at the store, but it had everything to do with our being a TEAM and really liking each other.  I think that translates into a store which is most often a great place to spend some time.

Trunk Shows Are Not For Elephants

Trunk Shows are growing in popularity.  In the Tulsa World today I saw several local stores having shows of jewelry and apparel.  Other retailers were supporting Breast Cancer Month.  And towards the end of October the Care Card will return to Tulsa.
Our experience with Trunk Shows has generally been a good one and we are enthusiastic about sponsoring them at Sweet Tooth.
Many have the same policies.  Order a minimum of merchandise (most often it is several thousand dollars), advertise like crazy (sometimes the company will help with funds for that), keep track of your sales, sign people up to win prizes sometimes offered by the company, sometimes subvented by our own funds.
Cross fingers and hope that you get a large group of people who not only attend, but make purchases.
From the consumers' point of view, the Trunk Show is a win-win.  The store brings in merchandise which isn't always carried on an everyday basis.  This way the consumer can check out the particular piece, handle it, compare it to other pieces and decide to buy or not to buy.
Why order online when you can pick the pieces you can see and handle?  Sometimes ordering online is a catch-as-catch-can experience.  And what if the item you ordered doesn't meet your expectations?  You have to return it, wait for a refund, etc.
In addition, consumers are rewarded most of the time for attending the Trunk Show:  gifts with purchase or an opportunity to sign up for a drawing of free merchandise, occasionally discounts.  When purchasing, stores usually gift wrap or provide a nice bag or box for the item.
Many times consumers get to meet with the Sales Representative from the company.  They can ask questions, get insider information and really walk away feeling that they know more about the product and the store and the manufacturer really does care about their customers.
So....we are off and running, planning at least 3 jewelry Trunk Shows from now til December, as well as a Holiday Party and perhaps some last minute promotions.
Buyer Beware:  Seasonal candy, Seasonal Gift Items are exactly that.....they are SEASONAL and most of the time cannot be re-ordered.  So if you pass on the opportunity to purchase early, there may be no coming back closer to the holiday date and finding the choice of exactly what you want.

Remember Those Beanie Baby Days?

We have been owners of Sweet Tooth for over 20 years.  During that time we have seen fads and trends come and go.
One of the biggest and most exciting products available during this time was BEANIE BABIES.
I have no doubt that most of you remember those Beanie Baby years.  Remember the mad rush to get the latest Beanie Baby?  Remember people fighting over certain Beanie Babies in stores and even at Woodland Hills there were times when stores selling Beanie Babies had to shut their doors and just let a few people in a a time?
I remember telling the florist in The Farm that she had one of the greatest selling items in her front window and she didn't even know it.  As a florist she would purchase inexpensive plush to attach to a floral display.  Beanie Babies in those days were wholesale priced at $2.50.  That's why it was incredible when people would pay $150.00 for a Beanie Baby and remark that some day they would go on Ebay and finance their children's education by selling off their plush collection.
Ah, if only retailers could experience more exciting times like those.
Well today I received an email newsletter and the top story was about Ty Warner, the CEO of Ty, Inc. designer and distributor of Beanie Babies.
Currently Mr. Warner has been found guilty of federal tax evasion, to the tune of $53.6 million .  It seems Mr. Warner had secret off-shore accounts for which he did not report income and now owes a bundle of back taxes on those accounts. 
In fact, this has been going on since 1996 and those found guilty of federal tax evasion usually go to prison for a 5 year term and owe a fine of $250,000.00. 
Wow!  This is certainly one of the biggest, most explosive stories in retail history.
And in case you weren't aware of it, Beanie Babies are still around and you can find them in some local stores.  We occasionally get a question about whether we are carrying them.  Truthfully, I am glad we got out of that line. 
I can't help but wonder what Mr. Warner will do if he ends up in prison.  Maybe bring along a few special Beanie Babies to keep him company??

Event Planning: Just Another Day at Sweet Tooth

For a few weeks now we have been planning an event in our store.  The event is centered on the release of a new Mary Engelbreit sponsored cookbook:  120 Fantastic Desserts and will take place on Saturday, September 21.   3 Tulsa cooks have recipes in the book and Oklahoma is well represented with people whose recipes are published.
A few years ago Mary Engelbreit sponsored another cookbook and 2 Tulsans were featured then.  We had a tasting of their recipes and a cookbook signing event in the store.  It was a lot of fun and well worth the effort to show off some of the special people who live in our city.
Event planning is just one other aspect of retail merchandising.  More and more, events in stores are becoming the norm and a way to introduce potential customers to what a store has to offer.
It takes a lot of time and effort, though, and we never know what the outcome will be.
This time we sent out press releases about the cookbook and the event.  Both KOTV and KTUL responded as did Scott Cherry and Jason Ashley Wright from the Tulsa World and Judy Allen from Tulsa People magazine.  Wow!! we were totally excited about the enthusiasm they all showed for our event and for the 3 Tulsa cooks.
So Jeff went on KOTV morning program with Anna Marie Penix, one of the cooks, to talk about her recipe and our event.  To prepare I baked her carrot cake and Amy Dodson brought us a plate of her Pinwheel Cookies. 
Lee Ann Taylor at KOTV was a wonderful interviewer, asked all the right questions, gave all the right information and even ate a piece of the carrot cake during the break!  I imagine the Pinwheel Cookies and the carrot cake didn't last too long after the show was over.
What did I have to do with all of this?  Well, I am now becoming an expert in baking Mimi's Carrot Cake, Baked Fudge from Denise Rounds and being a real cheer leader for the whole thing.  For each appearance we are bringing a cake and some cookies.  Jeff has practically memorized the recipes and has picked out just the right jacket, shirt and tie to go with his appearance.
Our friend Eric Himan who is a good cook and has made numerous appearances on local television demonstrating recipes is going on KTUL Thursday morning with Jeff to tell the television audience how to make the cake.
That's a lot of preparation and work on everyone's part!!
But you know what?  Doing all this is a heck of a lot of fun!! 

Chocolate and Scented Candles Are Not Good Neighbors

Scented candles are a no-no for stores like Sweet Tooth which sell unwrapped chocolates.  Perhaps you haven't heard that chocolate obsorbs odors and mixing scented anything in the same store or gift basket assures that when you bite into your chocolate truffle, you will find an odd taste.  It might not be so bad, but it won't be exactly what you expected.
We've heard of some stores which sell chocolate and at the same time are cooking other items in the store.  We cringe!!  We know that those chocolates aren't going to taste the same, that the chocolate will "bloom" because of the heat in such a place and customers will not be getting the best chocolate for their money.
"Blooming" chocolate occurs when the cream and butter begin to separate from other ingredients.  Some people mistake that little white dust on the chocolate as mold.  It isn't mold, but simply the separation of various ingredients in the chocolate.
Chocolates which don't require refrigeration do love a cool atmosphere (no more than 70 degrees or a bit less).  Purchasing chocolate in a store which is not kept at that temperature may mean that the chocolate has aged quicker than normal and is already beginning to bloom.
Chocolates aren't sun lovers....so keeping them in their original boxes until you need to put them out is the best care and maintaining an atmosphere which does not have high humidity is also necessary.  Chocolates which require refrigeration have shorter shelf life since they have no preservatives.
Sometimes people ask us to create a gift basket and they want to include some sort of scented candle or perhaps perfume which they have purchased elsewhere.  We do our best to protect the chocolate, putting the scented item in a cellophane bag.
At Sweet Tooth we like to "baby" our candy and we are especially trained to watch for any changes in the chocolates.  We rotate all of our candy when we re-stock in order to keep our candy as fresh as possible.  After all, all of our staff are Quality Control experts....the manner in which they treat the chocolates and the other candies insures that our customers are going to be fully satisfied with their purchases.
In reality what we are selling is as much our customer service as it is the products in our store.

Stumped!!

