Savvy Store Solutions   

Spring cleaning and tax time always seem to coincide, which inevitably leads to the question of what records your store needs to keep, and which ones it’s OK to get rid of.  I was about to say “throw away,” but that would of course be counter to the third special occasion coming up soon — Earth Day. So let’s talk about what papers you can safely recycle, either shredded or whole, to make more room in your office files.

The IRS has very definite thoughts about what you need to keep around in case they decide to audit your business. You can read all about it in Publication 583 (the IRS is so good at catchy titles). This electronic booklet has lots of helpful advice for setting up a record-keeping system, if you are new to the business world. But here is a quic...Read More

You can’t help but love a blog that starts out with: “In the world of retail, stores are serviced by two separate yet connected groups: the manufacturers who supply the merchandise and the sales force that represents them. I am a rep. These are my stories.” Can the hit TV series be far behind?

The author of the rep blog Road Rage is Meryl Hooker, who describes herself as a “Sales Rockstar.” She offers us a candid, and somewhat irreverent,  glimpse into the life of a sales rep — as well as tips for retailer success — through her fascinating blog  entries.

Meryl Hooker is not your ...Read More

Fair Trade is a phrase that is often heard in the gift industry, along with green, handmade, organic, recycled and environmentally friendly.  But what does it mean? Can any item become certified as “fair trade”?

Fair trade is a movement that, according the Charter of Fair Trade Principles, “intends to provide market access to otherwise marginalized producers, connecting them to customers and allowing access with fewer middlemen. It aims to provide higher wages than typically paid to producers as well as helping producers develop knowledge, skills and resources to improve their lives.”

Usually agricultural items are the first to be given the fair trade label, includi...Read More

This sign was part of a display of handmade African items at the New York Gift Fair, and I thought it was a great reminder of the fact that one of our jobs as retailers is to communicate the story behind the merchandise we sell. That’s something they can’t do in a big box, self-service store.

Ideally, information about our special products should be passed on personally to each customer. Although it may be hard to gauge a shopper’s interest in every item they pause to look at, noticing when a customer seems really captivated by something provides a great opportunity to offer “the story” behind the product. You, and your sales staff, should know something about where...Read More

What’s wrong with this picture?

Two things — the first, and most obvious, is that the green apples are labeled as red apples, and the red apples are labeled as green. But the most glaring problem is the fact that they were labeled wrong when I stopped in this Times Square market in the morning, and they were still labeled wrong when I went back that evening.

This tells me that no manager or owner walked the floor that day, making sure that everything was in order.  Do you walk through your shop every day, looking for items that are out of place, straightening displays and adjusting signs?  One of the few positive results of the down economy is that store owners and managers are &ldqu...Read More

I love learning something new from my sales reps, especially a little tidbit like this one: the most popular initials for monogram items today (at least for American women) spell out Mrs. Jakel.  Although I can’t confirm the popularity of M,R,S,J,A,K,E, and L scientifically, those do sound like top letters to me. Many thanks to Michelle Ciotti, our Ganz rep, for sharing this clever mnemonic device.

“Mrs. Jakel” made me think about the popularity of gift items with initials on them in today’s market.  You can find almost anything imaginable with a letter of the alphabet attached, and there is no doubt that many of these items sell very well....Read More

Last week’s blog featured several of the responses that Notes and Queries, the leading distributor of design led greeting cards, gift wrap, and stationery lines from England, received in response to a letter inviting their retail accounts to share what they’d done this past year to insure their store’s survival.

This week I am pleased to include several more of the responses that Notes & Queries received, with special thanks to Big Al Harnik and his daughter Vanessa for sharing these helpful hints from their retail accounts around the country.

...Read More

Photo credit: Town and Country Travel, “Oaxaca: Authentic Mexico”

The key to sur...Read More

If you think a sweet-heart sale is a Valentine’s Day promotion, think again. It refers to employees “sweet-hearting” a friend at the point of sale, in other words giving a discount to someone not entitled to one. It can also refer to giving a undeserved refund to a friend or acquaintance, or to handing over merchandise for free.

None of us like to think of our employees as stealing from us, but it does happen. According to a National Retail Federation survey quoted in an article in the New York Times last month, employee theft in 2008 was a stunning $15.5 billion.

“The retail industry has come to the realization that, as the Pogo comic strip said, ‘We have met the enemy, a...Read More

We all have merchandise that we would like to have gone. Perhaps it has refused to sell even at a sale price, or it’s out of date, or it just doesn’t fit with current merchandising plans. And yet we have good money tied up in these items, so we’re not quite ready to give them away.

Here are a few clearance tricks to help you bid goodbye to stubborn items that refuse to leave nicely on their own:

The first technique is BOGO, which stands for buy one, get one free. This is in essence a half price sale, because the customer gets two of ...Read More

The first days of 2010 will soon be upon us, so it is time to think about New Year’s resolutions. The recent Gifts & Dec Direct online poll showed that some 50 percent of voters in last week’s poll plan to make resolutions for their personal lives and their business. So aside from wanting to eat less and exercise more (the most common New Year’s resolutions for all Americans), what do you hope to do differently in the coming year?

I stopped in at Chiripa, a charming Artisan Crafts of the Americas shop here in Madison started by one of our former employees and her business partner, and asked them that question.

Kathryn Leide immediately said she wanted to do more networking with ...Read More