Green Oak Shop Talk

web life

2011-02-21T05:55:00.000-08:00

I LOVE FACEBOOK... and trying to learn it as well as i can www.facebook.com/greenoakantiques my daughters is working the best of any ive seen....bella chic... we have over 1200 fans now.... so im pretty thrilled with that....

AN IKKY SITUATION....im on an all female forum for girly stores and boutiques.... well one is opening a new store and another is asking the rest of us for small donations for flowers for her opening....heck i can hardly manage my own pathetic social life,,,,i dont want to mess with anything like sending 3$ to a paypal account for flowers to a forum member....... and there are about 50 women on the forum.all with life events and changes and celebrations...i cant deal with it...i can say good luck on line but thats about all im up for...
.....so now im feeling like the oddball..especially if im the only one who doesnt do it... ..but i just dont want to start all that....
i feel funny about it.... im already weird because im past year 5 in business,and a bit bigger,and im not really what they call a boutique, and have what i would say is a lot harder view of business,

BLOGGING... I like it,,,,but facebook is getting way more interaction and interest.... the blog world is so wonderful and rich....and if your path is towards national celebrity or getting into magazines or even finding kindred spirits its a good path... ...but for driving people to my store its not really a very strong part....... what ive found is my favorite folks who ive met blogging are so dang far away from indiana!!! they will probably never get here... i still love hearing from them/you tho!!!

so ive kind of changed my view of blogging , maybe either for

my own entertainment and expression and at the same tme maybe try and make http://www.magpiecottage.blogspot.com/ ... more and more about the actual store and hope to appeal to my customers and folks who come to us...

..so i guess i m going to think about my blogs as for store and all about the store experience and the fun people who come thru our doors......i dont see the value for GREEN OAK , the store, for me to try and cultivate a big blogging network out there in the blog world...i have to remember that my thing is local not national.... but with some wonderful national cyber friends..who i love to hear from....
i love brainstorming and wonky store talk.... im so disappointed that this blog and the forum i tried to start didnt turn into that.... i just dont think you can beat real back and forth among others in the same boat...getting feedback from others is so good.. but its not happening very much.......if anyone ever finds a good active store forum i would love to hear...one more like me .furniture, gifts, garden rehabb, ..not mainly clothes and jewelry...

new website.... heres what we picked... i just love it..my daughter in law did the hard work .... i critiqued!!! .i just dont know!!!! http://www.greenoakantiques.com/

i want to talk talk talk...and not be the oddball...but maybe i really a the oddball...whatever!!!
hugs...

selling on line....we are trying it again...in a teeny way...seems like every january we get that bug....ITS NEVER WORKED SO FAR...EXCEPT EBAY IN THE OLD DAYS...

THNKING ABOUT.

...GOOGLE AD WORDS

...CRAIGS LISt

FACEBOOK.... any ideas?

making a store calendar with store pictures to give away

learning curve....trying to use vista print better..

.trying to learn how to get cool images from my ipad onto my computer...

..im having fun with moxier collage on my ipad..

.;i still cant lay out my pictures like i would like to on my blog....

my imaginary board of directors and back up and cyber helpers have all come from me being out here on the web and luckliy bumping in to them....... and i am so thankful,

MY SON JON , WHEN WE HAVE A STIKKY SITUATION TO TALK OVER OR DECIDE ON STILL ASKS WHAT DO YOUR INTERNET BUDDIES SAY ABOUT THIS?

event theory.....

2011-02-20T04:02:00.000-08:00

we are in the middle of our annual february sale.... its going great and feels like a better year all around!!! lets hope..... his year we dropped most of our newspaper ads and no radio ads...and sales went up..

..we used our wonderful customer list to send out postcards,.... our email list....our facebook and spent 60$ on local targeted facebook ads.... and the weather was good for a change....so what worked? who knows..

our events have been great...we do them over and over...and hopefully the customers know its real and worth coming to...i wouldnt do spur of the moment events.... ours are february sale....garden party....yardsale and the holiday openhouse...each has its own personality and reasons for being....

im just thrilled with facebook and trying to learn the best ways to use it.... www.facebook.com/greenoakantiques

also this year we have revamped our website..... i hope it doesnt mess us up in the search engines..... links to the old website are probably gone.... its over my head... heres the new one.... http://www.greenoakantiques.com/

the main thing about repeating events is that it had to be good enough the first time so that the buyers wanted to come back and do it again the next year. ... our 4 are so good and crucial to us, i would be scared to add a 5 th...dont want to rock the boat.... we really have great customers!!! and dont want to overdo it...

i put a hat on our hairdressers dummy for this event....

RECIPE FOR SUCCESS....

2011-01-29T14:36:00.001-08:00

THIS IS FROM A FELLOW JUNKER OVER ON The JUNK REVOLUTION forum..... there is a lot of good friendly junk talk over there.... http://www.junkrevolution.com
SHE GOES BY Blossom and HER NAME IS GREta... AND THIS IS HER RECIPE FOR SUCCESS IN A MALL BOOTH........

.... I constantly am thinking of ways to sell/attract repeat buyers. Here are some quick tips; PLEASE take them with a grain of salt.

Stage your booth. Little vignettes here and there help folks visualize how your item(s) can be used in their home. I notice that most gift shops do this. Use your creativity to your advantage.

Buy cheap! You already know this...I read your Goodwill post!! Give yourself a little wiggle room when marking prices...people almost always ask for a discount.

Sell cheap! You will establish a reputation pretty quickly if your merchandise is appealing and affordable!! The silver-lining of our present economic state is that an antiquer can find items that are much more affordable than they were a few years ago.

Carry some unique pieces. You may have to invest a little more $, but the payoff will come when you attract customers to your booth.

Carry smalls. Too many large pieces with large prices can lead to large "outstanding-rent amounts" at the end of each month.

Pay attention to what sells. For instance, glassware does not sell too much in our mall. I stopped buying it.

Notice successful vendors booths-- and pay attention to their items, prices, arrangement of booth, etc.

Advertise. Right now I am advertising items from our storere on Craigslist. It's free. I advertise every few days by genre: Primitive items, shabby items, lamps, pottery etc. It REALLY works and has increased store traffic. You can take four pictures of items in YOUR booth and give your booth location and store location/ store phone numb.

shopping......

2011-01-27T18:09:00.000-08:00

just s returned from chicago gift show where we bought and bought.... w e even did christmas ... poor chicago , its being usurped by atlanta.... the show at the merchandise mart gets smaller and smaller.... still i buy heavily from 4 companies who were still there.....

it was a ball!!!

but we will be pinching pennies till june.... the orders will start coming in this week....theres about 20 of them...

christmas folder

2010-12-16T07:13:00.001-08:00

my main job right now is to write down all my december observations....we are pretty well thru the season now and the buyers have made their judgement of all our choices!!! and i want to remember how it was ... ... next spring and summer when we have to prepare for this season most of the details will be a big blur...for me anyway...
so im all about making lists...
#best sellers....and worst
#what we are stuck with
#what we sold out of
#best displays and lots of display notes from all the parts of the store.
#best price ranges for ornaments and whatever...
#event notes
#what companies couldnt deliver what i ordered
# best and worst stuff by company...
THIS SOUNDs SO EASY AND BASIC....but boy in november when we face all these issues and how to present everything and i pull this list out its wonderfully helpful....the more details the better....the more pictures the better.....
and same goes for helping in the midst of ordering...the list will tell me where the best snowman came from...and what i forgot to get enough of from another company..... too many of my favorite things are too high for the store....
this year i think i will have a survey and try and get all of our ideas in to my christmas folder....
this has helped me every year

THE OTHER PART OF MY CHRISTMAS FOLDER IS all the info from our big openhouse..... what we did and what worked and how we did the emails and facebook and snail mail....with lots of pictures and copies of the ads and postcards....also the numbers from the days,,,

tekk talk.....