Sometimes things or situations just have you stumped.  Like how to put together that bicycle you are giving for a Christmas present...without the instructions!!  Or how many tablespoons of sugar did Grandma put in her recipe which she never wrote down for you..
I have recently been stumped by a few situations at Sweet Tooth.
Here's one:  why do vendors send you a display with 24 spaces and 25 styles of merchandise?  Is there a style in the collection that the vendor thinks is a real loser, therefore the vendor sends it just to get rid of it? 
Here's another one:  you place an order at the June Market and it isn't until just days before the January Market that you finally receive the entire order?  Or a vendor presents a number of styles of their product, you order all of them and then find out months later that the vendor was just testing the water and never intended to make all those styles.
How about a third:  a vendor has a new collection of jewelry coming out in a month.  You are able to order it in plenty of time to put the collection out for customers to purchase.  The vendor even has postcards, posters, email blasts and more to publicize the new collection but you are instructed not to tell anyone about it or show pictures of it until the "release day".  So how do you motivate your customers to get ready for new product without giving away what is apparently a state secret??
Fourth:  vendors flood the market with their new product, never caring if your next-door-neighbor retailer has the same product as you do.  Then the vendor wonders why you don't re-order more frequently, never thinking that the "pie" is now split between you and your neighbor.
Fifth:  how long does it take a retailer to figure all this stuff out?  I guess at least 20 years since occasionally we are still stumped by these and other situations.

You Might As Well Eat Dirt

Over the years customers have asked us about our candy in the jars.  Most of the time they take a look at the jar candy, find the one they want and then ask us how they can get the candy out of the jar.
I suppose this question comes from the fact that lots of retail has now gone to "self serve".  Not at Sweet Tooth.
If the candy is unwrapped, then we get it out of the jar or case, weigh it, pack it up appropriately and then give it to the customer for payment.
We think of that process as "customer service" and it has been our policy and procedure for 20 plus years.
So what do I think when I go into a store and see candy in barrels or plastic tubes, where the expectation is that the customer will serve him or herself?
I imagine you already know what I think about that.  But let's spell it out.
                                                         I JUST CAN'T HELP IT!! 
I think "Who has put their hand in the candy?"  "Who has gotten candy out of the jar and then decided against buying it?  Did the customer put the candy back in the barrel or tube?  If so, were there hands involved?"
"How many people before me decided to have a sample from the barrel or jar?  Did that person ask for help or did that person just reach in for the sample?"
I suppose I could go on and on with my thoughts about this question, but sometimes I even make myself a little neurotic with these thoughts.
I could think "Where is the sneeze guard?  Do employees in those stores have permission to slap the customer's hand that goes into the jar?  Is there an intercom where announcements about dirty hands is blasted for customers to hear?"
I think I've been reading too many of David Sedaris' short stories.
Just to reassure you, if a customer ever puts his or her hand in a candy jar at Sweet Tooth, that candy goes into the trash ASAP.
This particular event has happened so few times over the years that we rarely have to even think about it.  As guardians of candy, we would rather eat dirt than eat candy after hands have been in the jar!!

The Dog Days

Since I was not sure why people refer to this time in August as "The Dog Days", I decided to do a little research.
Defined as the sultry days of summer, July through August are referred to as "Dog Days"
Romans associated hot weather with the star Sirius, the "Dog Star", the brightest star in the night sky.
Romans also believed that "Dog Days" were an evil time, when the sea boiled, wine turned sour, dogs went mad and people were full of disease.
Other definitions defined "Dog Days" as a period of stagnation.
I do know that things really do slow down at this time of the year.  there's the stagnation part... and if weather is a factor, the rising thermometer is surely a sign that hot weather will be with us for a while.
When you have a store like Sweet Tooth, you aren't really selling much that people "need"; rather you are presenting and selling things that people "want".
Take chocolate, for example.  Every grocery store and pharmacy check out station is loaded with impulse gifts, some of which are candy bars.  So it isn't the case that people can't find a candy bar most any time they want one.
The difference is that Sweet Tooth sells a line of chocolates which are more exclusive, actually better chocolate in most cases and often brands which aren't at the check out lines.  So a trip to Sweet Tooth yields chocolate or candy which is truly worth the cost and the calories.
The same goes for gifts and jewelry.  At Sweet Tooth we think it is lots of fun to sell the more unusual, the more fun, the less available and in doing so, we are encouraging our customers to have as much fun as we do. 
We like to be known as "The Happy Place" where our shelves and displays make people smile and feel really good about their purchases.  We prefer to be the brightest shopping star in our local universe.
To borrow a phrase from Southwest Airlines, we know our customers can shop anywhere they want....including online.....so we appreciate the fact that they have selected Sweet Tooth as their gift and candy store.

The Blog's 1st Anniversary

Jeff has told me that today is the 1st anniversary of this blog.  Naturally I felt the need to recognize that fact and to say something further about what we do at Sweet Tooth.

Now in our 21st year, we have acted upon several principles which we have felt are very important:

(1)  Our store should feel like a home away from home.  Our customers should feel that they are important to us, that we want to provide them with the best service we can and we want to make the environment of the store fun and inviting.
(2)  Our staff should enjoy coming to work every day.  They should know how much we appreciate their effort to assure that #1 on this list is always the most critical work ethic for them. 
(3)  We should demonstrate in all ways possible how much we appreciate our staff and the manner in which they represent Sweet Tooth and the reputation they have helped build for Sweet Tooth..
(4)  If it isn't fun and interesting to work or shop here, then we are doing something wrong which needs to be corrected immediately.
(5)  We don't want our store to be a carbon copy of every other gift shop in town.  We want to stock our store with new and different merchandise.  When a customer asks us a question about an item in our store, and if we don't know the answer, we will research the question and get back to the customer with the answer.
(6)  We want to be a good corporate citizen.  We want to support as many good causes as we can.  We honor those people who actually walk into our store, ask for help for their organization and show us how proud they are to be a volunteer for that group.
(7)  Although change is sometimes difficult, we want to be open to new and different things.  We want to keep up with technology in the market place without losing the "homey" touch we feel is so good for us.

Hopefully we are accomplishing these principles and that we will never sit on the laurels of past successes.  Above all, we have made so many friends over the past 20 years.  Those friendships motivate us to continue working diligently to make our store the very best it can be.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions!!

It might be hot as blazes outside, or in our case, no electricity at home.  However, ignore all that----this is the time of the year when we are up to our Elf Ears in decision making for Christmas holiday candy and gifts.
All year long we see holiday merchandise and candy.  All year long we debate about what we are going to do this year.  What should be the theme, the colors, the decorations, the most popular gift and candy items?  Do you think we are procrastinating?  Well, not really.  We are agonizing over what our customers are going to want for the holidays.
Trends come and go so quickly these days that bacon is popular today, but might not be in December.  So if we have over bought bacon flavored candy, we've bought a pig in a poke!!
Have I ever told you the story of the Billy Bass episode?  Some of you remember the Billy Bass singing fish plaque....or maybe you'd just rather not think about it.  Our friend Brad is probably in that category.  He had a gift shop and was a very experienced retailer and sales rep.  A number of stores were selling Billy Bass (shame on us!!) and Brad decided to order 100 Billy Basses for his shop....just when Billy fell out of favor and lots of cheap knock offs came on to the market.
We don't know what Brad did with all his Billy Bass plaques.  He did have a big basement in his store.  But we totally sympathize with him....we've had some real "dogs" too over the years.
Brings me back to shopping for the holidays.  Just today several of us were debating over Lollipals...a Kencraft lolly pop which we have sold for many years.  Which one of the designs and the flavors will be a hit this year?  Hot chocolate, cranberry or peppermint candy canes?  We pretty well know that most of our customers don't want pink, lime green, blue or white Christmas colors.  Most want the traditional red and emerald green.  How do we know this?  Let's just say that we've had some pink Christmases which ended up in our After Christmas Sale.
And yet.........this could be the year of the Pink and Lime Green Christmas!!  Holy cow!!  So you see what we are up against?  And some people think it is easy being a retailer.  Decisions, decisions, decisions!!

