AROUND THE STORE....

these photos are from a cyber friend!!! she picked them off the blogs........i am so grateful for my cyber buddies..... and always love the diferent views, skill levels and wild ideas out there....thanks michelle!!!

destination strategies

we are out in the boondocks so we have to be a destination store....we have to be a store people make an effort to come to...., make a trip to.......we dont have drive by or other retail around us.....

i wish there were more books on destination stores....john shallert has a great program for one...but it takes a week and is far away ....i saw him once and he talked about it.... one of his questions was ...how far does your store draw from?

.HERE ARE SOME OF OUR WAYS TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN.....some destination strategies we use and have seen others use....these ideas are how we try to get them to want to return....

***** OFFER REAL VALUE...... get what they really like at a price they appreciate.... a price they think is really worth it....

***** THE BIG AND/or THE WEIRD..and dramatic displays.....as a start when they get in our parkinglot they see our 14 ft tinman....he stands by our entrance.....inside, things in the big and/or weird category would come and go...but weve had 9 ft cabinets.....trellises inside.... huge paintings...dr.tools....cow skulls, horrid 1950s lamps..fabulous victorian mirrors...like right now we have a 7 ft tall...4 ft wide white one with columns and carving.... or a 6 ft sign saying be nice or leave...

one great retailer i know had a truck brought into her store for her openhouse.....a neat old junky one.....and used it for a display.... another year she added a room and suprised her customers at the openhouse...every year she tried to out do herself for her openhouse.....
*****LOTS OF FUN CHEAP STUFF....

these things really bring us a lot of people...tons under 10$...windows, parts, the 1$ jewelry...the half price room.... for this you really need room...i stick ours in out of the way places.....i love shopping in anyones junk room....

****SOME BIG WONDERFUL EXPENSIVE STUFF

this kind of reminds them they arent in a totally low class junk store!!!

i buy the best in a line sometimes just for the excitement of having it...like the fabulous 4 ft square clock from peacock park design, see above........the price is over 300 but its job is to set the atmosphere too....it gets a little awe....or the big 80$ tin fish ...i got 3 in february and all have sold..i have dozens of birdhouses under 20$ and i would love to have one big fabulous 100$ one to sit in with them.....what i really dont want is average stuff overpriced..if i was a fabric store i would probably have a bit of the best and highest price in the line.....

****BEING GREEN AND REHABBED AND REPURPOSED.....

this makes us a big draw....the recycled and used furniture hits the right price points for young families and they like the eclecticness and uniqueness of our creations...or the benches made out of beds, and all our rehabbing ...or using our black buffets for tv tables..... and they definitely like our prices , so much lower than ethan allen...etc....
or coming to us for cool old parts for for their projects.....this one really works for us....

*****GREAT EVENTS******we have 4 events...and work hard to make them work and bring in the people...in other words be good enough to bring them back the next time...i chat online with other stores and have learned of some wild events..... where people line up to come....i know its possible.....

i have one buddy who takes a group of her customers to paris to shop!!!

and another who opens up her farm to other vendors and has a big fall market

...and another who has an easter egg hunt and puts up with women fighting over the prizes....

a customer clued me in on events a long time ago.... she has a smaller store than ours and buys from us, and has a smaller inventory......she mentioned her christmas openhouse brought in 30,000!!!!! that got my attention!!!...after that i tried to do just what she said.......basically she dolled the store all up...to the hilt....served food and sent out postcards..... she had a great mailing list...which we did too...but we only had one event, the yardsale, back then.but she got me thinking about a christmas event and boy am i thankful to her......now we have 4 events....feb sale...garden party....yardsale!!! and the christmas openhouse.....

if i could get into the archives from the old country business forum i would love to relate some of the wonderful events we heard about from the members....... but i dont think they saved the archives....

*****THE UNEXPECTED.and change . maybe this is easier with antiques....a great example was when we bought 4000 old coke crates....or when i got a pile of 7 victorian caskets..or one of our cupboards in hot pink.....anyone who remembers seeing that , probably wants to come back and see whats happening ...i love buying interesting stuff....just for the fun of it sometimes ...

something i hear customers say is that we always have something different, that the store is never the same.,....we work hard on that GOOD BUZZ....and our store really does change , and fast... when big furniture sells..that happens a lot and keeps the store stirred up....or when a big truckload comes in......

in the more static parts like where the smalls sell its harder to keep it exciting.........we do try to drastically rearrange sometimes....i try for once a year at least...