2010-12-16T06:23:00.000-08:00

I LOVE MOST OF THE THINGS THE INTERNET HAS BROUGHT OUR BUSINESS....ESPECIALLY CONNECTING WITH PEOPLE FROM OTHER PARTS OF THE COUNTRY....BUT IT SURE HAS ITS CHALLENGES....

we are totally early adopters.. luckily dh makes it work............
my biggest thrill was back when vcrs could catch my soap if i got a customer....
my total headache is that i cant grasp any universality, in how things work now....if there is any....hardly any of it makes sense to me..... i have maybe 15 phones in my life and even they work different.some you dial 1 some not, the finding recall number is all different.....i cant even turn on the radio/ cd player right..he got the best with about 20 buttons,,,,...now , in the car i have sirus radio and at home pandora and cant manage my dream screen...
i love roku and netflix...i dont text or twitter,

i make business advances and leaps by pen,not on the computer ... as in lists, mind mapping, doodling, drawing or conversation., by talking to real people altho maybe on the internet...especially on forums with like minded folks..like our http://www.retailersshoptalk.com/
surfing the internet is part of my job ,,,a super fun part imho, ..i love seeing the junk world, the industrial world, the boutique frenchy world, and so many niches in between these...
in our world of business ~~~~we had website early, blog early , ebay early, email contact with customers early..facebook early.... its been good for us....
so to all the developers out there...i want it easier and i want everything..

i think our store benefits a lot from the Internet....
right now im trying to learn facebook...here we are..http://WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/GREENOAKANTIQUES and i would love to find a coach to help me master word and some picture programs ...i knowif i could do those better our blog and site would be better and instore signs etc too....
i need an upgrade on my skills!!! if we could only buy one and plug it into our heads!!!! this is all hard imho...

FACEBOOK

2010-12-02T05:56:00.000-08:00

we area really getting our facebook going right now.....
i think 3 things are working well for us ...things that i cant take credit for...... 1, demographics,our fANS are mostly women who like our store in real life are already heavy into facebook.im trying to join them as much as they are joining me...... 2, being local, which means im working with mostly people connected with me in some way already...3.and i have the kind of thing they are already happily buying..
also they like style and seeing pictures....and green oak is about the nice side of life....not hard stuff like work or the dentist....
.. facebook is probably a real natural for our store...i wouldnt think it would work that well for every business.... especially one with mainly men...or online marketers....they would be in a lot bigger group than me... there must be hundreds of online marketers out there....

guys over 50, maybe 40 mainly think facebook is for seeing what your friends had for breakfast.....in my HUMBLE opinion...
BUT FOR US ITS BEEN A GOOD THING...

WHATS WORKING....

2010-11-11T14:37:00.000-08:00

YOU KNOW im always a student of small stores....and i wanted to share a couple of things ive seen working this year.... stores ive seen who are still going strong or even stronger in this economy...

THE FURNITURE STORE....this creative gal has made a section for consignment furniture in her fancy furniture store...shes tough!!! 50% comission, the people have to submit a picture and make an appointment...then if she accepts the piece it has 3 months to sell then its hers...she can send it to good will or sell it for 10$$$...its doing great and causing her good buzz...i figure thats due toher high standsards...

THE ONCE A MONTH FLEA.... i read about this one on my cyber buddy's blog , http://www.hogsandroses.blogspot.com/ i follow his adventures and it seems like its working great..its a big monthly flea market....and it gets great stuff...and they dont have to be there all week every week....it seems to be several dealers... and looks like its working out real well...i wish i could go to it......

A DISCOUNT MERCANTILE..... this place is a big country store,, they are big and hunt down overstocks and box lots...good ones, like from big name companies....where they might have to drive to their warehouse and buy 100 boxes to get the price...and resells....they also drive clear down to Laredo Texas to get the good price on garden iron and the wild yard art the Mexicans are selling down there...like our roosters.... they are doing great and buy our cupboards and tables...they cover several different styles ...which if you have the room is imho a great idea...

we sell to a few upscale boutiques and most of the word i hear from them is pretty scary....

GIRLY ACCESSORIES.... this seems to be the biggest thing this year...selling jewelry and scarves is saving lots of stores....we didn't go that way...thinking we couldn't handle it right... but its been great for sooooooo many stores.... ...

the stores ive seen who fell down this year are mainly narrow nichey or upscale boutiques.... too high, too narrow, too much competition, when primitives by kathy has glass slide collage necklaces for 5$ wholesale its pretty hard to keep getting 30$ for them...i just dont know about it....being famous or the new look in the mags at super high prices doesnt seem to relate to business survival....and pity the ones who follow in the same path..and some retailers who have closed are now consulting....but who would really pay for consulting with someone who couldnt keep their store afloat or even make minimum wage ? ....if we are talking about business it has to be about the money...

the MOST HELPFUL COMMENT i got this year was from an emergency helper who also has a beauty shop...she helped us for Christmas, she did the biggest display for our openhouse.....shes about 30 miles away ...i asked her if her customers said anything about our store...she said yes...and i said what do they like?....she said....that they can find things no one else has, the prices, and that isnt just what the owner likes....i took that as referring to us having several styles presented at the same time...that comment helped me focus and see our good things...

SUMMER AT THE STORE

2010-07-02T12:49:00.000-07:00

ITS SUMMER AND EVERYONE LOVES THE OUTSIDE STUFF...THEY ARE DIGGING IN THE REMOTEST PILES IN THE PARKING LOT.... GOING THRU THE AWNING.... FINDING THINGS FOR THEIR GARDENS PORCHES AND PATIOS.... DODGING THE DANG WRENS WHO ARE NESTING IN THE INVENTORY....
GOTTA LOVE IT....

orphan ideas

2010-07-02T12:35:00.000-07:00

take a busload of people to a big flea market
write an ebook on running a store and or rehabbing furniture
learn the tekk parts of my job better
buy a container from england like we used to
take a trip out east with a semi 2 big guys and 50,000$$$$ and see dutch rose and brimfield and just shop till i drop
build a decades museum
a new shop with natural stone walls and a turret and a lot bigger
find a good picker
open a new storein plymouth or warsaw....i think it would work!!!!
take a month off and just go to shows ...maybe to sell but mainly to get great things for the store..

how to stay open......

2010-06-02T15:31:00.000-07:00

i thought this might be a nice subject.....

since staying open and viable is our goal...... i definitely want this to keep on working....

