Every once in a while I get the itch to do something related to retail, yet challenging all of us to do something creative with the talent we have among our staff.
When OSU Poets and Writers under the leadership of Teresa Miller brought the novelist Khaled Housseini, author of The Kite Runner to Tulsa, I got the urge for all of our staff to take a plain kite and decorate it in any manner they wished. Occasionally, when approached by one of my ideas, there are a few sighs among the group; nonetheless everyone got to work and brought in some of the cleverest kites ever made.
When Teresa visited our store, she was thrilled to see that we had 6 or 8 kites flying from the ceiling of the store. We giggled and smiled and were glad that we took the time to turn Teresa's wonderful program into a creative project for our store.
With Halloween on the way, I thought it might be fun to take brooms and turn them into characters or themes inspired by our staff.
You will have to come by the store and see what we have done. Each of us took the challenge and put together some of the cutest brooms even made.
Alyssa is a big Sooner fan. Her broom is a horse head cut out and stitched by Alyssa herself, wearing a OU scarf. Broomer Sooner, Alyssa!! Jesse, distracted by bling, created a broom which is truly a Disco Work of Art.
We laughed the entire afternoon at the desert humor of Lisa's Broom With a View. Doris is always full of color and owls. Her Death by Candy broom will brighten up your day.
Olivia, our young free spirited T.U. nursing student created the best representation of Hippie-dom...so pink and cute.
Sabrina has taken the challenge of creating a Weeping Broom. This broom is totally in the spirit of the Halloween season.
Jeff, our T.V. star of 30 second commercials, has taken one of his alter egos and turned it into Sweeper Man.
And lastly, my broom is inspired by candy and Groucho Marx. I never knew what Hot Glue was all about until I glued some licorice wheels and wax lips onto a broom. By the way, Hot Glue melts chocolate.
What are you waiting for? Get out your glue, scissors, beads and things, put on your creative top hat and have the most fun ever being silly and clever and totally talented.
Monday, September 29, 2014
Monday, September 15, 2014
Annual Halloween Candy Concerns
The upcoming candy holiday of Halloween presents several annual concerns. Here's one: What does black candy taste like? People generally avoid candy which is black because they think that it will have a bitter taste. The same goes for black icing on cookies and cakes.
The retail lesson for today is this: why would candy manufacturers or cake and cookie bakers use an icing or color which is bitter tasting? Talk about a nose drive in sales, huh?
Get the word out: black candy is normally a berry flavored candy and tastes quite sweet, never bitter. And how could we have Halloween candy without the color black?
The second annual candy question for Halloween: why can't I buy the Giant Candy Corn in the red and white color only?
The answer is: I don't know, you just can't. Giant Candy Corn comes in an assortment and as assortments go, we cannot separate one flavor (in this case, it is cinnamon) from the other flavors.
Our best advice is to find 2 friends who like the other 2 flavors, candy corn original and chocolate. That way you can buy 3 times the amount of Giant Candy Corn, separate out the flavors for you and your 2 friends and Problem Solved!!
Here's my favorite question: why does Jelly Belly company make the gummi rats in orange, red and other such colors? Rats are not orange or red. Our customers are pretty darn savvy; they actually get it. The correct color for rats is black or white or grey. Grey is not such a great color for candy, so why not just stick with white and black?
And finally, what ever happened to the wax whistle which used to be a part of Halloween candy and had that taste sort of like teaberry? I really did love that whistle and when we first bought Sweet Tooth, we could order it for Halloween. Bring back the teaberry whistle!! My motto for Halloween season.
The retail lesson for today is this: why would candy manufacturers or cake and cookie bakers use an icing or color which is bitter tasting? Talk about a nose drive in sales, huh?
Get the word out: black candy is normally a berry flavored candy and tastes quite sweet, never bitter. And how could we have Halloween candy without the color black?
The second annual candy question for Halloween: why can't I buy the Giant Candy Corn in the red and white color only?
The answer is: I don't know, you just can't. Giant Candy Corn comes in an assortment and as assortments go, we cannot separate one flavor (in this case, it is cinnamon) from the other flavors.
Our best advice is to find 2 friends who like the other 2 flavors, candy corn original and chocolate. That way you can buy 3 times the amount of Giant Candy Corn, separate out the flavors for you and your 2 friends and Problem Solved!!
