Dance cards are those archaic little booklets that were given to a young lady at cotillions and balls. With a teeny pencil tied with a ribbon attached, young men would write in their names on the young lady’s card, claiming her dancing company for each song. Hence the expression “pencil me in.”
Of course, an empty dance card bespeaks a wallflower.
Now I assume you don’t want your consignment or resale or thrift shop to be a wallflower.
So if you use a Google calendar or any calendar on your web site, whatever you do, don’t leave it looking like there’s nothing going on at your shop. You and I known there’s plenty going on…so why not let your adoring public in on it?
The shop’s calendar only has 3 entries…and all, alas, are negative.
What could this shop have put on their calendar? Well, Happy 4th of July. Fall fashions coming soon. Check out our new book department. And that’s not even counting any promotional events. Or town happenings. Or even inspiring quotes.
Look at all that image-enhancing space you could use.
Absolutely nothing out-of-the-ordinary happening at your shop? Then list the ordinary things: Come see our new window display or Monday’s a big incoming day…so get on in Tuesday to get first dibs. Or create a promotional event that needs no more than a name and attitude: Wacky Wednesday if every customer wearing a wacky pair of shoes gets a WHACK (Wonderfully Humongously Adorable Consignment Knick-knack, e.g. a pick from your basket full of beribboned little treasures that have been saved from your ODs)
Can’t think of a THING to put on your shop’s calendar? I can think of 229 of them for you…here’s one:
224. August 19 is Coco Chanel’s birthday. She was the first person to popularize menswear for women and, of course, created the “little black dress.” Use your imagination: what’s the “little black dress” of home decor or kidswear? –Idea #224 from Resale’s BEST Promotions. *
* And don’t miss idea #214 in Resale’s BEST Promotions about Encouraging Incoming: #214 is JUST the idea you need in the middle of July, and is the first of FIVE ideas on that topic you can use on your “dance card” calendar and in your shop.
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 
This has become one of the ‘fun’ challenges for me. Finding something to shout out daily and let folks know we’re here and we want to stay on the radar. Some days it’s just a ‘song of the day’ as a youtube link and what is your guilty pleasure 80’s song?
[…] Here you go, clicking an Events Calendar tab, anticipating social occasions wall-to-wall: a girls’ night out event or a “Blondes Get 25% off today” offer or maybe a day when you can pet some animals up for adoption from the shelter…and the calendar’s empty. What a let-down. More on this: Is your dance card empty? […]