If you were to add to your merchandise mix, what category would you choose?

We mainly import one-of-a-kind accent and furniture pieces, so when people asked if we could get three of this or six of that, the answer was always, "sorry." We wanted to be able to say "yes" so we recently added an upholstered furniture line from American Leather. We've discovered that people who used to buy only one or two things, now buy a full room. When we saw this boom at the beginning of the year we thought we'd better work fast to take advantage of it. We chose American Leather because they deliver in four weeks instead of the usual 12. We've expanded our space to showcase European outdoor merchandise, and we've also added jewelry and purses that sell well.

Our current success is the addition of the Brighton line of purses, organizers, and sunglasses, as well as jewelry that is well priced. We choose product that fits with the Waterford, Lladro, Armani, and other lines we already offer. I'm looking to expand even further in this area, including more depth in the Swarovski lines. Our customers respond immediately to these categories, and they respond often. Instead of having to think about purchasing a figurine once every four months or so to mark a life cycle event, they seem ready and willing to respond to jewelry at any time. That also means we see them more often.

There's a great market for furniture that I'd love to expand on, but you need a lot of square footage to showcase it. We do carry Sticks, a full line of handcrafted and -painted furniture, and we do very well with it. One of the things I like about furniture is that you have more of a relationship with the customer. You spend a lot more time with them, and that develops more loyalty. We'd love to branch out into other lines, and maybe some additional home furnishing pieces like mirrors and lamps. Right now, we're looking for a third location, but it would be the same size as our other two. So we'll probably just stick to our mix of funky general giftware and handcrafted items.

We are pretty much a Christmas shop, but people are getting to the point where they've done about as much as they can do inside the house. And I think every type of ornament and Santa has already been done. So now people are looking to decorate outside in the yard with decorations such as spiral wire trees that can withstand the weather. We've tried a few and they generally sell through, so we might try some more. Even in summer, people are looking for walkway decorations and garden flags. We dabbled in little summer wreaths that did well, so we might consider expanding into more outside decorating, particularly with artificial florals.