Getting Ready for Sidewalk Sale

For a few weeks now we have been getting ready for our Annual Sidewalk Sale.  We have checked in all the cubby holes to find the odds and ends of gift items which we have saved to put in the sale.  We have marked down some of the merchandise currently in the store, in part to make room for new merchandise, and in part because what merchandise is left is not moving out the door at full price.
Perhaps I have spoken about this before, but deciding to put items on sale is not an easy task.  It means admitting that for whatever reason those items are no longer popular at full price.  It might also mean that we made a mistake in selecting them in the first place and our customers are telling us, by not buying them, that we made a boo-boo.
But according to the lastest Retail Mavens which Jeff is listening to, the best times of the year for having a sale is after Christmas and in July.  Whooppee, we have always had our sidewalk sale in July, so we are surely on top of the situation.
Sometimes when we have a sale people think that we are going out of business.  I think I mentioned this once before in connection with the REALLY BIG SALE banner Jeff had made for the store.  I have heard from other retailers that they experience the same question. 
Just to set the record straight, beyond bad buying decisions and all the other reasons for marking down merchandise, us retailers have our eyes on the 4th quarter.  We need to make room in our store for all that merchandise which is on its way to 38th and Harvard.  We simply cannot find more room to keep the old and set out the new.
So unlike friendships, we really have to let the old stuff go and press onward (as Mary Engelbreit said in one of her drawings) toward the future.
Come join us in this journey.  Get excited, like we do and especially like Doris does, about what is coming.  Don't look back....as one of my latest mantras says:  "If you do what you always do, you'll get what you've always gotten and you'll be who you always were."
I've told you before....change is hard, but worth the effort.  See you on the Sidewalk!!

Bacon, Mustaches and Bowties, oh my!!

The latest and the greatest products for our store are Bacon, Mustaches and Bowties.  If you can believe it!
More and more companies are coming out with bacon flavored chocolate, mints and gummies.  Sometimes the bacon is not real bacon but a combination of ingredients that taste like bacon.  
We have been selling alot of bacon candies.  Most people say they are purchasing them for men....who knows??
As for mustaches, we received a call a few weeks ago from a woman who was having a mustache party and wanted to know what we had in the store with that theme.  Aside for mustache shaped mint tins, we didn't have much. 
Now we have StacheToos....removeable mustache tatoos of all shapes and colors (coming soon:  Christmas StachToos).  Look around...you will see mustaches on everything from candy to apparel to tumbler cups and so much more.  One of our staff put in a StacheToo and found that men reacted to her, saying how fun they were but women seemed to ignore the fact that she had this tatoo under her nose!!
As for Bowties, more and more are showing up in the Men's Departments.  They are jaunty and fun...some guys are even making them out of wood!!  At Sweet Tooth we will have musical bowties and ties which you can accessorize a bottle or put on a package or simply give as a gift.  There will Christmas and Chanukah ones as well.
How do these 3 items fit together?  One thought occurs to me:  the gift industry is attempting to find fun things for men or at least about men.  Most shoppers are women and most gift items and even candy appeal to women.....since women are the primary shoppers.  Maybe these 3 trends are going to bring men out into the gift purchasing demographic.  It won't just be Valentine's Day anymore.....in case you didn't know, we see more men the week before Valentine's Day than any other time in the year.
You heard it right here (if you haven't already)....just saying.

Are You Shopping Locally?

Summer is the time when most retail stores, both large and small, set about to have sales to clear out the "left over" merchandise to make space for all the new merchandise we have ordered at the Gift Market.
We have a banner which we used to put up on the windows in the front of our store.  It said something like "Really Big Sale".  Over the years we were asked if that banner meant we were going out of business.  Of course all we were doing was attempting to attract passersby to stop and visit our store, assuming that "Really Big" would get them inside.
That banner did work, but it also provoked people to ask if we were going out of business!!  So much for our marketing strategy.
Small businesses like ours would love to spend all sorts of money on ads.  Unfortunately we simply can't afford to do as much advertising as we would like to.  It comes down to deciding between an ad or paying the electric bill, rent, wages or purchasing more goodies to sell in the store.
I noticed a banner on a shoe store in Tulsa the other day.  The wording went all around the 3 sides of the banner and on one side it said "Shop Locally".  It is surprising that many folks don't think about how their shopping dollars spent in local stores benefit the entire city.  And perhaps it is up to us local retailers to shout it out, just like our banner did and get people to start thinking about how the money they spend locally goes around and around in our city.
Another issue now being debated in the U.S. Congress is the question of whether to raise the minimum wage to $9.00 a hour.  Those opposed to this legislation use local retailers as an argument against raising wages.  They say that small business would be ruined if wages were raised.
Surprising the data does not always support that argument.  Many small businesses already pay their employees more than the current minimum wage and some pay as much as $9.00 an hour or more right now. Small business understands that the wage money they and others pay circulates through the entire city.  Hourly wage personnel will generally spend their wages locally.
I am hopeful that more and more people will think about buying most of their needs and wants through local retailers.  In turn local retailers will have money to spend on advertising locally and purchasing supplies locally.  Sales tax will increase and go toward local enhancements of our city...schools, roads, parks, attracting more businesses, etc. etc.
Don't you just love the ETC part?

Back Stage at the Gift Market

If you've never been to a Gift Market, you will just have to imagine 2 buildings....one with 4 floors and one with 16 floors attached to each other through several "indoor bridges" which are actually floors of showrooms connecting one building to the other.
Every showroom is brightly lit, generally full of different "lines" or manufacturers who contract with showroom owners to display and sell their products.
The World Trade Center with 16 floors is divided into floors which emphasize gifts or children's merchandise or jewelry or furniture.  The top floors are dedicated to temporary booths which are only available at the January and June Markets.
On those top floors  there are aisle after aisle of booths showing individual "lines".  To help sort out which is which, the floors are divided into categories like Gift, Stationery, Apparel, etc.  Walking these floors is not my favorite thing to do. Frankly it is known among Sweet Tooth staff that I am a speed walker when it comes to those floors.  I stand at the front of the aisle, glance down and somehow automatically decide that a particular aisle is not worth walking through.
I will admit that we have found some fun, new gift lines in the Temporaries, as they are called.  But my preference is to purchase from a showroom where showroom owners have vetted the lines they carry and can be counted on to help us out if we run into a problem.
The Gourmet Food Court is laid out the same way as the Temporaries, with aisles of booths.  When we first started going to the Gift Market, we would walk up and down these aisles, full of cheese straw vendors, jellies, jams, packets of spices and other such foods.  Rarely was there a great candy find at the Dallas Market.  But if you remember the Peppermint Pig which we carried for several years, we did find that company at the Dallas Market.  I miss that Pig!!
We always assigned Jeff to taste the cheese straws, the spicy dips and jellies.  Finally we simply learned to say "No" to offers of samples.  The funny thing is that many retailers who don't sell gourmet foods venture into the Gourmet Food area for a nice little snack or a dessert after lunch.  No one really seems to care.  I have noticed that over the years stores which were once strictly gifts are now stocking packaged food items.  Impulse gifts, I suppose. 
Cash and Carry is just what it sounds like....it is housed in a building across the street from the Trade Mart.  Talk about impulse shopping!!  You cannot walk through that building without thinking that there is a bargain to be had among the vast number of blingy jewelry sellers, knock-off perfume dealers, cowgirl outfits and so forth.  And that doesn't even describe the other half of the building which has furniture....antler chandeliers being very popular this year.
Cash and Carry is exactly what it sounds like.....the place where you can purchase any item and take it home with you.  Most people seem to be shopping for themselves, but some are actually buying merchandise for their stores.  Cash and Carry is where a few years ago Jeff got a great "bargain":  for $22.00 he purchased The Tingler...this contraption that you used to massage your head.  Not too long after that the price of The Tingler was down to $4.00 and this year I didn't see it at all.
Some bargains really aren't bargains after all.

