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.