and we can all look around snd see lots of shops new and old closing up their doors....so much is working against us small shops...we have competition from internet, big box stores, the companies we buy from...grrr,,,,ebay ...etc etc... ....our store has survived thru all kinds of outside and inside problems.......including the imploding of the antique business.....and being in a really poor state in a crappy economy....we aCTUALLY MAKE MONEY HERE!!! YAY!!! and wish we had a way to make even more or help other stores make more with whaT WE WHOLESALE.... ANYWAY heres how i think we did it...and are still doing it...

``````in a nutshell heres our recipe

try and give a good deal/value/price to your customers...thats probably why they come back and thats why they give you good buzz...its not that we are cheap or bottom feeding...but most of what we sell is really worth the money ..

pay attention to your customers....if you have something for a long time that means they didnt like it....try not to bore your customers....or have things they like that they cant afford...or what they just saw in hobby lobby....

if i see a lotof interested in something i go for it!!!

if i really like something and they dont i just have to get rid of it and move on...

be timely.....try and have what they are looking for at the time....garden items in spring, pumpkins in fall etc etc, plasma tv stands for their living rooms..computer desks for their computers...and a fun christmas season in the early early fall..
bloom where you are planted....consider the circle around your store and the people in it who might consider buying from you...i call this my target customers...for me its homeowners...adventurous, fashionable trendy, outside the box people who love their homes and want to make them just right....i love the ones without budgets!!!! who can go wild on a whim.... but i really depend on the big middle income group of people too...

if i really got interested in say nautical ...well that would be bad and probably a waste of time ......im in corn country...so i have to keep that in mind too...

go a little wild and unexpected and outside the box......the great buyers out there are very jaded and can shop anywhere...so you need to have something to wow them a little....when possible...our customers know its never the same here...always something different.... when they walk up to the door they see a 24 ft robot...with a baby robot hanging on.... that is kind of a sign that they arent walking into a hallmark!!!!

inside i have nice furniture but also fun stuff...like a rolling antique casket rack...aka a church truck!!!

just say no....dont get tied up in custom orders, layaways, or giving credit....... so many reasons and ways to go bad on this.... i realize the modern person is used to llbean and zappos...i cant do that speed or accuracy...im very happy to be as is where is and with everything either sold and paid for or for sale...makes my life easier...

do the math....how much do you have to sell to make what you want to make?....do you have the inventory to achieve this?

build it and they will come....doesnt work...see my very cool steampunk signs.they are great imho..but not selling here...they just dont fit...we need to have something they want and need....i like funky hand made furniture from the 1870s... i make my best money on painted black furniture from the 1930s...i cant go where my real taste is....well i could if i didnt need to make a living.....

i hear a lot of internet talk about doing your thing and getting people to find you...thats really hard for brick and mortar.... its ok if they are really out there...too often they arent ....
my idea is usually more like figuring out what the neat adventurous buyers are wanting now.... we are getting so many young families in.....they like our prices and many have come in with their moms when they were little...so my job is to figure out what they think is cool... what they want in their houses

build on what works....dont try and educate your customers...get educated on them.... they dont have to GET YOU...YOU HAVE TO get them....

be known for something.... for us its huge inventory and all the cool rehabbed and recycled things.... we stand out in that way.... why would someone drive an hour to see you? ..then, if you are lucky enough to find something they like and you are good at....GO WHOLE HOG

the safest place is good quality and style at a reasonable price..upscale style and a midscale price....... that is a winning situation...especially in our area...but believe me rich people like good quality at a reasonable price too.....
big events..big repeating events...ours are major and crucial to our years numbers..... each one of the 4 has a theme....its about the same every year....and our hope is always that its interesting enough to bring in the customers..... last weekend we had about 900 people thru.....
use that database....

work work work.....improve all the time....make it better and better...add value to something... work on displays....

pay yourself..

find a role model.... find a store out there that is making money and study it.... country business publishes stories on successful stores sometimes....why copy a gorgeous store thats going under? doesnt make sense...i love seeing a big going store and always try and figure out how they do it......

display.....

2010-05-28T18:49:00.000-07:00

we got mentioned on a neat retail blog..she liked one of our displays..the demdaco canvas art .....one figured out by jon and i, using old dog eared fence and a bench.........see here http://www.swirlmarketing.com/blog/retaildetails/

when we started our business we had really great stuff coming in weekly... and sold it from our truck in the driveway or on the dirt floor of our old Quonset building or in our 700 sq ft shop......really great antiques... with no display at all....our antique buyers definitely looked look at the thing not the presentation.... so for about the first 10 yrs or so display was nothing....

we were in the trends of course....country living set the tone for our business and we supplied all kinds of antique furniture and smalls to the dealers who did the shows and sold to the public...we were about 90% wholesale back then..................................

NOW we are about 70% retail and display is crucial....SO IM ALL ABOUT DISPLAY NOW.....AND THE BETTER WE DO THE BETTER IT SELLS...altho our customers do still like a big pile out in the driveway ...just off the truck....

SO, THINKING ABOUT DISPLAY , HERE ARE SOME THINGS THAT I GO ON....

...FIRST GOAL.....the wow ....... meaning having the area when you first come in be great....thats where we put all our best most expensive furniture....the harvest tables and the big 2000$ cabinets...and we try not to trash it up with smalls....

....birds of a feather flock together.......here we have several categories and give them their own space and color pallet.......country, foo foo,the black section, key west/lake... white frenchy, good antiques, garden ...etc etc....that way if you hate painted furniture you dont even go into that section...

garden iron inside....we use big garden arbors./arches in several places.....they work so well and are very versatile.... and they always make a focal point, they are so nice and big....you can walk thru them or put a table under them and use the sides top and middle....we do one with garland and wreaths with a table under and country signs on it....the back side is more signs...the other one we use is full of hanging chimes and matching garden stakes...., its against a wall...often we have used one for an entrance to another section....

another great garden thing are the big wire trees...they are about 6 ft tall and 5 ft wide at the top.with lots of branches... we sell them for gardens for about 200$ retail.....great for anything that hangs, but they take major room....

recycle recycle recycle.....we use all kinds of doors and windows and farm junk to make our displays.... i really hate commercial plastic or particle board units....they just look cheesy..... we dont want to look like walmart or hallmark...im so jealous of old navy...who can manage a full size junky antique truck for their displays... we make displays too...out of big old doors and windows... kind of like giant potting benches..we make and use salvaged counters/islands/cash wraps a lot too... .. these big architectural displays are in several famous places and in the gift shows belonging to our wholesale customers......but without credit...ha ha...i dont care tho...if youve been to the store you recognize them for sure...

also i think a lot about eye level.and like to have the best things right there.....and realize hardly anything will sell below knee level.... i also consider how easy it is to grab something...you cant expect your customers to dismantle a display to get something....

i love displaying and dont mind at all when something big sells...it gives us a chance to mix things us and make something new and fresh...

now for something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT....

THE QUESTION WAS , WHAT IN YOUR NORMAL DAY? im on a business forum and here was my answer...

i cant talk before coffee....i need it strong and have to have it quiet for about an hour, mostly on the computer...then the garden or back porch..small huddle with dh....then out to it....coffee all day and on my feet all day...no sitting ever.... im out there 10 to 5.... music is a compromise...i like it fast and perky...no dreary female vocals ... which dh likes.....and hes the only one who can change the machine.... also i like it loud but we dont do that either.... i would put marching music and polkas on for the fun of it ..or who let the dogs out.... i talk all day and get interrupted all day..by people, workers and phone calls.... for relief i go back into the workroom and paint...basically i roam around all day and get my priorities going in all the parts of the store....and hear all the efforts and problems....we are in the middle of an annual event right now..and should have about 2 or 300 people thru today....7 people working....i had a real job for a few months back in the 70s...lol....
http://www.small-business-forum.net/ this is a good business forum, very good for computer and web info..lots of good discussions......
THE OTHER SIDE OF DISPLAY........IF IM AT A BIG FLEA MARKET TO BUY.... and i see a booth all prettied up and looking great with well dressed civilized folks in charge and a booth with a disheveled guy and a big messy pile of good stuff....like he just came from an auction....uh, guess where i would go first?
and my customers do like to dig out in the rougher parts....the rough room, under the awning, the real junk out past the dock, and the big packed antique prim room...

but on the retail side , selling the new stuff, i think working hard on display skills is really important....

.. and test your display....did it sell anything?

THE WAY TO SUCCESS

2010-05-24T18:03:00.000-07:00

usually i have pretty LOW OPINIONS about marketing gurus...as you might have figured out!!! especially ones who think your ego needs cuddled and pumped up....

.but this one sounds just RIGHT!!! http://www.country-business.com/growyourbiz/marketing_promotions/article.aspx?id=10000 . its from the magazine country business....

in fact this kind of business view sometimes sounds mean and harsh compared to the diva kind ...the rose colored glasses, go girl, build it and they will come, you re great it will work kind of advice....

this sounds like john shallert as someone said on our retailershoptalk forum.. www.retailersshoptalk.com .. it reflects the real world we are in out there when we face our store and our market and our possible customers.....the one I'm in anyway.... i got to hear john shallert once and it was great.......

the diva view is good for building a great blog or being a trendsetter or a magazine publisher....and we all love gorgeous magazines!!!! but IMHO....DONT LOOK TO THEM FOR BUSINESS ADVICE....i always ask DO THEY HAVE A VIABLE STORE? or any retail experience that actually paid them well? arent they just talking to talented artistic women who love decorating? and making things? so my view is watch out if the advice is aimed at just women and is full of things that would gag your dh or landlord...... .... the diva view isnt good for meeting with bankers, getting you above minimum wage,,,getting customers in your town to buy from you enough to pay for you and your store... all those real world things ...

ive learned lots from other stores, face to face and even more in the retail forums ...people out there facing the same market and trends and buyers im facing....

i think our store has to aim at upscale at a mid scale price....just because of our local economy and besides it has worked for us for a long time....theres nothing better than a customer thinking they got a good deal from you...

if i were in palm beach it might be lots different!!!! probably no room for our little metal 3$ kotex boxes tho..or our 1$ old claypots...

.i think the go girl build it they will come did work for a few...a very few but wow...look at nell hill or tracy porter...they did make it happen..but probably with very good , hard nosed , business practices..plus tons of talent that fit the market....

self employment

2010-05-11T03:43:00.001-07:00

....im hearing a lot about how hard running a store is..

..i could make a point that having any job is stressful IF it isnt working out.... ....say you were in charge of a big project for a company...and it didnt work and lost the company money....hey....if you got the same bad results the next time you would probably be fired...say you are in charge of a school and the grades go down down down....would they keep you? if you are in charge of tires for a trucking company and they start having a huge spike in flat tires on your watch is that a failure on your part? the boss would probably say yes and you are fired...

...if you have to work for a living, well, its going to be a hassle.....the market or some boss will be out there judging your efforts....and if they dont meet expectations you will have some bad results..

..my point is running a store is hard, but working is hard.

..being responsible for anything is hard....the hardness isnt the point ...making it work is the point...at least being self employed,, we are the boss and are out there taking a shot at making something work on OUR TERMS.. that means a lot to me.....but i totally respect the market....i have to....

....when i go into the foo foo room to fluff it up..or put in something brand new i get a thrill and hope my customers respond the way i planned...THEN i try to react appropriately.... meaning keep it up and build on the idea that worked or drop something that fell like a lead balloon if it didnt.... i dont see the point of blaming the economy, saying stores dont work, or focusing on all the unfairness out there...is it unfair that i like red and the buyers dont? .or they didnt get my vision? well maybe...but i know nobody really cares .....were they supposed to? dang!!!..basically its just my tough luck...

.with a store...the market sends in its report on our efforts....i really believe that...and it scares me daily .... when things arent working...i look out at the market ..not in at my stress or my feelings... the stress to me is like getting hot when you are sick....its trying to report something is wrong...wrong with my decisions, my choices, my marketing....etc..no matter what the outside problems are, if i want to survive i better change my ways and fit into the outside/market situation im faced with....

......i rant about the advice women in business take...because i see so many facing impossible hurdles.. because they took it....we have to be realistic..

..i love my work and i do actually know a lot of happy shop owners and show dealers who are making their financial goals.

..thats my soapbox for today!!! we picked this job!!!!.

how to make money

2010-05-09T17:09:00.001-07:00

im trying to learn so many different things on my computer....and its hard for me...who grew up with off and on switches and when things were so much simpler....i have a new set of fonts...including ransom note used here ..isnt it neat!!!! but im a tekk dud....and dh can only stand about 5 minutes a night for coaching.....