We Made It To The Dallas Market

We made it to the Dallas Market.  This is a trip we take at least 2 times a year, if not 4 times a year.  And going to the Dallas Market is like shopping in the biggest mall ever, but you never take anything home with you!
Well, sometimes there are samples to take home and there are tons and tons of catalogues, tote bags, occasionally candles and flip flops.  Some showrooms at certain times of the year do sell their showroom merchandise to make room for the newer products.  But we never have room in our car to take anything back to Tulsa.
Here's what happens when you arrive at the Market.  At the Registration Desk you show your driver's license and get a badge with your name and your store name and city.  You also get a catalogue which lists all the company lines and showrooms and temporary booths and even Cash and Carry booths.  The January and June Market catalogues are a good size, since those 2 Markets have several floors of temporary vendors and Cash and Carry across the street from the main buildings.  You never ever want to carry around any extra weight....so one catalogue is all we take!!
For 20 years we have been going to the Dallas Market.  When I step through the door I really do feel like I am home.  I know the floor plans, the showrooms, the bathrooms (highly important), the restaurants and our sales reps.  Sometimes we literally run into retailers from Tulsa or other cities. 
One of my most memorable "run ins" was the year that The Farm Shopping Center had done a promotion using men's ties....one was a cow design.  I was rounding a corner when I literally bumped into the tummy of one of our Farm retailers.  I didn't have to look up to see his face....that cow tie was a dead giveaway that he was a Tulsa retailer!!
We shopped for 4 days, from morning to late afternoon.  We spend most of the day walking, standing, looking at merchandise, talking about merchandise.  And when time comes to get in the car and go back to the hotel or out to eat, we are definitely ready to sit down for a good long rest.
I'll write some more about our trip to the Market, but I just want you to know that some great new merchandise will be coming our way this summer and this fall.  I will drop a few hints in my next blog.

A Salute to Mary Engelbreit

Today I received an email with video of Mary Engelbreit receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Greeting Card Association.  Mary is the first ever person to receive this Lifetime award and truly she does deserve the honor of being the FIRST.
Mary Engelbreit was certainly a pioneer in the world of an individual artist carving her way without any experience in the greeting card or gift industries.  Her achievements, her example was a role model for others who were working their way through these industries.
I remember very well my first encounter with Mary Engelbreit.  Although she had been around a bit, I first saw her card and limited gift line in a glass "hut" inside the renovated train station in St. Louis when I went to my Washington U. college reunion, about 20 years ago.  I was completely taken with Mary's whimsy, her colors, her love of life, her wit and I couldn't wait to get back to Tulsa and tell my Sweet Tooth partners that we absolutely had to bring Mary Engelbreit to our store.
We did exactly that and some people eventually referred to our store, not as Sweet Tooth, but "the Mary Engelbreit store".  Mary's fans loved her black and white patterns and dots, her big splashes of red, her "flat egg" flowers and especially her cherry designs.
People have attempted to follow her example and to use her ideas in their art, but no one has truly managed to do it as well or as beautifully as Mary did.
Over the years we grew the Mary line....cards, t-shirts, dinner ware, paper products, stickers, dolls, art and posters, etc. etc. etc.  There was unwavering support for black, white and red and of course, cherries.
In the last few years Mary's gift lines have disappeared.  She continues to produce cards through American Greetings and some little memo pads, pens and so forth which are exclusively sold at Michael's stores.  Several of my Mary friends can tell you that I was often motivated to call them and leave messages when I found something new at Michael's.  At home I have an entire drawer full of memo pads, journals, and so forth.  Our garage is a storage for many of Mary's gift pieces which I kept and between Mary and Betty Boop at least one-half the flags which fly outside our home are full of Mary's art.
Mary is still around but there is very little if anything in the gift world for us to carry in the store.  I wish it weren't so.  But I wish Mary at least 21 more years of success with her art and I hope that someday a few shelves in Sweet Tooth will be lit up with the bright and happy colors of Mary Engelbreit.

Women: Engineers of our Economy!

One of our favorite trade newsletters is called GiftBeat.  The June issue had some interesting articles....thought I'd pass along a bit of information to you.
Did you know that women account for 70% to 80% of consumer product purchases?  Women, as the article says, are the "gatekeepers" to every kind of customer.
What this data really means is that women control a bunch of money.  Women's income has grown nearly 30% since 1990...although we know that very often women's paychecks are smaller than men's paychecks who are performing the same jobs.
I guess where women get some of their "power" is that men actually shop less...the power of shopping means a great deal in our economy.
The article I am referring to also says that people are having fewer children....an average American family has 2 kids.  But those kids are getting products and experiences faster than ever.  With less kids, I suppose many families have more money to spend on each one.
I remember sharing a bedroom with my sister.  We had 2 twin beds, a dresser, 2 closets and one desk and chair.  Fortunately my sister was 5 years younger than me, so when I needed the desk, for example, to do homework, my sister hadn't reached the stage of having a lot of homework.  Nonetheless, our room wasn't very big.  I don't remember us spending too much time together in the bedroom....except to sleep, of course.
With 3 kids and an average household income (my Mom didn't work outside the home) we didn't do a lot of shopping.

Our society is also aging...a good thing because people are living longer....unfortunately for men, more women live longer than men do.  That situation leaves more assets in older women's hands. These statistics seem to say that throughout a woman's life, she controls more of the money spent, except perhaps for major purchases like homes and cars.
Younger women are not waiting until marriage or settling down to purchase products for their homes.  If they have more disposable income, younger women are buying those nicer items which, in the past, they often listed on a wedding registry.
For us retailers, these statistics are meaningful.  They help to shape our plans for the store, our purchases of merchandise and our advertising expenditures.  The GiftBeat article tells us that if we meet the higher expectations which women have for the sales experience, we will also be meeting the expectations which men shoppers have.
When we bought our store 21 years ago, I never realized that there is a bit of a science to owning a retail store.  In addition, I think that consumers are more sophistocated and educated than they were in the past.  It is important to the success of a retail store that research, serious thought and planning and constantly recognizing what customers expect be applied to every buy for the store.  With the Gift Market coming up in a few days, we have a lot of preparation in front of us.
Stay tuned.

The Cupboard Is Not Bare!

At this time of the year, so close to one of the two major Gift Markets, our store begins to look a little sparse.  Some of our customers show concern that the sparseness of the store is an indication that we are going out of business.  It is definitely not the case.
We used to put a banner across our front windows which said BIG SALE.  We are a bit reluctant to do that now because inevitably customers will interpret that banner as an indication that we are going out of business.
It appears we need to make something very very clear:  retailers have BIG SALES.  It is a method of scooting out the door odds and ends of wonderful merchandise and providing our customers with a bargain in order to make space for the new merchandise we will see at the Gift Market.
This particular June Gift Market is our last chance to select what we want to carry for the extremely important FOURTH QUARTER.  You've heard of Black Friday, haven't you?  That title is not a mournful title but rather it indicates that the Thanksgiving weekend is traditionally the time when consumers decide to shop for the holidays.  Their purchases begin to put retail in the Black....i.e., we seriously begin to make money.
What that means, friends, is that the last 3 months of each year are really the time that retail is in full swing and purchases are way up.  If something doesn't sell during the fourth quarter you absolutely know that you have made the wrong choice of merchandise for your customers.  Those items are the ones which go on the 75% off sale table!!
Please pass the word around to all your family and friends:  Sweet Tooth is not going out of business, but is actually making room for the candy, gift and jewelry items which will fill our store and make the aisles narrow during the fourth quarter.   (remember we have already begun to order holiday candy and there was a lot of it!!)
Summer is a great time to offer clearance bargains.  And those sales can help consumers purchase holiday gift items at reduced prices.
The storage area in our own garage has clear Rubbermaid Boxes filled with early purchases for holiday gifts.  After all, we retailers are consumers too!

