Are there enough new product introductions? Do you find some categories glutted? Or not enough in others?

Well, I think candles might be a glutted category. There are only so many scents a person can stand in their home at once. I think we sometimes get bombarded with scents. I always welcome new introductions in home accessories. However, we are seeing more iron than we should ever want to see. I would like to see more French country pieces, and more different bust-type figures. It seems like lots of people are using the same molds to do those garden figures, so I would like to see interesting new introductions in that line. Plus, we always need new introductions in artwork, because once an image has been seen, it's there forever.

We'd always like to have more products to choose from, but we make it through. We manage to keep finding new product to bring in, but it's a challenge because we're changing all the time — especially on the gift side. The stationery side of the business doesn't change very much. In gift merchandise it's hard to find just the right things. There's lots out there, but it's not all necessarily a good match. We don't usually have trouble finding seasonal merchandise, but things like frames and candleholders — ongoing home decor items like that — are harder to find. With a whole new type of merchandise, you take that as you find it, but you always need to stock frames and candleholders, and it's hard to find new and exciting ones.

For us, I'd have to say that there are enough new product introductions. Our customers keep coming back. Since we are in such a small town, we completely change our inventory every month. In-stead of buying seasonally or just the new introductions, we have to get creative with the new things that are available, to fit the theme we've decided on. But I can always find new fun things that I like. I would that say for higher-end home decor, I can't think of anything that's a problem. But for the gift basket category, it's a little harder to fill that niche. It's hard to find good products at a lower price point that are still really attractive and have nice packaging. There's also a lot of food items, but not enough personal care products.

When I go to market, I'm amazed at the sheer number of products. But for the last couple of years I've been unimpressed with the variety. When Zehnder's Magic of the Seasons first started, we had an animal print tree and a peacock tree. I took a risk buying it, since our market is very conservative. We did it for impact, but it sold like crazy. There's nothing like that now, just the red and the white and the Santas. A lot of retailers have been conservative with their buying, and manufacturers have been playing it safe in their designing. There's a lot of copycatting. Plus a lot of companies license the same artists. They're popular, but it all looks the same. I'd buy the different stuff if they had it, and our customers would too. We don't need more Christmas, but we could sell more fall decor if we had it.