and i cant follow directions...apparantly...

OTHER WORDS WE LIVE BY..or try to ..at our store...which has survived for 32 yrs!!! and last year was the hardest ever.... i have learned lots of these little ideas the hard way!!!!.

..under promise///over deliver....we say no a whole lot!!! we cant be like ll bean and offer a huge array of services........we like being a ' where is' 'as is' kind of place....where the buyers have to take their chances...and its cash and carry.... .

...freebies and laginappe....aka..throw the dog a bone..... like today a good customer brought a new customer in....i gave my old customer a bundle of pussywillows....and we always have coffee and cookies for everybody....we are out of the way and most anyone who comes really had to make an effort toget here......also if someone buys something ive had for a long time or i got real cheap ,well why not give a great deal once in a while.... .

....more is better....our customers love lots of stuff and they really appreciate suprises.....THE MORE WE HAVE THE MORE WE SELL.....

.........

HOWS IT GOING OUT there?

GREAT I HOPE...

WORD ON THE STREET

2010-05-07T06:03:00.000-07:00

WORD ON THE STREET IS
THINGS ARE
GETTING BETTER

...IM HEARING FROM STORES, SHOW PEOPLE AND REPS THAT THINGS ARE IMPROVING A LOT!!! .

its feeling pretty good here in greenoak land.... we seem to be having lots of customers.... lots of buying....

i have a hard time figuring out why ...ive read so many books on business and lots say you have to track everything to tell whats happening....but DANG.... so many things happen in tandem.....i can never tell really how or why things are going up or down..

how do you judge ?

here i am figuring its because. ...of one or more of these items...lol
.the economy
better inventory choices at the show
new worker who does fabulous
facebook and internet presence
better displays
great word of mouth which has helped us bridge into a new generation of home owners.. our old customers have brought in their married daughters....
our GREAT crew of workers

see what i mean? its hard to really pick what the most important element is....

for advertizing its just as bad....heres what we usually do..
..email to our data base
website
facebook
handouts
selected newspaper ads
radio...
the expertS say track!!! as in track the ad by embedding an offer...then when the customers come and mention the offer you will know....this hasnt worked for us....they rarely respond to coupons or mention this and get this..... i know it works for others and we have tried it a lot with no results....

SO WE JUST KEEP ON MAKING WILD GUESSES AND HOPE WE DONT THROW THE BABY OUT WITH THE BATH WATER!!!!

and now for some beautiful eye candy for you
http://thegatheringnest.blogspot.com/

wouldnt it be nice?

2010-05-07T05:58:00.000-07:00

imho
..there sure is a big need out there for a new book...something for independant stores....with pictures and real examples....like big features on a single store... country business puts a feature like that in their mag once in a while....i always get something out of those....and believe they pick stores who are solvent.....

.to me talking to other stores and show people is the BEST...

..i had a customer last week who had a store in illinois...it was so good to talk to them...their path was so much like ours...the parts of the business that had fallen away, antiques, the parts that were keeping us going.SALVAGE, REHABBED , GIFTS.....it was interesting and very real world....

....i know jay...the one who helped curious SOFA, has a new book...but dang...he sells 300$ pillows.... thats just out of my circle....i want to read about how to reach my target audience better...and a maybe with a workbook with this display works this one doesnt....

..... i learn everywhere.. tho..except for the extreme girly naval gazing stuff...i dont need that kind of direction... i kind of have a big enough ego and desire already !!! and i rarely need pushing to get off my butt and start working..i like it! and it buys my groceries....

...but i love to read about good concrete facts and examples .. like whats actually working, as in money made, and how did they do it...but the gift world is different...the stars might be barely making minimum wage....and thats so misleading, imho...... i need money....
if you have a store and want to talk to other stores come join our brick and mortar forum http://www.retailersshoptalk.com/ its private and you have to show you have a store.... we are hoping it will be a good place to talk about store issues....

dire warnings

2010-04-16T16:54:00.000-07:00

ive been thinking about shows and shops..... and how what works for shows might be real bad for a shop....... ........imho...
IF YOU ARE A SHOP and you copy whats working at shows you might be in for a big suprise..it probably wont work.....
A SHOP ISNT A SHOW....a shop has to make money every single day with the local area shoppers...... a show dealer can build a wonderful niche or deal in a wonderful FAD and see if it works......
the show dealers are in a enviable situation......they have a lot less on the line in time and overhead and can be a lot more flexible than shops....they can go for a fabulous niche and present it to thousands of buyers on one little time span....stores cant do that.... thats why shows are probably the smarter choice for lots of folks...
....and they are a great way to get a taste of retail without going into it whole hog...
. some areas i would be afraid to base a whole store on are......., . the trash to treasure recycled look, those girls want to get it at goodwill or make it themselves..they might pay someone famous for a candle holder made from a bedspring but i dont think they would pay me....or steampunk,too teeny of a group and mostly young and no money.... or even industrial , it sure sells for me but its not a big group, , or all handmade,i love it but i sell to the middle class families mostly and they are hooked on things that fit their budgets.. or the beautiful funky white booths we see all over the blog world,my favorite but i actually sell more black, or fairtrade,love it and have seen it work in key west.. or all folkart, ,most of it can be made in china for pennies... or all shabby, ...,love it and i know its still real strong .the founder is in bankruptcy and its in target..i still do it majorly but dont use the word anymore,
..,, imho not one of those things those things would support a whole shop in most situations...... ..... i guess thats the beauty and draw of doing shows and going to shows.... you can see the fringe things.......

ALSO BEWARE OF MAGAZINES!!! THEY PUSH THE NEATEST NEWEST FADS...that doesnt mean the current fad would support a full blown store in your town.... the shelter journalists go to the shows to see whats happening.......THE SHOWS SHOW THE NEW IDEAS FIRST.
..THATS WHY WE all love SHOWs ......and then they write about whats new and great... .... that can really give a local shop the wrong idea....making the shops think the show ideas are right for their locale...when maybe its not right at all....in other words....and a big dang.!!!. if we choose the store route we have to
BLOOM WHERE WE ARE PLANTED..
.pick a niche OR FAD that doesnt have enough followers, meaning willing customers, in your area......then it probably wont work..and you lose money..... you can become a destination maybe....but thats really hard....

my ideas are mainly about local midwestern shops....like where i am...now if you are in a super rich tourist town with heavy traffic or a big city you could make about any niche work....or have a chance anyway...
my concern is that the shows and the blog world and the women mag writers are the big influence today.. they are setting the style stage.......but i dont take their idea of whats popular as a sure thing for my store...... to me ,they arent business experts....i love seeing their beautiful layouts of course..... but they really arent in retail...

in a nutshell....look around , do your own research...... if you are ready to to invest big time / go for broke ,go into debt on the idea of opening a store, make sure its not based on some narrow niche or fad that wont fit your area.....
you dont want to be in a losing situation ...........

our store covers lots of niches and fads...we have the room to seperate them.......but basically its a place for adventurous homeowners to buy what they need in furniture and home stuff...
. we have fabulous steampunk signs and great big statement things ....but they arent paying our bills..our inventory choices are crucial....and the market decides how well we chose...its so cruel!!!...if we make the wrong choice, invest in the wrong style they will let us know....

i love gothic or castle looking furniture and handmade steampunk signs..and so many kinds of folk art and about anything on that wonderful site...ullabenulla...her fantasys are so beautiful..... but i sure wouldnt fill the whole store with them....
maybe later when im old and rich and need a beautiful thrilling hobby....
WHATS SELLING HERE....
we are seeing a lot of dealers and shop owners...finally!!! the word on the street is pretty darn good right now.... the ones still standing maybe are tougher and stronger and ready to get going again..... im selling lots of store props...like the iron dressforms for jewelry, other big iron for all kinds of inside display, arches, topiaries, wall units,,, our big counters, for heavy duty cashwraps, or islands... big funky outside the box display units and store fixtures... ....
big in our retail is ...light garden, signs still, natural floral stuff, all the garden stuff....and lots of fun women things..like our naughty magnets....and lots of parts and pieces, like barn relics, shutters, doors, old architectural parts...
the new young family customers are looking for tv stands, kids furniture ,
im glad to say our furniture is selling really well..... old and rehabbed furniture is such a bargain....and i think people are very open to it..i guess thats our main niche.....
this is a pet theme for me ....why.?...because i wholesale and know a lot of retail stories....and how hard it is out there for shops...also i can look back a few years and see how many stores are gone.....and i need more successful shops to sell to!!! i want everyone of my customers and potential customers to do better and better...
P.S. IM REARRANGING A SECTION IN THE STORETODAY AFTER SEEING A great idea on a favorite BLOG.... http://www.sassytrash.blogspot.com/ so im sure not against show people or the wonderful bloggers out there...
heres some more of the great show dealers i enjoy....even tho i dont get out to the shows enough their blogs give me a little taste..........
http://rhubarb-reign.blogspot.com/
http://www.iowajunkgypsies.blogspot.com/

http://vandaff.blogspot.com/..
http://ullam.typepad.com/ullabenulla/

happy days

2010-03-28T17:41:00.000-07:00

wow, we got some cyber press http://featheryournestnews.blogspot.com/2010/03/where-do-shopkeepers-shop.html well it was from a long time buddy , as well as customer, and i sure appreciate her comments.... if you are a store and want to talk to her,and other experienced store keepers, even some guys,,, ... join our forum...for stores only http://www.retailersshoptalk.blogspot.com/

you know our things have gotten in the magazines / national press a bit but usually with no credit....which is OK...too...you might have seen one of our counters in gina gavins work room!!! in where women create...

i love wholesale....and wish all my customers make lots of money on our stuff....altho i know its not that easy...

BIG SNAFU.... gee there are a lot of ways to mess up..for example.....we got some rejects in an order and did all the work to return them..called, arranged, packed up....the box was behind the counter waiting for the call tag...dh got the call tag and didnt tell us....time passed..dh found the call tag and told us.....BUT the box was gone.... someone threw the box away @#%$$&* ....

so glad its spring....the store really feels different.... lots of furniture is selling... the customers seem to be liking our chicago choices.... so even tho im a virgo and can find the bad side of about anything.....im feeling very optimistic...

especially happy with dropping quite a bit of the country stuff and adding the MAN CAVE... and a big new section of black and white and tuscan ...

kind of over for us....clocks, sticheries, lots of the rose stuff....

up and coming for us...kelly rae roberts, lake merchandise, our counter/cash wraps/bars

naughty magnets and aprons...

the best hint ive pickedup so far this year.....in answer to my query ???what do women want? walla the answer... booze,friends,men and pms...so weve added naughty magnets and notes and some fun bar stuff.... its working very well.... about every age of women is having fun looking at our magnet rack...

speaking of age....the store is full of babies these days..... im so thankful for our new young customers.....the 30 somethings........ even tho i dont understand what they are like... .

I LOVE MARCH

2010-03-19T04:23:00.001-07:00

all the spring inventory is coming in....the weather is breaking and we are finally getting some sun.....the customers are venturing out more....the robins are back...

..........ITS SPRING..almost

on the money side its a hard month because so much is coming in..big loads of garden iron, the orders from chicago , everything we need for spring and summer.....but it feels good...we are fat and full ..

im hearing some good reports from some of the show people i know...they are reporting great sales and lots of people.... so im taking that as a good sign for all of us ..

the forum for stores is taking off.... if you have a store and want some brick and mortar shop talk come on over and check it out... http://www.retailersshoptalk.com/

using the internet...

2010-03-12T09:35:00.000-08:00

as a tekkno dud, im kind of thrilled and shocked that i can use the Internet....so far i have 2 blogs , a website, I'm on 3 forums......including one that we administer..... http://www.retailersshoptalk.com/ its for brick and mortar stores...so if you have a store come on over!!!

my latest internet thing is FACEBOOK!!!! what a game changer!!....I'm really trying to learn the ways of facebook....we have a fan page.... and i think my main buyers use facebook a lot, for fun ...and almost replacing email . i want to learn more about facebook connect....i want to get better and better content on....and i want to get my photo skills up.... the learning curve is real hard for me....as i grew up with a 2 dial radio and a world where things said on and off and you took your film to the drugstore...my daughter in law and web mistress helps me thru some of the hard parts...

i love blogging and connecting with other bloggers and seeing all the wonderful blogs out there....im happy to be in that wonderful kind of national and very cyber world.... i love the exploring....

but facebook is different.. for us anyway, its way more local, more close to home with lots of customers and people who can actually come to the store easily....i guess thats because when someone does become a fan their friends see our green oak page....

i was lucky to be able to start with a good core of people... having my daughter and daughter in law, both mentioned our page, and who both have tons of friends, many who were already customers and glad to sign up........and then we got seen by their friends.....

anyway im a big facebook fan and hope to get better at it..here's our page.....http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rochester-IN/Green-Oak-Antiques/128260302593?ref=share

i go to lots of blogs for just enjoying the beautiful projects and ideas and hearing from people i feel like i know.... thats great...and i definitely appreciate the viewers i have on my 2 blogs.... it would be even better if i had something to sell them!!lol..but mine are more for the fun of it......most bloggers have lots more to sell online than we do...im not interested in online selling so far...

heres a cyber friend with some great tips on blogging....and more... http://outdoorbloggerssummit.com/