Fond Memories of the Peppermint Pig

Yesterday was the 21st time I sat with our Redstone Foods sales rep Gary and ordered Halloween and Christmas/Chanukah candy.  Of course, Jeff was there as well; nonetheless it is me and Gary who go back to our tiny little office space in Sweet Tooth/Farm Shopping Center.
At that time I knew NOTHING about ordering or selling candy.  I knew how to eat candy but my tastes were pretty narrow.  Our office space was so tiny that the back of my desk chair hit the door of the bathroom.  And when my dad bought us a refrigerator (full size, mind you!) and we put it in the office, there was very little space for storing candy.
I really don't know how we did it.  But I do know that without the experience Gary brought to the candy biz, we probably would have made a lot of mistakes that year and even this year!!
You might want to know......how do we order candy or even other merchandise so far ahead of the time we will receive it?  How do we know what people will buy?  How do we know if we are missing something which will be the hottest item of the season?
Part of the answer is experience.  To tell the truth, we spend time comparing what sold last year and what was a complete flop (yes it happens) with what is available again this year.
As for the new candy, we depend a bit on what Gary advises us to do.  And Gary depends a bit on what his customers think will be a good sell through. 
I guess you could say that some of this whole business is simply a crap shoot.
More and more we factor in the question of whether what we are ordering will show up in grocery stores or Sam's or drug stores?  Companies these days are often inclined to go for the gold....the larger customer who will order tons more than individual retailers will order.  Once burned, though, we don't return to that manufacturer again.
And to tell the truth, we do have certain standards which we apply to ordering candy.  We really want to stock candy which is special, which customers won't find everywhere, candy which more and more people who travel overseas encounter across the ocean.  Customers these days are a little bit more sophisticated, yet they still watch their pocket books.
And then there is that certain candy which pops up in the order book....it is new, it is brilliantly packaged, it is going to be a lot of fun.  I remember fondly the Peppermint Pig and the Chocolate Titanic.  We really loved those candies from the get go and our customers did too.
So, we are off and ordering for the 4th quarter.  In a month we go to the Dallas Gift Market, looking for those gift items which jump off the shelf and scream:  I Am The One!!
Here's my new motto:  If you do what you always do, you'll get what you've always gotten and you'll be who you always were.
What do you think?

Retail: Not Always Glamorous But We Love It

Here's what happens at Sweet Tooth after a major holiday or a major event in our store.  It isn't glamorous,  in fact it is "work:  I am not always sure that customers know just how much work is involved in retail.  There is the cleaning, the schlepping, the carrying, the inventorying, the straightening up, the moving around of displays, the checking in of new merchandise......
For the past 2 days Sarah H. has been inventorying our Kameleon jewelry.  Sarah checked for damaged pieces, for overstocked pieces and she cleaned the entire display.
Sarah also prepared an inventory of Kameleon pieces which we might need to return (it's called Stock Balancing) so that we can have room and funds for ordering pieces we need.  Sarah re-displayed all the jewelry pieces in the case, changing out the jewel pops in every one of them.  And finally she cleaned all the trays and the glass in the display case.
In between times Sarah waited on customers.
After Jeff moved our Monkeez and Friends plush animals to a new home, Lisa rearranged all the Lindsay Phillips shoes and accessories and we put them on sale at 50% off.
Doris and Olivia have been restocking candy, cleaning the candy cases and spinner and making certain that the candy order list is up to date on what we need to order.
Jeff has been working on the email newsletter, keeping up with our Facebook page, schlepping boxes of merchandise, preparing our work schedule, making final arrangements for the new credit card processor and keeping our daily records up to date.
I have been re-ordering merchandise, including Trollbeads which is offering us a Stock Balancing option, checking on upcoming orders, processing payment for invoices and calling customers who have special orders pending at our store.
Stock balancing, just to explain, is a process where a manufacturer will allow retailers to exchange merchandise which has been sitting around without sales for merchandise which retailers need and believe will sell.
Not all companies offer that option, but the ones which do are truly partnering up with us retailers to assure a more successful "sell through" of their merchandise.
Next week we will sit down with one of our candy distributors and order Halloween and Christmas candy.  It takes us at least 6-8 hours to place those orders.
In mid-June we will all go to the Dallas Market to spend about 8 hours a day walking the showrooms, placing orders, deciding what we think will sell during the balance of the year and renewing our friendships with our sales reps.
Folks, that's the sort of work us retailers do throughout the year and we love it!

I Am On My High Horse!

As my mother would say, I am on my "high horse" today and I've just got to write about it.
This morning's Tulsa World headline was "Senate OKs Internet sales tax".  And guess who voted against this bill?  Senators Inhofe and Coburn.
Senator Inhofe says the bill represents a "tax increase" and he is concerned that "layers of red tape for online sellers"  would hurt consumers.  U.S. Representative Jim Bridenstine who is also opposed to this bill says it will "stifle economic growth and drive online sales overseas where tax collectors can't reach these companies."
Give me a break!!  Do any of our elected representatives care one bit about all us small retailers who make up the vast majority of business in the U.S. and who are obliged to collect sales tax from our customers?  What about our red tape?  What about our overhead, employee salaries, taxes, utility bills, rent and inventory costs?  Why are we asked to compete with multi-million dollar online businesses without any help from our elected representatives?
Do you know that Oklahoma loses about $225 million dollars a year in tax revenue because of online sales? This is money which would go to schools, to roads, to preserving our environment, to raises for a variety of employees.  What this new bill would do is equalize the sales environment for all us little guys.  And at the same time raise all sorts of money for improving our standard of living in Oklahoma (and other states too).
Now I am not against online sales.  I have already stated that I occasionally order items online.  All I am saying is that I am willing to pay the sales tax on those items, which will go to help my state. 
Why our elected officials are not on that band wagon I cannot say.
If you take a look at the list of those companies and organizations which support or oppose this bill, you will get a real picture of what is going on.  And I say, whenever possible, support local business,  What you spend help keeps our economy stronger, keeps our fellow Oklahomans employed, provides funds for all those services which are so important to our standard of living and giving a leg up for those who need it.  And if you have to order something online, do so because the item you want isn't available locally.  What you may save on the price of the item and the non-payment of sales tax isn't worth depriving yourself, local business and all Oklahomans of the tax money we need to get our state out of the ditch of being 49th in so many categories.

A Little R & D

This weekend at Sweet Tooth we are hosting a Trunk Show from a jewelry company called Obsidian Jewelry.  We have carried a few pieces of their jewelry--primarily silver with gemstones -- and we like it very much.  This time, though, we have several hundred pieces of the jewelry and we are investing some time and a bit of money in promoting this jewelry line.
Here's the catch:  there are many kinds of beautiful gemstones and we pride ourselves on knowing a bit about all the items we sell in the store.  So, of course, we needed to do a little R & D  (Research and Development) so that we wouldn't disappoint customers when they ask:  "What is that?"
For the past hour I have been googling onyx, jasper, chalcedony, quartz, lodalite, drusy and more....trying to develop short, quick but informative paragraphs about all these gemstones so when we get the inevitable question:  "What is that?"  we will have an informative answer.
I wonder sometimes if consumers think, as I once did, that retail is simply ordering, displaying, selling and paying the bills.  It never occurred to me that researching the history of an item would be part of the retail world.
I guess many of us get our concept of "sales" from the stereotypical picture of the car salesman, twisting a customer's arm, embellishing and pushing and out talking the customer to get a sale.
What a shameful way of looking at retail.  Occasionally at Sweet Tooth we get the customer whose attitude about the person behind the cash register is patronizing and negative.  At that point we ask ourselves why standing behind the counter makes us "less" than the person making a purchase.  It's something to think about and hopefully we are working to overcome that image.
What makes the R & D assignment a great deal easier is access to Google.  Just think if I had to make a trip to the library (and by the way, I love libraries) and I had just a short amount of time to come up with the answer to "What is that?".  It would be an all day search.  I'd rather go to the library and check out a great novel or a book of short stories.  I spent plenty of research time in the library when I was in college.  The MLA (for those English majors) was a time consuming assignment....one which at that period of my life I never imagined would be short circuited by something called Google.
The life of a retailer is complex....more so than one might think....full of adventures, new information, interesting questions and customers who actually want to know something about what they are buying. 
This was my day at Sweet Tooth!!

