It's 4:55 p.m. on December 24!!

It is 4:55 p.m. on December 24 and we are about to close the doors on the Christmas/Holiday season.
This year was both different and the same.
We began on Thanksgiving with the joint celebration of Thanksgivukkah...the coincidence of the first day of Chanukah occurring on Thanksgiving Day. We celebrated (and so did some of our customers) with delicious cookies from Cookiedoodle.  Two designs:  a Turkey Menorah and a Dreidle with a Turkey and the greeting:  Gobble Tov ("Tov" means good).
Because Thanksgiving occurred on the last Thursday of November (or correctly on the 4th Thursday of November) we had a great rush of 3-1/2 weeks until Christmas.  Time went by so quickly that we are just now catching our breath.
As usual, we saw many of our customers who visit us once a year, at Christmas time.  When they volunteer that information, I signal that I have been struck in the heart by that news and tell them to try harder next year to visit us at least 2 times in 2014!
Significantly as far as I know, we didn't have any customers who told us that they were shopping at Sweet Tooth because what they ordered online didn't come in, or came in and wasn't what they wanted.  I am taking this as a sign that more Tulsans are seriously shopping locally!!
We have a jovial time at the store...laughing and joking about the fun or unusual things that happen.  We rarely have grumpy customers and if we do, we work really hard to cheer that person up.
No bounced checks so far!!  If it is going to happen, it would happen now.  Let's cross our fingers on that one.
At Christmas people really love to combine a candy gift with whatever else they have purchased.  We see lots of fun stocking stuffer ideas and we are occasionally asked to help create something special.  We love doing that!
A few local celebrities have shopped at Sweet Tooth.  I won't divulge their names but we did have a couple of Tulsa mayors (hey Dewey, we didn't see you!) and some very talented musical folks. 
We are taking 2 days off.  Our After Christmas Sale begins on Friday December 27th and in January we will be off to the Gift Market.  More on that later.  In the meantime, Happy New Year from all of us to all of you.

Sweet Tooth: A Happy Place

In the midst of all the flurry which is what our store is all about at this time of the year, I realize how much I really like people!!
Most every person who comes into Sweet Tooth is looking for something special and different for their loved one or their friends.  They make such an effort to pick just the right candy or gift....they are pleased with their choices, they love getting a complimentary gift bag and they thank us over and over for what we do.
And what we do is simply what we do all the time.  It is called "doing our best".
If I every retire from Sweet Tooth I will truly miss our customers more than anything else.
Today we had a customer who brought in a glass boot.  She wanted to give the boot to her son-in-law, filled with layers of Jelly Bellys.  She was a tiny bit apologetic, asking me for the extra time it would take to get the jars of Jelly Bellys, measure out each one, carefully put them in the glass boot and then figure out a way to make sure the Jelly Bellys don't blend with each other.
As for me, I thought it was a clever idea, something fun, something that she put a lot of thought into and I really enjoyed helping her. 
In the past 20 Christmas seasons we have been asked to do all sorts of different presentations of gifts and candy.  And it is generally one of the most fun activities we have all year long.
So, hats off to Sweet Tooth customers, for their caring, for their clever ideas, for their gratitude and for being joyful people.
If you have been seeing our ads in Tulsa People and in Intermission magazine, you will know that we are thinking of Sweet Tooth as a "Happy Place".  Now you know why. 
P.S.  We have some bragging rights!  Gift Beat magazine's December issue has featured our "Happy Place" ads in their issue.  We've gone national...how fun is that?

Shopping Small

Shop Small Business Saturday, November 30 appeared to be a success story for American Express, its sponsor and many small businesses across the country.
According to a poll of shoppers, consumer awareness of Shop Small Business Saturday was up to 71% from 2012's 67%.  At Sweet Tooth we had a number of people tell us that they came into our store to shop on that day because they wanted to support small businesses like ours.
Those comments really made our day!  We gave away all the free tote bags which American Express sent us and could have used more.  And guess what?  Not all the shoppers used an American Express card.
Today on KWGS radio I listened to part of a discussion about pop up ads, banners and other advertisements on the internet.  What I heard was that people were paying less and less attention to those ads.  Occasionally I find those ads annoying...they pop up right in a middle of something I am researching and I can't find the button fast enough to get rid of them.
What does all this mean for small business in America?  One customer told me she was surprised to find out that small businesses generate the majority of consumer purchases in the U.S.  Talk about being sheltered!!  Until that moment when the customer said that to me, I had been thinking it obvious that all us "moms and pops" were the basis of consumer sales and that everyone knew that.
We've got to start all over again making people aware of how important shopping locally, shopping in individual stores, etc is to our general economy.  Think of the loss to Tulsa of Steve's Sundries store when it closes at the end of December. 
Going into a store like Steve's Sundries or Sweet Tooth where staff know your name, where they provide real customer service may still be of value to Americans.  That would certainly make our 21 years well worth all the time and effort we have given to Sweet Tooth.  Thanks, folks!! 
PS:  21 more days until Christmas.  If you are shopping for Christmas, remember to please SHOP SMALL.