An early holiday gift to your shop from Auntie Kate
Do you know a shopkeeper who’d like more loyal customers? Customers who are more motivated to stop in and shop more frequently? Who adore the shop? Who brag on the shop, who visit the shop first before any other source?
Posted in Shopkeeping talk | Tagged blogging, profit, success | 3 Comments »
Many consignment, thrift and resale stores have a holiday party, and most of these involve gift exchanges. While these are fun, they can also be fraught with “what was s/he thinking?” worries. If you’d rather have some fun and friendship, with a big side dish of community involvement, here’s an idea I really like.
What will it be? Model cars? Paper dolls? A crib mobile that plays Can’t Get No Satisfaction? Do your darnedness, exchange gifts and laughs and funny stories of when you were a kid…
and take them to your local charity’s toy drive.
Yup. THAT’s the
Posted in Shopkeeping talk | Tagged employees, holidays | 1 Comment »
1.
3.Give this now-circled page to your spouse, significant other, life partner, parents, kids, having stapled to it, your “Life Wish List”… anything from a world cruise to the finest higher education you could wish for a child or grandchild… that you plan on earning with
There. Now everyone knows what you want for your present (and future!) And aren’t you happy you won’t be getting one of those cellophaned “Christmas towers” from Walmart.
Posted in Really good ideas, Shopkeeping talk | Tagged holidays, resale shopkeeping | 3 Comments »
You don’t have to do it all 100%, 100% of the time.I’ve watched shopkeepers drive themselves to tears (and/or cuss words they’d be ashamed to have their mothers hear) over details which really matter so little. True story: In the beginning of my shop, I would spend another half-hour or more trying to get the daily total to balance to the penny. And I am talking penny. Then one day (or late evening, actually) it come to me: it didn’t matter. If I was off 57 cents or even $3. My half hour would have been better spent on any number of things, and more joyfully spent as well.
So stop and think:
Would that extra hour tweaking your display or your Facebook promotion really be worth it? Answer: Yes, if that’s what you like to do and have an hour to do it in. No, if there are matters more pressing that you could be doing, that would make a markedly-deeper impact on your goal. Or that simply
For me, it was colorizing the earrings. Okay, I’m weird. But I’m guessing you have your own little weirdnesses too, and I hereby give you permission to do what’s important to you and your shop. I promise I won’t mention the dust bunnies lurking in that corner over there.
Posted in Shopkeeping talk | Tagged resale shopkeeping | 9 Comments »
We all know how awful one-use wrapping paper is. (There’s better ways to present gifts than using dye-heavy paper, made of trees and chemicals and shipped around the world only to be regulated to the garbage within minutes. Never thought about it? Read this.)
(Side note: Make this topic into a promotion for your consignment, resale or thrift shop. Two ideas from Too Good to be Threw.)
So let’s use more eco-friendly paper and our imagination. Yes, kraft* paper can be not only interesting and fun, but beautiful. These ideas are from a Pinterest board of their own over on HowToConsign.com’s Pinterest.
* (Side note: Kraft paper is called that because the German word for “strong” is “kraft.” Kraft paper is made to be strong, which is why those brown paper bags from the grocery can each hold, oh, I dunno, about $160 worth of groceries.)
Who doesn’t love polka dots? Kraft paper, paint sample cards, and a punch = sophisticated wrap!
Posted in Really good ideas, Shopkeeping talk | Tagged holidays | 2 Comments »
Too Good to be Threw is the flagship site of the TGtbT Family of Sites for the Professional Resalers
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 