Which of the spring holidays is your most profitable, and how do you promote it?

Valentine's Day and Mother's Day are both profitable for us. We bring in orchids and small gift items especially for them. Other big events include the Concours d' Elegance, which is a classic car show, and the AT&T ProAm, a famous golf tournament at Pebble Beach in February. To promote spring holidays, we'll do an advertorial in the Carmel Pinecone, a local paper. Both tourists and locals read it. That's how we market ourselves: by personalizing our store and whatever special new item we found for the occasion. We also hold "art openings" for local artists. Usually they're very profitable: Even if people don't buy art, they'll buy gifts while they're here for an event.

Bridal showers are our best spring occasion. Aside from Christmas, from the middle of January to the middle of May is our busiest time because we're in the middle of the wedding season. To promote within the shop, we design each display table around a different theme. Lingerie or personal showers, for example, are fun. Others might be focused on the kitchen and linens. We also exhibit at bridal shows, advertise in regional bridal publications, and send out postcards to mailing lists of names we receive from those publications. However, last year was one of the first times we didn't need to market ourselves as aggressively as usual because we've established ourselves as the premier place in the area for wedding invitations.

Easter is still our biggest spring holiday, but it has really dropped off compared to a couple of years ago. Partially it depends when it falls: When it's early in the year we don't do as well as when it falls later. Also, we haven't seen as much to buy. Four or five years ago there were quite a few things for Easter but lately we haven't found nearly the items that there used to be. We start promoting Easter just after the first of the year, and we do it all in-store. We do our main display in our 15-by-20-foot foyer entryway. We use that area to promote the upcoming holiday, whatever it might be. If it's not all Easter, at least one corner or wall will be. We'll do a window leading up to the shop as well.

We do well for Valentine's Day, but equally big is the entire month of May, because we have Mother's Day, graduation, weddings, and confirmations. We always anticipate a good Valentine's Day, so we beef up our fine jewelry selections, and do a promotion centered around the guys. We serve wine and cheese, and try to get them shopping early, usually the Thursday evening of the prior week. We've never really done much for Easter; my buying has never been geared around it. In May we sell a lot of cards for Mother's Day. Jewelry sells for graduation and confirmation gifts, too. For weddings we promote a line of Romanian glass, especially the champagne glasses. And we always offer free gift-wrapping.