Stayin Alive in Retail!!

What's next on our Going to the Market schedule?  It is taking inventory.
At Sweet Tooth we have some of the best inventory takers.  Everything is done by hand or in these days, photos on cell phones.
By the time we leave for the Gift Market, we generally know which gift and candy lines are not going to make it in 2013.  And our mailbox is flooded with promotional material from all sorts of companies.  In addition, emails are flying, attempting to get us interested in visiting all the showrooms at the Gift Market to see new products.  (Footnote:  it is pretty ridiculous how many promotional post cards we receive AFTER we return from the Market.  Some companies just can't get their act together!)
Our Going to Market file folder is full of possibilities.  Don't you just love life when it is full of possibilities?  Hope is on the horizon, hope that we find the newest, the trendiest, the coolest, the best priced....on and on.
Without inventories of what we have in the store, we might just order items we already have in stock.  We aren't perfect!  So it is worth while to get our ducks in a row.  Jeff especially likes to take pictures of displays in the store, so when we are in the Dallas Market we can see what is actually on the shelves in the store.
We have a Staff Meeting before going to Market so that we can talk about our approach to looking for new lines.  It is sort of like those Survivor television shows:  we discuss and then we vote gift lines or candy OUT of the store.  If a line can't survive 7 or 8 Sweet Tooth staffers, then we apply our version of Darwin's Survival of the Fittest.
Just so you know, there is a great deal of laughter and fun while taking inventory, while walking miles and miles on tile floors at the Gift Market and sharing some lunches and dinners in Dallas. Retail:  we are going where we have never been before or have we? Let's check the inventory and the photos!!