````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

THIS IS ON THE TOP OF MY JOBS NEXT WEEK.....ANY HELP OR FREE ADVICE APPRECIATED....well, its big for me....we have tons of money in garden iron, and the best selection around.... its such a good product and should appeal to lots of new customers.... if i can reach them... i have to get a marketing plot going......and i have so much else to do i cant seem to focus on it..... i hate that sometimes that i put the crucial thing down into the pile and do the easier more relaxing thing.......im out there painting when i should be making this marketing plan......my staff and family is great but no good at brainstorming....or i dont give them a chance....or they just want to agree with me....so im looking at my cyber think tank...YOU.... I NEED some ideas towards A COHESIVE PLOT OR PLAN...we have available...tv, site, fb, email list, classifieds in newspapers, radio, display ads, ...trouble with display ads is that there are too many papers...i plan on spending money on this but i need an overall plan or ideas..to get me going on this.........even a halfbaked off the top of your head plan!! any general outline or guidelines for me....? how do you approach a marketing idea? i hate this part of the job...and im not very good at it....and i know it is so important...we have about $$$20,000 of garden iron inventory...i need to get on this soon........ sometime...lol

THATS MY DILEMMA FOR THE DAY....i need to do a good job on this...

THE BLAHS

2010-03-06T14:32:00.000-08:00

WELL its the dreariest time of year and lots of my store buddies are feeling really down....and me too..a lot of dark thoughts are going around....like why am i doing this.... is it ever going to work etc etc..... we all know its a tough economy.... some are even considering closing.... sometimes thats the smartest thing to do.... NOT ME THO!!!!

we are hanging in there and thinking we can still make it work , even tho the last couple of weeks have been horrid. i really like my work.... no doubts there!!!

but i hate thinking about money....and its a big cloud over us now....we have bought and bought for spring....spending like mad....and the store is packed ....and the parking lot is full of garden iron....its here and paid for and waiting. .

..its kind of the worst time of year to have slow days....it happens every year about this time.....

... but its no fun....one day last week we had 5 workers and 6 sales....thats just so wrong!!!! we did get lots of work done tho...

