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!