******SOME HANDMADE.....i know chinese is cheaper....but i love big handmade things....like our 6 ft long signs made out of old fence and old tin....and fun signs made here in carribean colors....plus our own big neat architectural cabinets from old parts...having lots of stuff that is truly one of a kind is what i really like....

A NICHE......i think this is crucial....what ever you are good at or want to be known for....just go over the top for it...

have the biggest selection, or the best selection,or the cheapest prices,or the most beautiful , any of those could help build a niche for a store....a niche seems to be the secret of a lot of going stores...

here are some stores i know and their plot to become a destination in their field.......

..a gift store + vera bradley

a gift store+full fabric service

a gift store+making lake flags...

a girly gift store....with fabulous display and gift bags that look as good as the gift...plus shes a great marketer who gets the ceos and dr.s and other bosses to buy her gorgeous gift baskets for their office workers..........

a gift store.... with antiques and gold pandora beads....she mentioned a case of beads with 60,000$ in inventory...

a gift store +a great gourmet section

a gift store + a gift basket business

a gift store+ a big pampered pet business....

a gift store + supplies and lessons....

im not sure i know very many who just make it on gifts alone...

if anyone knows a book on destination businesses i would love to read it........

we are a destination store to a nice degree..it could be to a lot NICER degree!!! ..but i know first you have to get the customers in ....

some ways to GeT THE customers IN , in THE FIRST PLACE..

.HOW WE DID IT....

• word of mouth, satisfied or even happy excited customers....our referral system...this is the best....
• our bill boards
• repeating ads in newspapers.......weve had tons of 6 week runs of small display ads..... over and over.locally and in nearby newspapers.......
• big ad campaignes for our events...using our mailinglist right from the start.....
• the greenoak website http://www.greenoakantiques.com/ which is mainly a billboard for the store.... not a selling site..barely even organized....but it does show what the store is like.....it could be even simpler like our daughters http://www.bellachicinteriors.com/ both are mainly eyecandy...+ the basic info...
• .flyers, which we try to put out lots of places...
• networking , wherever we go...

then they get here....and its all about if they liked it enough to come back....thats where destination strategies come in...

A NEW STORE TALK SITE;;;;;;

http://strictlybusiness.ipbfree.com/index.php?act=idx

where you can talk to other stores.....

word on the street.... vera report....... carol who works here at the store went to the big vera bradley outlet sale yesterday.....she said the crowd was way down....and that the stock didnt look like returns because she saw big unopened boxes under tables....also said there werent as many people buying huge piles like last year..... also she said the hottest items were;;;;glasses cases,umberellas, dog collars and curling iron covers......

then when she got home they had sent an email aout that they were taking further markdowns......bags she got for 18 on the sale day were 10.....

we dont sell vera but i have friends who do....and this info is mainly for them...

more bad advice...marketing....

i visit a couple of cyber pLaces which are all about marketing.. one is a big pink girly foo foo site............and another, a good teck site full of internet marketers....and there are other places too where they encourage marketing-- first and foremost... ....from selling you a site, to selling you a webinar, to sending you to a marketing retreat...its endless.......,.... and often very authoritative as they push marketing as the most important part of a business... advice like ... live your pink dream...market right and it will happen.... keep on trying..buy this webinar....get your google up etc etc... market market market...

now for my DEBUNKING..
.take me...i was hurt in first grade by my music teacher.she kind of called me a liar.....i was so bad at singing she thought i was faking it, she didnt believe i couldnt sing the nbc notes.....then there is this BOYLE woman....ok, lets say we both have a dream of being famous singers....and we both try to get national attention....we both have the same idea, we both have the same marketing plan...it works.......we both get to the big tryout..... our marketing was equal...
but i fall flat , they heckle me, ..
and then she comes on to show her thing...and this happens.... [click below]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk
to me this shows your actual product , what you are presenting is the CRUCIAL THING...no matter what the experts say...if its crapola, like my singing voice, its not going to happen.the market is cruel......no matter how good the marketing...

so imho... DONT TAKE MARKETING ADVICE FROM MARKETERS.... until after you have the good enough product... do your job first.... get critical , is your thing really a good fit for the market.... dont ask the marketers ...duh... ....... its your job to know your product and your field and your target customers..the marketing guys probably dont really know your field.....and its their job to help you market to your field...... ..
.
green oak markets all the time....we do a huge lot of marketing....im not against marketing ...but i keep my main focus on my store and how its really working.. .. so i have something to market....