BUT TODAY WAS LOTS BETTER!!!! lots of customers and they even dug around outside....

a little sunshine seemed to make a lot of difference today. ..

we have used the last couple of slow weeks to really revamp the store.... so much new product has come in we have had to really look at the areas and how best to use them.....

im so pleased with the new lines we picked out in chicago....and really think our customers will like what we bought!!!

we are discussing the blahs a bit on the new forum.... http://www.retailersshoptalk.com/ did you join? sorry its for brick and mortar store owners only...but if you have a store come on over...

did you see the new magazine? flea market style? its really neat and started by ki ....the woman who has the fun http://www.junkrevolution.com/

heres something else that i enjoyed http://www.regretsy.com/ fun crafty etsy ideas that didnt quite work out....

PET PEEVES OF THE WEEK.... almost every order came in with some mistakes...one over charged us by about 400$ , luckily i caught it.... we were supposed to get a big discount that wasnt on the bill... ...many orders included things not ordered...i try to return but if its just a 12 $ item or group i kind of just dont bother.and sometimes i think they substitute on purpose....just a guess tho.......we did make one big return, after opening 2 out of 24 and they were both damaged i figured just send them back....it was big lighted paper balls from burton...

i really like having a good rep....then if things go wrong with an order or a company you have someone to step in and do the right thing...i like my reps a lot.... ...

well GOOD LUCK OUT THERE....AND GET READY FOR BETTER DAYS!!!!

easy display

2010-02-26T14:17:00.001-08:00

this was such an easy idea and i think it will help sell a lot of plaques.....
we had these fence pieces
and they were already white....so jon just nailed them to the wall.... and then we put a bench below....and a shutter shelf on the side....
it just really worked and the new line of plaques stand out so well...this is just very different...

I THINK IT WILL WORK GREAT

i really tend to end up with cupboard after cupboard....and THIS SEEMS like a good contrast...

all ready and FORUMS

2010-02-19T06:19:00.001-08:00

all ready for the big sale....and hoping the customers are too!!! last year our feb sale was in the middle of a severe snow watch.... and it just ruined it....there is no way to really makeup for a disaster like that....

they can come later but its jut not the same....

im getting spam n my comments....they come in as anonymous and are for totally unrelated to anything im interested in...like trying to sell me electronics or marketing tools etc etc....i might have to put some kind of screening or reading the letters in...not sure...im getting about 2 a day...

if you signed up for the new retail store forum...THANK YOU... sorry its just for brick and mortar stores.... http://www.retailersshoptalk.com/

other forums i like are http://www.junkrevolution.com/

lots of good junk talk and some show dealers

its open to everybody..

and also for stores and all kinds of retail. . http://www.giftshopmag.com/ theres a good magazine on there too...

also im on giftbeat...they charge..but lots of good talk on there for stores mostly...

i love forums....they have been so valuable to me in going down the rocky road of retail during the last few years.... i really dont have faith in many experts....really now, do they even have stores? i dont think most do....the people i like to hear from and learn from are the ones down in the trenches like i am...facing this economy this month...

i know there is some good expert advice out there, but give me a good FORUM DISCUSSION ANY DAY...on a forum its easy for several conversations to go on at once ..

if you are a store please join us on this new one...the retailers shoptalk...link above...

marketing and events

2010-02-15T18:42:00.000-08:00

we are days away from our big february sale....one of our 4 annual events....

heres our newspapaer ad....dh made it on the computer....we have used the deer image for years and just change the words....the theory that they will recognize our ad at a glance.....

nowdays i do less newspaper .. we do so much email and now facebook..

..but the main thing is snail mail to our 3500 person maililng list...

i find marketing so much guesswork... .

ideas

2010-02-14T05:39:00.000-08:00

its hard to tell the difference between fleeting ideas and ideas that help you survive......
i get so many ideas its kind of confusing...

..my main one this year seems to be about 30 yr olds.....they are really saving us!!!! they are our new customers....unfortunately i barely know them....lots of them came to our store as little kids......and now they still come with their moms.....they are definitely our main customer group... our old customer base is filled up and they dont need us as much....the whole idea of collecting like we used to is about gone!!! i still collect for sure....but like my comrades, who have collected for years, im pretty full and it has to be really good for me to want it....so my age isnt my target customer anymore....
our greatest group right now is this new homeowner. in her 30s, maybe 40s.SHE NEEDS US.....she still has a house to fill or upgrade..... shes fun and adventurous AND USUALLY ON A BUDGET... ......she is eclectic and very willing to improvise or use things in different ways....she likes up cycling and vintage if it fits her needs, she likes our old parts parts for her own projects.... ..... she likes our paint ideas and likes the ideas of good wood, recycling, having something totally eclectic and even odd..

.the down side is she doesnt want a lot of extras and she has kids so she is probably on a bu dget....she really doesnt care about all the great old stuff i always dealt with....the idea of a 100$ pitcher or pot just isnt interesting to her...
so thats my big idea for the year...im trying to learn her ways... what does she read? i dont watch any daytime tv....but i hear her talk about hgtv... I WANT TO BE HER PLACE TO SHOP...

SOME OF MY IDEAS THIS YEAR..

..ROBOT SHIRTS
MAN CAVE
PRINCESS ROOM
DEEPER INTO MAGNETS AND FUN WOMEN STUFF....
MORE FACEBOOK
BETTER GARDEN ADS
TV....MAYBE
LOTS OF FABULOUS EXPENSIVE STUFF ,
A LITTLE MORE CUSTOM WORK, thru jon
go to more auctions

IDEAS I WISH SOMEONE WOULD TAKE AND RUN WITH..
.. vintage indiana, on facebook....i loved the idea , and we even set up a page, then deserted it....a place for all the stores and shows in the vintage,antique, recycled, upcycling world....neat idea!!!

girls day out....this would be so GREAT.... A FACEBOOK PAGE ALL ABOUT GIRLS DAY OUT....COVERING A 100 MILE CIRCLE AROUND ME.... .... so much of our selling is around women out having fun and shopping.... taking a break...it would list all the neat shops, the malls, cool restaurants, neat spots....kind of a tourist thing for our kind of shoppers....
a container from indiana..... i love ths one...you would call the store and walk around with a worker and a camera and buy a huge truck load and we would send a big truck load you...this one died on the vine a long time ago...

DO YOU HAVE A BRICK AND MORTAR SHOP? email me for info about a new forum just for stores.... or take a look... www.retailersshoptalk.com its just for stores..and private....your customers couldnt get on....

now heres another great idea.... a forum for show and mall booth dealers...wouldnt it be great? why dont you start one? i would gladly join, i have 2 mall booths....... forums are so nice for good discussion...with several different topics going at once....anyone want to try it? its a good baby/orphan idea imho ...

the classy middle...

2010-02-05T05:47:00.000-08:00

HOW TO PRICE what you make....
we rack our brain on this all the time......if its a fun hobby it doesnt really matter but if you need the project to support itself you have to really work on price and hope you get one that will work.... the filter i have to put it thru at the very start is ;;;; can the product warrant 10$ an hour to make it plus materials and then the store profit????... ..

....i never see pricing higher meaning more sales..who buys like that? ...i always think my well heeled customers are pretty smart and can see the product as it is and like my nice medium nice price..

...sadly i have seen many artists flop and go back to hated jobs because they wanted the high prices right from the start and couldnt get their thing off the ground..why do artists need 50$ an hour? ive worked for 6$ at the start..
what i cant understand is online selling and packing a 3$ item, how can you make money there? if you count your time at all.......or keeping a thing going, like a store or a booth, if you arent making money...we do need to do the math........ i price medium to low to keep on making a living...and feel like my presentation tells them it isnt cheap...my theory is to make money and sell a lot....the bad thing is when you establish a price and its too low to make any profit ...been there too...there is a lot of money to be made in the classy middle range...imho if something isnt selling i usually figure its the wrong thing ...

I POSTED THIS OVER ON JUNK REVOLUTION forum....ITS A GREAT place FOR ALL KINDS OF PEOPLE IN THE JUNK WORLD... http://www.junkrevolution.com/ and started by the fun and famous ki nassauer

there are some good junk artists on there too....and lots of good links...I WOULD LOVE TO SEE HER BIG JUNK SHOW IN MINNESOTA IN SEPTEMBER....

imho....junk is a big and growing category....at least here and at the shows...

whats worked for us is aiming OUR PRICES TOWARDS THE CLASSY MIDDLE...LOOKING GOOD AND WORTH IT AND NOT OVERPRICED BUT NOT CHEAP....a price where we are happy and the buyers are happy and WILLING TO BUY.....