Does the Internet Know Your Name?

Would you guess that the end of April and beginning of May are busy for retailers?  It seems that after Easter retail slows down.  Long, hot summer months ahead, people on vacation or sending their kids to camp, way too hot to get out and shop.
But May is one of the busiest months of the year.  We have Mother's Day, Teacher Appreciation, Graduations all through the month and even in June.  We have Proms, Weddings, End of School Parties and some people are even thinking ahead to Father's Day.
A store like Sweet Tooth doesn't carry necessities, like soap, milk, eggs, bread.....What we supply is happiness, fun, novelty, yummy treats and sparkling gifts like jewelry.  Now who says those things aren't necessary to having a great life??  Well, they are necessary and they make the curves in the road, the bumps along the highway....you get it.....a lot more pleasant and enjoyable.
At Sweet Tooth we like to say that our store is a "home away from home" where (like CHEERS) people know your face, perhaps even know your name.  If we can't be that sort of store, we would just close the doors and go home.
Do you get those warm feelings from the Internet?  I don't, even though once in a while I do order something online.  There isn't anything personal about getting a book or a cd from Amazon.  Oh yeah, when you sign on you are "greeted" by name...of course, that is good retailing, even though it is mechanical and not truly said with a smile on someone's face. 
Internet Sales is getting a lot of attention these days in Congress.  You've probably been keeping tabs on whether internet companies with over $1 million dollars in sales will have to collect sales tax from every customer.  Actually I haven't heard all the details but I do know that it isn't easy for a small home-grown store to compete with the Internet. 
It really isn't fair when someone comes into a local business, tries on their shoes, prices their goods or test drives their cars and then goes online to order what the local retailer has shown them.  So the fact that the customer even goes to a local business to see, feel, test, taste, etc. the merchandise he or she wants tells me that that person really does want the opportunity to check out the merchandise IN PERSON before purchasing.
Local retailers collect sales tax, keep records of sales, can even be audited by the state and put in jeopardy if the records aren't accurate or the tax hasn't been sent in to the state.
No such thing with most Internet Sales.
Let's talk more about this whole Internet Sales debate.  I hope that in the end the challenges of a "brick and mortar" retailer are seriously considered before a new law is put in place.

Change is Really Hard

One of my favorite t.v. shows was THE CLOSER.  I really miss that show.  Sometimes if I am just a little bored, nothing special to do, I flip through the t.v. guide and if I see THE CLOSER I watch it.  Give me a break!
I was doing that last night while I attempted to keep  my promise to walk on the treadmill.  On the episode I was watching, Brenda has to make a big decision about her personal life.  With tears in her eyes, she tells Fritz, "Change is really hard."  I could relate to that.
People tell you that change is good, that life is full of change, that taking risks or doing something different is the best thing we can do.  I really believe those words, but I also believe Brenda:  "Change is really hard."
Right now we are moving further into the Social Media Age with a Pinterest Page.  By the time you read this column you will find on our website or Facebook or email newsletter that we now have a Pinterest Page, which our staff person Sarah H. is heading up.
Now for Sarah, change doesn't seem so hard.  She knows Pinterest and likes it and is having fun, so far as I can tell, "pinning" pictures on our page.
I am very enthused about doing this; nonetheless if I had to be the Pinterest Maven it would be "really hard".
Of course I'll be making tons of suggestions and clicking over to see what Sarah has done.  I'm never at a loss for an idea or a suggestion for others!!
Being in retail these days is requiring so much work!!  And it is Social Media which is necessitating us to be a devotee and workhorse for all these websites.  Not only is the world changing but the rapid speed in which it does change is a mental exercise worthy of that treadmill I am attempting to use.  In such a short time, you can be ages behind others who are keeping up with Social Media. 
After 20 years in this business, we are being shot out of our own canon, seeking all those millions of people whose cell phone is connected to their hands, whose heads are down and fingers are tapping on the phone or the Ipad.  If you aren't permanently connected to one of these devices, you are simply a Social Media slug.

Don't Kill the Messenger, Just Saying

Breaking up is hard to do.  Or so Neil Sedaka sang a few years ago.
We hear about break ups in the candy and gift business from time to time.  One of the biggies was MIKE and IKE, if you can believe it.
For those fans of Mike and Ike candy, their break up was a big moment.
Some companies just go out of business. Some companies like Wrigley's just make Beeman's, Black Jack and Clove gum every few years.  And sometimes companies just break up.
When things turn south for some companies, they occasionally sell their recipes to other companies.  We experienced that recently when Judson Atkinson stopped making Fruit Sours.  Finally another company, Sweets which makes very good taffy, bought the recipe and the right to make the Fruit Sours.  We experienced a few months of adjusting the recipe, but now it seems Sweets has managed to bring back those cherry sours which my sister used to love.
Now about Mike and Ike:  they have REUNITED!!  And to show that they are back together again, Mike and Ike is bringing bring some old friends:  Cherri and Bubb from 1989 and Lem and Mel from 1991.  I've also heard that a Strawberry flavor honoring their reunion will be coming out soon.
What do candy sellers like us do when there is a break up in the candy biz?  It is especially difficult when supplies of the candy are still available. Customers see it out there and think we are not being honest..  Sometimes folks just don't believe us.....yes, that is the truth. 
We've had a few sticky moments trying to explain that there are some changes in the manufacturing of some candies.  Take, for example, years ago when a customer just didn't believe that the Haribo gummi bears we carried were really manufactured by Haribo.  Even the explanation that Haribo has factories in various countries and sometimes the recipes are slightly different didn't go over with that customer.
Now we are facing the question of Kookaburra licorice...no longer in business and taken over by another company which was making the Kookaburra licorice under the Kookaburra name. It might just be a psychological thing....a rose is a rose by any other name, right?  (my interpretation of that quote!!)
Believe me, although it is great fun to introduce new candy to customers, we are never happy to see a popular candy go out of business or stop being manufactured.  It doesn't make sense that we would intentionally want to discourage business.  It is our philosophy that we attempt to answer all questions about items we sell. Sometimes the news just ain't good.
Our advice:  Don't kill the Messenger, just saying,  when the message is not what you want to hear. 

Sweet Tooth is Turning a New Corner!!

One of the dilemmas which all retailers have is when to buy, how much to buy and when to cut off the buying!!
There are lots of books which attempt to give you the "secret" of retailing.  I know that some of these tips are helpful, but nothing is 100%.
In April each year we begin the slow road to the 4th quarter, which is Mount Everest for retail.  We also begin thinking about the next Gift Market, which is in June and why we need to slow down on buying, reserving some of our money for anything new which will be revealed at the Market.
One of the saving graces of this time period is that some manufacturers who took our order at the January Market have never sent the merchandise.  How is that good?  Well, if the merchandise comes in April it is helpful in providing our store with new gift or candy items just when we thought we were in a "dry spell".
This week, for example, we received a number of orders or partial orders from weeks, even months, ago.  If you come into our store you will immediately notice that things look different. 
At the same time, new merchandise gives our staff and ourselves a psychological lift.  We are enthusiastic about presenting these new items just when we thought nothing would change until after the Gift Market.

Our current fun and exciting decision is our exploration of Pinterest and setting up a Sweet Tooth Pinterest account!  Today we were brainstorming all the fun categories we could have on our page.  We can present our staff in all their glory....checking in merchandise, trying out new candies (you know we are experts at Quality Control!), interacting with customers.  We can show new merchandise, we can demonstrate how to make a Trollbead Fantasy necklace or stack a bunch of our new bracelets on your arm.
Social Networking is opening a lot of doors and injecting excitement in the world of Sweet Tooth.
Watch for our "reveal" on Pinterest.  Give us feedback.  Keep checking our Facebook Page and reading our email newsletter.
Retail is so different from my childhood days.  I remember being totally fascinated with the tube system at C.R. Anthony's.  Mom would give cash or check for something she was buying.  The clerk would put the money or check inside the tube and send it on its way upstairs to the mystery person we could never see.  A few minutes later the tube would come down the pipe, land next to our clerk and inside would be a receipt and change. It was the nearest thing to a ride at the Fair....or some sort of magic trick.
The introduction of the tube must have been as exciting as starting a Pinterest account for us.  Turning a new corner is always invigorating.

