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!!"