I REALLY DONT GET THE IDEA THAT RAISING MY PRICES WOULD MAKE THINGS SELL BETTER....IF THAT WERE TRUE...WOW WE WOULD BE HAPPY CAMPERS!!!!

more display

2010-02-01T05:59:00.000-08:00

this was a beautiful store in florida...she had so much in there and left holiday up all year.... totally packed but still dramatic...lotsof tall , trees or racks, in many places...

many small sections featuring one theme....and were in cubby holes and framed beautifully....

the pictures dont do it justice...

display

2010-01-28T06:38:00.001-08:00

here is one of the most georgous booths we saw in chicago......PEACOCK PARK...

she has a wonderful eye and is so adventurous.....

you can see her stuff i n our store...you might have seen the big clock or the fun french dancing girls.......

does this look familiar? one of our big cabinets in her booth....doesnt it look cool !!!.....she likes my grungy paint job rather than the perfect job by my good painter...its exciting to me to know someone whos breaking ionto the national scene....

her displalys are known in the retail world and now with her wonderful spread in the mag...WHERE WOMEN CREATE... the blog world and the magazine world can enjoy her too...

you can see her blog here.

http://www.peacockparkdesign.blogspot.com/

display

2010-01-28T06:04:00.000-08:00

love this one...with the tin roof.... maybe in the key west room.WE SAW SO MANY GREAT DISPLAys IN CHICAGO AT THE BIG SHOW.....
i want to build these!!! so easy and so basic.....we have the parts........
.doors, screens, porch posts, and old tin and willing workers....WE CAN DO THIS...

.AND JUST LOOK HOW MUCH THEY HOLD...
im thinking of making an x out of doors...like in this booth , you can walk all around it and it would hold so much....

Display

2010-01-26T11:07:00.001-08:00

my roots are finding great antiques and selling them off the truck...display was nothing..........

.......now display its crucial and helps us sell and defines the store, so im trying to get better and better at it........ on my trip i got some pictures to share on here.....Click here for the displays.

this is annie of annies trash talk..... her displays are mostly from junk....picture frames wrapped in tin foil...a big pink tire.....a dollar frame with bottle caps all around and painted pink..i loved her fun view of the world and we ordered a lot... dh thought it was a little sexist..

but it went along with my theory about women customers for the year...heard on giftbeat.....

PMS, BOOZE AND FRIENDS..... this booth made me laugh in all those departments

notes

2010-01-16T06:20:00.001-08:00

we are on vacation and in florida.... i go to lots of shops and have seen many wonderful displays...... one store was so full you could hardly walk thru....tons of bethany lowe and more in that range...it was gorgeous and so opposite of much advice i read....like get rid of everything you can in every season....that store had the opposite philosophy....and was in its 12th year.... and just breathtaking........
another highlight was seeing an ikea....you know im in a state with not one ikea.... well even tho i make fun of them a lot...as in our furniture doesnt come in a box, etc etc..... i have to say i was very impressed with their huge store....it was so fresh and modern, spacious, clean lines, great graphics, simple but great ideas everywhere you looked...including lots of metal........ and the prices were amazingly low....they somehow have made a niche with great style and low prices at the same time.they were so reasonable in price and totally classy and up to date.......which isnt easy......that is totally what we we try to do at greenoak....i think its the best way to adjust to the new normal economy we face in retail.......i was so glad to see ikeas beautiful presentation and feel like it helped me see into my new young homeowner customers.... ...
sorry to say the main thing we have noticed is huge amounts of storefronts empty..... there are huge holes everywhere weve gone...from key west on up.... this economy has really pushed out a lot of stores.......

so if you are still out there making it or still trying a retail thing ....take a bow....its a cruel world out there....
BUZZ.... the atlanta show was selling like crazy....almost everybody happy....

some thoughts on closing a store.....is it a failure? WOMEN IN BUSINESS all over the country are facing this question..
in women talk, a closed business isnt a failure..TO CALL IT THAT IS a big no no.....we look at all the fun sides and creative sides, the experience......especially if we didnt have to have the income to keep a roof over our heads.

.like i totally value my first business that had to close for financial reasons.. gemini in rochester...it has a facebook page.... , i learned so much about the harsh realities, it ended up being a big plus and education for guiding us in building our new idea, WELL, IT WAS NEW 30 YRS AGO......green oak antiques.....

...we mess up when we make business decisions on the wrong framework and forget that the bankers and people who have given us credit just look at us WITH ONE CONCERN....ARE WE FINANCIALLY RELIABLE... ..they dont care about the other stuff...

like our dreams and our feelings.

..STILL MY GOAL IS ALWAYS TO HAVE A WILD WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE WITH BEAUTIFUL THINGS AND KEEP LOOKING AT THE STORE AS A GRAND ADVENTURE....BUT AT THE SAME TIME TRY TO STILL BE TOTALLY RELIABLE TO MY SUPPLIERS AND MY BANKER.....

........if i had to close and loose everything weve built and the income weve enjoyed and the security its given me and my family and workers ...well dont get mad if i would call it a failure/disaster/ of the most horrible kind..to me thats what it would be and maybe it would be my fault because of the business decisions i made, what i pick out next week in chicago...what plots i try for this year to reach and please my target customers,,,i really feel the responsibility...........and, BIG YUKK, i would have to pay back money to the bank , or try to ...we didnt have any debt till about yr 10....and i know some stores who have done it without debt....im so impressed with them...we went in for a building and later for seasonal inventory....the first years, poorer but debt free. were without the horrible financial pressure of the last few!!! im aiming for very reduced credit now...i dont want as much as felt safe a few years ago....i think we all feel for everybody and just have different words....we are facing rough times for sure....and it helps to hear from each other....i sure dont blame anyone for closing...but mostly i feel for those who are in there really trying/needing to make it work in thIs HORRIBLE ECONOMY....

GREEN OAK IS DEFINITELY HANGING IN THERE..... as best we can....and hoping for another good year....and finding the right mix for the store AND OUR LOYAL CUSTOMERS.......

2010-01-14T06:56:00.000-08:00

im in florida and planing

merry christmas

2009-12-25T13:22:00.000-08:00

hope you all had some time to just lay around and enjoy a day off.....

A GOLDEN TIME

2009-12-07T20:20:00.001-08:00

this time of year is golden to me....the numbers come in, i can look at the shelves and see what happened with my product picks.., its year end!!!!

i do a lot of the yearly plan at this time....when all the parts of last years plan come to light....what worked and what didnt..what we have too much of what we didnt get enough of...... what the state of the store is...how bad last year really was...

.what saved us...dh says we cut our spending to adjust to the horrible reality this last year...and i think we picked out some pretty cool stuff last year...

. and what our goals should be for the coming year.... ...

.we have new issues this coming year....good ones....my health insurance is off the table....turned 65...thats saving us about 800 a month in insurance.....its pretty bad when your dh cant wait for you to turn 65!!! lol.... i can hardly believe it ...we are trying for almost a month off in january...im dreading it... im not good at vacations....but we have a great crew, not really worried there....

.so basically im having fun right now trying to sift thru everything and come up with

a great recipe for 2010...and im bugging everybody here at the store and lots of other folks for their opinions on everything... im asking them hard questions....like what worked best this year? etc etc... I NEED SOME WILD IDEAS FOR THE STORE!!!

here are some of the lists i will be thinking about...it helps to get it on paper....and it really helps to look at last years lists..... to see what you forgot about or let drop without giving it a good try...

what sold out in christmas ...whats left...
best sellers in the different categories....fooo foo, country, garden, key west,
revamping the store...?????
marketing .
ORPHAN IDEAS..the things still waiting around for their big chance...
what went up what went down...what to cut...
web ideas...site,email plans....facebook .. etsy....blog roll, how to make it all more interactive....im still looking for more store forums..... ???
best ideas all year...worst...
what to buy...i love this part...
events.... what worked this past year....

these are some of the lists that will be jiggleing around in my head and that i will be talking about with everybody in the next few weeks...

.and then its the big wholesale show where we make the main product decisions for the coming year...

also i keep a couple of notebooks thru the year...nothing too organized but lots of ideas....so i like to really go thru those too.... at this point all information and viewpoints are good... and i like to hear as much as i can from everybody....

all this helps me focus on the goals we have .... its fuzzy but it kind of works.... i dont want to get too organized.... so many good things for us have happened by serendipity...

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and heres something completely different ....FOR YOUR BLOG....

.VIDEo BLOGGING..... i would love to see us all do it!!! http://2minuteswithava.com/

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furniture and homes... theory.

