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.