Here's my favorite question: why does Jelly Belly company make the gummi rats in orange, red and other such colors? Rats are not orange or red. Our customers are pretty darn savvy; they actually get it. The correct color for rats is black or white or grey. Grey is not such a great color for candy, so why not just stick with white and black?
And finally, what ever happened to the wax whistle which used to be a part of Halloween candy and had that taste sort of like teaberry? I really did love that whistle and when we first bought Sweet Tooth, we could order it for Halloween. Bring back the teaberry whistle!! My motto for Halloween season.
Monday, September 1, 2014
Happy 22nd Anniversary to Sweet Tooth
Today, September 1, is the 22nd anniversary of our owning Sweet Tooth Candy & Gift Co. On this day in 1992, we stepped into the store at the Farm Shopping Center to take possession of Sweet Tooth from the previous owner whose husband was transferred to Houston, forcing her to sell the store.
On that day my sister Shirley, husband Willie (our business partners at the time), my Mom and Dad and our friend and attorney Richard all gathered to sign the papers and beginning looking at the store with new eyes.
How did we get there? Along with Shirley and Willie, we already owned 2 laundromats and a cleaners. Shirley thought that we should get into another business and through the classifieds in the Tulsa World, she found Sweet Tooth, which was less than a mile from where we all lived.
We had never been in retail and really knew nothing about this business. It sounded fun, it was close to where we lived and we just did it!
The store was a bit "Farm-like" and the previous owner was a gourmet cook, so along with candy, she had a section of gourmet cookware....long before the Food Channel or any other cookware licenses from well known chefs.
The next summer in our Sidewalk Sale, we sold all the cookware and began searching for giftware which we could add to the store. Many Sweet Tooth customers know that our first big category was Mary Engelbreit cards and other products. Some people even referred to us as "The Mary Engelbreit Store".
A move across the parking lot landed us in a larger store and our last move to our current location on Harvard about 14 years ago put us in Mid-town and in a purple haven of gifts, jewelry and candy. Although the walls have been recently painted a sea foam green and Mary Engelbreit is no longer the focus of our gift side, we are still in our Happy Place.
We are taking a big risk posting a photo of Jeff and me outside our first Sweet Tooth store on our Facebook page....as you will soon notice, Fashion was not a big part of our presentation.
So Happy Anniversary to us, to all the staff who have worked with us, to my family which has always supported us and to the thousands of customers who have made it possible for us to spend most of our time in our Happy Place.
Check our photo our on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SweetToothOK?ref=bookmarks
On that day my sister Shirley, husband Willie (our business partners at the time), my Mom and Dad and our friend and attorney Richard all gathered to sign the papers and beginning looking at the store with new eyes.
How did we get there? Along with Shirley and Willie, we already owned 2 laundromats and a cleaners. Shirley thought that we should get into another business and through the classifieds in the Tulsa World, she found Sweet Tooth, which was less than a mile from where we all lived.
We had never been in retail and really knew nothing about this business. It sounded fun, it was close to where we lived and we just did it!
The store was a bit "Farm-like" and the previous owner was a gourmet cook, so along with candy, she had a section of gourmet cookware....long before the Food Channel or any other cookware licenses from well known chefs.
The next summer in our Sidewalk Sale, we sold all the cookware and began searching for giftware which we could add to the store. Many Sweet Tooth customers know that our first big category was Mary Engelbreit cards and other products. Some people even referred to us as "The Mary Engelbreit Store".
A move across the parking lot landed us in a larger store and our last move to our current location on Harvard about 14 years ago put us in Mid-town and in a purple haven of gifts, jewelry and candy. Although the walls have been recently painted a sea foam green and Mary Engelbreit is no longer the focus of our gift side, we are still in our Happy Place.
We are taking a big risk posting a photo of Jeff and me outside our first Sweet Tooth store on our Facebook page....as you will soon notice, Fashion was not a big part of our presentation.
So Happy Anniversary to us, to all the staff who have worked with us, to my family which has always supported us and to the thousands of customers who have made it possible for us to spend most of our time in our Happy Place.
Check our photo our on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SweetToothOK?ref=bookmarks
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