Can I Offer You An Alternative?

Easter is past and we only had 3 Duck with a Hat left.  One small triumph for The Duck!
What comes next for a retail store like ours?  The Spring Trio:  Moms, Dads and Grads.
One thing to remember about the Trio is that there are multiple possibilities for gifts for Mom, Dad or Grad.  And Sweet Tooth, try as we might, cannot be everything to everyone.
In the Mom category, we have a head start.  Jewelry is always a go to gift for Mom and our jewelry lines are well priced and popular.  We have concentrated on how to help Dads or men buy jewelry.  Some are real troopers.  They come in, go straight to the jewelry case of choice and quickly make their decision.
Other men, though, need a bit of hand-holding, affirmation and of course, gift wrapping when they shop for jewelry.
Dad is a real test for a small gift shop like Sweet Tooth.  There is no way to compete with the tie racks at department stores.  We cannot offer duck calls, fishing lures or tech stuff.  It just isn't our thing.  But we do find that chocolate or candy in general works for a lot of shoppers.  In particular I have noticed that Sugar Free chocolates sees an increase in interest around Father's Day.
And of course, we have greeting cards of various kinds:  poetry and wordiness with Blue Mountain cards; humor and cute animals with Avanti; sarcasm and wittiness with Erin Smith.  Choose your style and we've got it in the card department.
Graduation, like St. Patrick's Day, is really not a candy holiday, although in recent years we have seen interest in Candy Buffets for graduation parties.  It is a simple task to find school colors among all the candy in our jars.  Looking for red, white and blue?  We've got it.  Looking for Orange and Black or Red and White...yep, a number of possibilities for you.  And we do have the variety of Grad greeting cards as well as storage bins, collegiate candy jars and mugs and personal items like lotions and jewelry too.
The important question for a store like Sweet Tooth is just how deep and how wide should our buying be for holidays like the Spring Trio?  It is easy to go overboard and not really hit the target. 
One more point:  one of our staff members has got the best idea.  When we don't have the thing you are looking for, Olivia might ask:  "Can I offer you an alternative?" 
I say, "Yes, Olivia, Sweet Tooth can!!"

"The Duck" and Fun with Cake Pops!

At Sweet Tooth we are winding down the Easter holiday season.  It is good to report that people still value the Easter Basket for all ages, the Easter egg hunt, special goodies for Easter gifts....all those sorts of things which Sweet Tooth strives for every day of the year.
I really need to report on Duck with a Hat.  For those who remember my affinity for "The Duck", I have to say that he has definitely made a come back this year.  And one really sweet customer told me that she came into the store to buy "The Duck" because she read this blog and wanted to keep "The Duck" alive.  As of today, we only have about 12 more Ducks.  Is it possible that by the end of Saturday, all those Ducks will have found a home in someone's Easter basket?  Ahhh, I really hope so!  And move over Duck Dynasty!!!
This Easter we introduced Cake Pops from our friend Bernadette whose cookies and cake pops are absolutely delicious.  Not only that...........the women who work in her bakery create the most exquisite designs on the cookies. 
Sometimes in this biz, you learn only by doing and the Cake Pops have taught us a lesson or two.  One thing about gravity and weight:  Cake Pops are top heavy and need to be balanced in their tins by weight at the bottom of the tin.  That was lesson #1 and between our staff and Bernadette, we have worked to conquer that problem.
Lesson #2:  Bunny ears on Cake Pops are tricky.  The ears need to be inserted into the cake with special thought about how well they will stand up and survive cellophane bags and cellophane wrap.  I have to say that Sarah H. thought this problem through and came up with some answers to the bunny ear challenge.
Lesson #3:  Bunny Cake Pops are numero uno with our customers!  Followed by Cake Pop Eggs and finally, Cake Pop Chicks.  I personally liked the chicks best, but you already know about my love of candy and chocolate "poultry".
So we are onto the next preparation.  What is coming up?  Jewelry Trunk Shows, Mother's Day and Graduation.  Not to mention Wedding Season for our Candy Buffets.  No time to rest in between.  We are always a season ahead in retail. 
Hippity Hopping Along!!

Move Over Boomers...Fusion Flavors Are In!

Baby Boomers, your time is up with candy trends, according to the latest copy of Candy Industry magazine.  The younguns' are taking over and seem to be more willing to sample new fusion flavors than their mommies and daddies and grands!
Although the classics --- mint, cherry, grape, lemon and orange -- will always be around, the new non-traditional flavors are getting stronger.
We have seen the Bacon candy become a real winner, but how about combinations like "blue honeysuckle berry (a combo between blueberry and blackberry) or pawpaw (mango and banana combo)?  Or take a look at other morphed flavors like honey cinnamon, fennel seed and Greek Yogurt!!
It seems the confectionary industry is responding to a "healthier, more experimental" trend in candy and they now have a younger group of folks willing to give just about anything a try.
"Old School" confections, like peanut butter, hot chocolate and rhubarb are still around, but international influences are spicing up the U.S. confectionery market.
Sorry, kiddos, but all-natural flavors will not be taking over the future where companies will transition totally into that recipe.  There is a demand for alternative approaches but at the same time, the unique flavor may not always be available from natural flavors.
The "artificial" side of making candy can put together every fantastical combination consumers want.  While consumers want natural flavors, they are also demanding the exotic.  And guess what?  Americans are becoming more adventurous.  They have ventured away from simply Milk Chocolate into the world of Dark Chocolate, spicy chocolate, interesting combinations of chocolate, etc. etc.
But as a Baby Boomer myself, I do remember the time when trying anything was a risk I was willing to take.  If you could ask my Dad about "snails", oysters and buffalo steaks, he would have told you that his daughter had ventured over to the dark side.
Don't rule out us Baby Boomers, I say.  Wasabi chocolate bars at Sweet Tooth tasted good to me.

Why Sweet Tooth Isn't a Self Service Store

At our most recent staff meeting, we shared ideas about how we service our customers.
From the beginning, way back in 1992, we have never had a self-service store.  Our jars of candy and our chocolates in the case have always required our staff to serve the customer.
Since 1992, many stores which sell candy have designed their shops for self-service and hired less staff.  Fancy candy bins, signage, fun colors are all a part of the self-serve store. Self-service and less staff are ways of keeping overhead costs down.
Have you ever watched what happens in a self-service store?  People serve themselves a "sample". Some people dispense the candy and then decide to put it back.  There is a lot of touching and examining of candy.  Little tykes put stuff in their mouths or walk around the store carrying candy which Mom and Dad don't purchase.
This sort of self-service gives our Sweet Tooth staff the "willies". 
We imagine customers coming in after someone has been touching, squeezing, examining candy and buying that same package.  Customers never know if someone has dispensed candy and then, after examining or even perhaps sampling it, they put it back in the bin, only to be dispensed by the next person.
Our staff also talked about temperature.
Many stores which sell candy do not keep the store's climate at a lower temperature.  Why not?  Well, candy is really just a side-line for those stores and the main merchandise does not require a temperature of 68-70 degrees, which candy does.
The enemy of candy is temperature, light, moisture and strong scents or odors..  Attempting to control these 4 "enemies" means that at Sweet Tooth, year around, the temperature in our candy section is no higher than 70 degrees.  Candy can stay fresh for a long time if we keep its "enemies" at bay. 
So when you visit our store in the winter, our low temperature doesn't really register with you.  But in the summer, when no one wears coats and heavier clothes, many customers comment about how chilly it is in the store.  We are accommodating the needs of our candy.  Air conditioning is a year around electric bill for us.