WORD ON THE STREET

WE SELL TO A GUY WHO DOES SHOWS ALL around THE COUNTRY AND I LOVE GETTING HIS REPORTS.....HE JUST GOT BACK FROM THE BIG FLEA IN TEXAS , MARBURGER MAYBE?, AND THE BIG ONE IN ATLANTA..LAKELAND I THINK...

the pic isnt him ...but you get the idea..... he has a box truck...

his report this time was...[ the dealer buzz...]

***its all about white....duh ... tone on tone...not pure ...like the peacock park booth probably...

***grey is over, ha!!! i just painted a beautiful vanity french grey...

****never utter the word shabby....we all still carry the look but shes in bankruptsy and even worse its in target...and to my buddy and i , we know we carried it, along with lots of the antique world, way before she got into the picture.... and think the look is still really strong...im going to have a lot of it as long as it keeps selling thats for sure....white has been around for hundreds of years....i love english country and if thats not shabby i dont know what is!!..love it...

****the texas show was a big dissappointment....not as much buying as usual ...lots of his usual big wholesale buyers just werent there....dropped off the face of the earth as he says...

but he did get to party with the big shots in a tent with booze.... which he loves....even tho his opinion of the famose who arent really in the actual business of selling and are the medias new experts on the antique and decorating business isnt too high....TO PUT IT MILDLY..

..he knew a guy who sold a light fixture for 32,000$$$ and we groaned at that...i forgot to ask him if he sold his deer head painted like a holstein...white with spots... maybe you saw him...anyway its always so nice to hear his take on the world.....

****the big chicago show he does got cancelled...the botanical garden show..where bunny williams husband had a booth.!!!...i got to see that show 2 yrs ago!!!omg.... garden stuff from the castles of europe..bunny williams had a metal full size dog for 6500$ there..... and our stuff too in franks booth...he buys most of our neatest decorator stuff and also much of our industrial stuff....

*****the atlanta show....... not too good either.......

***he thinks antiques has hit the wall...and hes retiring in a year or 2...i will miss him so much...i learn the trends from him....hes been into industrial for several years, white for ages too, and knows a lot of big time decorators.. and hes a long time customer and friend...

****2 people have been telling me about pink and orange and amy butler.... the new colors for the 30 and unders.....im not sure how to incorporate this info...but i have to respect it, knowing my sources...and my local support is definitely young mothers.....im a lot more at home with frank and the steampunkers ....dang...

*** im hearing some good.....but not enough...

if feels like about a C- kind of start for the year....

i have some buddies who are doing great...and boy is it good to hear from them.... i know its not all bad.....2 old friends on the new strictly business forum are actually up ...i really listen to them.....

something to join

http://the350project.net/home.html
this sounds like a good promotion for us with stores...

AND HERE IS A NEW RETAIL BLOG...SHE HAS 2 STORES... and a fun view of the world... http://busybeingfriv.blogspot.com/

raise your prices

well, im hearing this in advice to stores to help them survive.... and i just dont buy it.... heres one example im seeing against this idea .......we wholesale and very few are buying..... the main ones left are the cheapest guys...the ones who sell in the mid to low range.....they are the cheapest buyers and dont mark up much....one bought all my flow blue and another bought all my crocks...... so, by cheap i dont mean they dont carry the good high class stuff....they do....and have the money to buy it....but they buy it right and sell it right...
thats a good survival plot in antiques...anyway..... and its always been a good plot for our store....
....YOU CAN COME HERE ,,,, http://strictlybusiness.ipbfree.com/index.php?act=idx for lots of store talk....its just starting and needs more talkers.....!! give it a try....

hard time plans......

its pretty bad here in the hoosier state...and we are feeling the crunch ....im hoping the weather has a lot to do with it....but for now we are hanging in there and doing some things differently.....things that i hope help us in these hard times.....our state is truly hurting....and waiting for worse ahead becasue of the auto industry situation....
but here are some things
THAT SHOULD HELP
***FLUFFING UP all the merchandise as much as possible....rehabbing, repainting,bringing out of the deep corners, refluffing.... like making new wreaths out of the parts and pieces we have...
*****CLEANING , oiling up and small repairs....this kindof thing can make a big difference with our inventory
**REPRICE...this im doing to things that have been here too long....im pricing way lower to just get rid of them..... i like this better than putting so much on sale...
****digging into spare vintage stuff at home to put back on the selling floor...... this has really added up....like a barbie pile i paid 400$$ for and several big oil paintings i never found out about, and some cars we paid a few hundred for....plus lots of little stuff
****MALLS... i dont care for malls , they are so much work for the money... we sell more in a weekend than i will probably get in a month out of the booths.......but in this economy im going into 2 again.....and hoping for 1000 a month, that would be good!!!....from each....we have our garden iron in them....im not trying antiques....the idea of someone else selling our stuff is pretty nice....and im really in a good location in one...countryside on us 30...east of pierceton..... its a really nice mall...
****ETSY... we are trying this...with my dil...and with stuff thats little and just laying around..
***CUTTING BACK ON SPENDING.....I HATE THIS PART...NEEDLESS TO SAY.....im really cutting back on several companies...and watching my ordering ...
****PRICING A BIT LOWER.... especially on average things......
*****and the biggie ONLINE SELLING... with my dil in charge and doing all the work...... who knows...i have resisted this for a long time....but she is proposing a new way to do it, that cuts down the stores cost ...

****CUTTING EXPENSES ..... we dont want to lay off and we cant change our biggest expenses...health insurance, house payments, payroll, etc etc , so we are trying to watch the little things .
im not into panic mode at all.......our retail only down around 4 %.....im a little stressed....but hey im type A so its no biggie to me..im always stressed and worrying and pushing.....i figure WE can just make it work...lol... im more likely to do another swot test than mope around or feel hopeless........i really think we can figure out something that fits our situation.......like we always have.... we have had to change before and we have wonderful customers... the really serious thing for us is the loss of much of our wholesale....the stores and show dealers we used to sell to have just slowed way down or closed....thats hard to change....or fix....i love wholesale the most....but im going for better and better retail.... and i think we have the staff to do that...

the good thing.. is this should build some better habits.... im very good at spending..THATS MY STRONG SUIT .maybe this will teach me to be a little more selective....

so im into HANG IN THERE and hard work and persistence.....

word on the street...

im hearing some good reports from show people.... it tells me folks are still shopping.... especially the adventurous shoppers we know....the ones looking for something really interesting and different...
and even tho our wholesale is down terribly...our retail is still good.... and it has a lot to do with our young homeowners.... discussed here by my buddy feathers ;
http://strictlybusiness.ipbfree.com/index.php?act=idx she talks about attracting the 20 to 30 somethings... and why they are still buying...
i cant post it exactly but i think its under.. hows it going...
we are getting lots of young marrieds....probably mostly from our old customers families and word of mouth.
that strictly business forum is only days old...and room for lots more members!!!! PLEASE CHECK IT OUT....


im trying to figure out some plots about the indie shoppers..... they love it if they get to our store....but not sure how to advertize to get them initially......

and heres a good discussion of the great outside the box kind of shopping....AT THE FLEA MARKET.... read all about it here from a fellow junker.. http://vintageindie.typepad.com/vintage_indie/page/2/ its on march 27....

. and heres her blog http://www.rhubarb-reign.blogspot.com/

outside the box.....DO YOUR OWN THING

one of my favorite ads is this girl and the words ;

you can DO YOUR OWN THING at greenoak...

its kind of perfect for our adventurous customers....

to me this is a great time to be outside the box..... the old retail is kind of boring and over in a lot of ways....

we cant be like the department stores....because they have half off sales all the time...

we cant be like tjmaxx and hobby lobby...because they are way cheaper and full of our old companies merchandise...and its totally on sale or will be...

we sure dont want to look like hallmark....because its so everywhere and boring.......

we cant depend on our old favorite companies, they are gone or now selling to the big boxes or online..

and .

people are so ready for not made in china.....

SO, the best thing might just be to be more you...

MY PLANS ARE TO GO WITH THE THINGS THAT MAKE US DIFFERENT....

that would be...

..antiques at the new lower prices

wierd cheap stuff

fun barn relics, for porch and patio

new and old together, show the antique furniture in modern ways

fabulous new companies....if i can find them

and rehabbed and recycled things....this is big and growing for us...

and the biggest neatest instore displays i can manage...

and reasonable prices....not the right time for gallery pricing for me...

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