We also don't allow strong scents or odors in our store.  Chocolate absorbs odors like a sponge.  Most people want their chocolate to taste like chocolate and not scented candles, perfumes or other odors
At Sweet Tooth, we do our best to accommodate customers' questions about candy.  Does it contain gluten?  Is it manufactured in a facility and on equipment which might also manufacture items with nuts?  What is the carb count on this candy?  What is the substitute for sugar in our Sugar Free candy?
We do our very best to answer these and other questions.  We are best friends with our candy and if we are missing some information, we work to find the answers to those questions.
We are proud of our staff at Sweet Tooth.  They know their stuff!!  And as long as we are here, we will always be a store with the old-fashioned motto of serving our customers.

Easter Is Early This Year

As we say in the "retail biz", Easter is early this year.
What that really means is that Easter is in March and not in April.  From a retailer's point of view, that means "early".
In years like 2013, the months of February and March are overloaded with special occasions.  We start out with Valentine's Day (not to mention Mardi Gras) and then in a matter of 4 weeks we have St. Patrick's Day.  You already know, if you are tuned into this blog, that St. Pat's is a BEER holiday.  Even though Sweet Tooth doesn't sell BEER, the idea of celebrating another holiday so soon is contrary to the usual build up for special occasions.
Only 2 weeks after St.Pat's, we have Easter (and Passover, actually).
Our retail minds have been working on this situation for months, but non-retail folks are just waking up to the fact that there is another holiday around the corner.
Making the switch from reds and pinks, to greens, to pastels is a strange color chart.  We simply aren't always ready to tackle this quick path of holiday after holiday.
And then there is the practice of observing Lent.  Believe it or not, in my unofficial survey, giving up candy for Lent is one of the most popular rituals every year.  We understand the practice and respect it, but why can't folks give up green beans or Oreo cookies or hamburgers??  Why does it always have to be candy?
And what about those folks who declare a "free day" and decide on that one day to indulge in the item which they have given up for Lent?  The day picked for "free day" always seems to be on a Sunday when Sweet Tooth is closed!!
The countdown to Easter is happening now.  There are eggs to color, Easter baskets to prepare, candy to buy, new outfits to purchase and a big dinner to prepare.  There are religious services to attend and prayers to be said.
We expect a big rush of candy purchases to take place on the day after Easter.....Monday April 1..... for all those folks who gave up candy for Lent.  But holy cow!!  April 1 is April Fools Day!!  Don't tease us, people....we are looking forward to seeing you at Sweet Tooth on that day.

St. Patrick's Day is a Beer Holiday

Every year about this time we face a real dilemma:  what to do for St. Patrick's day, March 17 which this year is on a Sunday.
I'm just saying:  St. Patrick's Day is a Beer Holiday.
And now you know the dilemma.  We are a CANDY and GIFT store, not a bar or even a restaurant with a bar or even a grocery store with a beer cooler.
So what to do when a customer wants a St. Pat gift?  We don't even have beer flavored candy, although I have no doubt that it is out there. 
We dig deep into our somewhat limited experience of St. Pat's day and come up with green candy, green candy bags, shamrocks on candy bags and of course, the ole Pot of Gold (chocolate foiled covered coins) as suggestions for a St. Pat's gift.
Some of the novelty stores do carry hats, bow ties, spinning and lighted lapel decorations, long twisted pipes, shamrock decorations and such....all for those who have parties on St. Pat's day or just want to show up all decked out for the holiday.  I have to say that we have none of those items.  The day comes and goes so quickly that for us it just doesn't make sense to stock up on novelties and decorations.
And I've had some really painful and disappointing experiences with Shamrock plants.  I just don't have the luck of the Irish when it comes to keeping a healthy Shamrock around the house.
This year we are just preparing ourselves for the inevitable question:  what do you have for St. Patrick's Day?  We will show that customer our green chocolate sixlets, our green M & Ms, our green Jelly Bellys, our green Rock Candy, our green salt water taffy, our green Kiwi gummis....you get the picture....and hope that wonderful green candy can take the place of green beer!

Mary Engelbreit, You are Back!!

When we purchased Sweet Tooth in 1992, the store was sort of a hodge podge of candy, cards and gourmet cookware.  It was all rough hewn shelves, strangely understated and lodge-like.  Since we never had any retail experience, we just went along with the "decor"...that is until I went to a college reunion in St. Louis and friends took me shopping at the converted train depot.
There I found Mary Engelbreit!!  Well, not the person, but her glass-enclosed kiosk.  I was immedately taken in by the colors in her art, the bemused quotes and sayings on her cards and some of her small framed drawings.
When I came back to Tulsa, I was determined to put Mary Engelbreit in our store.  No other gift shop in Tulsa had discovered Mary and I felt confident that her gift items would really perk up our drab little shop.
Over the years, we became known as  the "Mary Engelbreit" store....sometimes I thought that Mary's followers did not even know the name Sweet Tooth.
I could spot Mary's artwork, ceramic pieces, calendars, mugs, greeting cards, etc. from a distance.  There was no denying that she had a special style and it was easily identifiable.  Even other artists and manufacturers began copying some her style.  You could find black and white checks, cherries, "flat" flowers creeping into other gift lines. 
None could truly compete with Mary Engelbreit...she was an original and always ahead of those who tried to copy her style.
A number of years ago, Mary began to disappear from the Gift Market and her Tulsa fans, who so loved the black and white, the bright reds, the whimsey of her art, were disappointed.  Sweet Tooth continued to search Mary out, but basically all that was left was her calendars and books.  Even her original card line from Sunrise Greetings was turned over to another card company.
Well, Mary is coming back...or at least some of us hope so.  Right Amy??  Today I just put out a new line of totes, iPad holders, placemats and laptop holders from a wonderful company called Suburban Silk.  Gone are the cherries and the black, white and red.  In their place is tangarine and olive green....but the fun and the whimsey of Mary Engelbreit is still alive. 
That saying, "What goes around, comes around" may just be true.  Or as Mary put it, "Wherever you go, there you are!" And Mary's art will brighten up any store and any home.  Thank goodness for artists like Mary Engelbreit.

The Story of Duck with a Hat

When we purchased Sweet Tooth September 1, 1992 we didn't know one thing about managing a gift and candy store.  In fact, I had never had a retail job...babysitting was my talent in high school.
Therefore as we moved from holiday to holiday to everyday ordering, we generally followed what the previous owner had done or what our sales reps advised us to do.  We did tweak things a bit but not much the first year.
When it came to Easter, that same approach applied.  That would have been Easter, 1993...20 Easters ago.  That year, among other chocolate items, we had what we affectionately called "The Duck with the Hat."  He was and still is a gold foil covered chocolate duck, with what appears to be a blue-ish hat on his head.  I immediately loved that chocolate duck and he became my favorite Easter item.
Year after year, Duck with a Hat appeared in our order and was always the first Easter candy to sell out...well, that is until a few years ago when Duck with a Hat slowed down and occasionally some ducks were still on the shelf after Easter.
Duck with a Hat resembles the sort of duck you would find as a illustration in a children's book.  He has that old-world look about him.  As years come and go, candy manufacturers attempt to keep up with trendy looking chocolates and many of our chocolate rabbits have a more modern design about them.
European designs are not as popular or familliar to most of our customers.  For example, for several years we attempted to sell the Perugina large chocolate egg filled with small toys...a popular item in Italy.  Our customers simply didn't get the idea or perhaps didn't want to pay a few extra dollars to have a chocolate egg different from the standard American Easter candies.
So it is with Duck with a Hat.  He may just be too old-fashioned in a world of Sponge Bob, Dora the Explorer, Hello Kitty, etc. Many of those characters have been re-designed  with tatoos and mustaches.
Nonetheless, I still love Duck with a Hat and this year I am hoping that more of our customers will see the value in a good chocolate with a nostalgic flair about him.  I am hoping he flies off the shelf and ends up in lots of Easter basket.  Join me in cheering on my old chocolate friend, Duck with a Hat.