2009-11-26T13:43:00.000-08:00

here are some recent pictures of our store....i think the pictures show THE KEY TO
WHAT OUR STORE IS ABOUT ~furniture and homes......we hope we can be a place where adventurous people can come and find good things for their houses.........A THING THAT JUST FEELS SO RIGHT TO THEM.....SOMETHING THEY CAN REALLY USE AND SAYS THIS IS ME...and at a friendly price....we hope...

IN A WAY .....WE SELL THE RAW MATERIALS.....

we get a huge variety of people...that sure keeps it interesting to me...we try not to specialize...why limit ourselves!!!!. one week a grand piano the next a prim workbench..... we dont want to be too predictable....boring would be so wrong...

.I LOVe hearing about the customers projects...from fun junk projects using the roughest stuff, to building projects working with our antique fireplace mantles, or big old porch parts....its kind of endless... . ...sometimes i get to see them... if they get around to sending me a picture i try and put it on our pin up page here http://www.greenoakantiques.com/.... lots of customers come tell me how many compliments they got from something they got here.....

just trying to say, i think the right recipe, if you can find it, can make us really valuable to our customers... either for a cheap thrill or a big serious purchase....or maybe both, on different days... ......

so.....GO WHOLE HOG FOR THEM....imho

on the web.... son jon has a new blog... put together by terri, his wife and our webmistress.....when he brings something great home he will say its decorator approved..usually referring to what hes learned by observing the decorators bidding at auction...his goal is to have very current pictures and prices...

..so here it is.... http://www.jonsdecoratorapprovedpicks.blogspot.com/

WORD ON THE STREET..... we had a big company owner in the store today..for PROPS AND DISPLAY PIECES......and her view was that its been a GOOD SEASON and her customers, mostly boutiques or high end shops, are doing well and reordering....

. also hearing GOOD REPORTS on a store forum im on.... we are sure feeling pretty healthy right now...WEVE HAD 3 GOOOD MONTHS IN A ROW... with this month beating last year by a lot......

fads and trends....

2009-11-22T06:10:00.000-08:00

my theory is if you name your store after a fad...you will be hurting....

example...shabby chic ...the word is over....the color and feel is a big huge trend that will hang on for a long time.........the fad of shabby is about over......the word feels over used.... its kind of out..as in its in or was in target and walmart...... but neat casual white stuff is still good...and the whole idea of shabby is still what our store is about......but still im so glad i dont have shabby in my name...glad that i didnt hinge everything on one idea....

in other words ...if your store makes it....you dont want a name that sounds out of touch and dated in a few years....

i loved the word shabby....it said it perfectly....but now when im still selling it i need a new word....now im kind of having a ball with steampunk.... but i dont want to change our name to anns steampunk parlor...

the trouble with having a business thats all about a big fad..especially if its your favorite style and you are new.... ..THE TROUBLE IS... is you dont realize its going to change/get old/ ..... i think thats where the french thing is headed....once the trendsetting buyers see it one too many places they will be looking for the next thing.... we had that situation in our record shop....we made these huge fun earrings for several years....it seemed like a sure thing....THEN the girls turned to llittle bitty stud earrings....we were toast!!!....past fads...cabbage patch...80s hair...collectors plates, collectible anything.. beanies....cutsy country...victorian....

tracing a fad...heres an example of something thats hitting boutiques right now...religious things...like statues , big serious victorian things, angels, SANTOS, ....this makes antique dealers smile....because the antique world has been after this kind of thing for at least 7 ore 8 yrs..... i really think the antique world is where the new styles bubble up ....the good show dealers sell to to the big designers and trendsetters and the buyers for the big famous stores ..... .....anyway those famous people go to the big shows....brimfield, roundtop, scotts, kane county, springfield....etc etc etc..... etc etc ..... ... and thats where everything starts ...imho.....then it filters down to the big gift companies and to the boutiques then to target, walmart and hobby lobby....

its interesting for me....because even tho i stay right here in indiana,.....we are at the bottom of the pecking order...I DO GET TO HEAR THE STORIES RUNNING THRU THE DESIGN WORLD... ..if some business does great with our stuff they dont broadcast our name... but we are always looking for something that would be right for the top of the pecking order of buyers..IM SHOPPING FOR THE BIG BUYERS ALL THE TIME, BUT FINDING SOMETHING THAT GOOD IS HARD....and we definitely sell to some people who sell at those shows..... lots of our stuff has ended up at the big fancy places.... and in magazines.....and in how to books...but not with our name...

i get to hear about the big buyers who i have seen in mags etc and thats fun too.... like martha stewart and racheal ashwell and what the anthro and terrain buyers are looking for..

so what is hot on the antique trail right now? i would say industrial....lockers, metal drawers, big metal factory tables ,..stark and mission.... ..and big church things still...and the real big fabulous stuff ....and some primitive...

my newest interest is whole idea of recycled, junk, and urban and steampunk....we are embracing that at green oak...we have a whole industrial section... its so cool!!! .the wildest parts , like my love hurts sign, probably wont be huge here...but we do have lots of outside the box customers and we do sell to some big show dealers and we can be a source for them... our country girls are always open to using outside or barn things inside..so they like some of the stuff ....

something could be here at our store and at the pier show in new york a few months later....happens all the time...with the right stuff....

thats my theory for today....

i really think your longevity in business will come from your expression of style....and i wouldnt limit your vision with a real specific word like french or shabby or whatever comes next... i would pick a vague name , an abstract name, that can still be relevant when your customers change or you get different customers......a name that wouldnt box you in to some style thats in menards and hobby lobby and walmart a couple of years down the road...

here we are big enough in space to cover lots of styles....but even in a smaller store i think you have to choose either jump on the bandwagon of a fad and go for it...then close when its over........or jump into a fad but keep something else going too....... the second choice is the healthy one imho...

so in a nutshell....lets say scarves are hot....and you want to get in on it....if you name your store scarf city....it will be over and you will have the wrong name....which might be just fine....

i wish our name was green oak home and garden...

but every time i bring it up dh gags....it would be a huge amount of work to change it...our name doesnt say what we are well at all...

if you are picking a name....GOOD LUCK... hope you can find one that wont drive you nuts down the road...

4TH QUARTER....

2009-11-11T05:17:00.000-08:00

FOR US ITS THE 4TH QUARTER......meaning christmas in november, no thanksgiving, and finding out if all the stuff we bought was right or not....
we had our big openhouse and so thankful that it turned out great!!! actually up ...which is a wonder this year!!!!
a good thing....the store full of happy chaotic shoppers isnt something they can get on line...

i think we hit on a couple of really good ideas that fit our store and our customers....
GIFTS TO GO....WE HAD A BIG SELECTION AT 15$ or less...so good for the little gifts people need..
BATTERY CANDLES....these sold so well!! they are so useful....its a flickering bulb on top of a taper...no flame...and we have had one run for 4 weeks, non stop, in the store ...
LANTERNS...the big hit was our lanterns.... filled with christmas ....how does a big new idea come? well this one just popped into my head...last year we did snowmen under cloches...and this year we have these big beautiful lanterns out on the back porch, they have been pretty popular with a candle and berry ring...so the next step was easy.......just messing around i put a snowman in one ...and viola!!!! we probably have sold 1000$ of them.....the lesson...keep your mind open , putter around, try something.... i need another one!!lol...
the nice thing is the customer can take it apart and do something else for spring...

THE WORK PART.... transforming that much of the store is kind of a nightmare..or christmas in a blender ....we didnt close....we were very torn up for a week...the customers just kind of wallked thru the mess....and were nice about it...hopefully they didnt hear very many of the oh shits.... from the little elves behind the scenes...
we had a great crew working ...as always... and i think it turned out good.... we got a lot of compliments...we arent professional florists or decorators....but we try...

i know some stores held back for christmas this year but we didnt and it seems to have been a good decision...

MONEY TALK.... ITs TIME TO DO THE MATH... to me that means looking at the year end and seeing if you are ok...its not so much about doing the accounting different...its about
looking at finances with a cold eye.. did this year work out ? ..is it going up or down? .. are we ok?....or is it getting worse and worse? did we make the money we need to make? ....my feeling is that we made it another year..but omg...its harder and harder...
its hard times for sure....but thats the times we are in.... i want to be realistic and make it work in these times, not sink slowly while im waiting for better times.........
i want to do the math and face the music and keep on doing this!!! thats where coming up with a better plan that fits the new reality comes in.... the hard part...
maybe i could be sloppier a couple of years ago and still make it...now every penny seems to count more...

...the WEB

2009-10-23T05:18:00.000-07:00

USING THE WEB IS SO DIFFERENT FOR ME....UNHEARD OF JUST A FEW YEARS AGO....AND NOW IM all over the place.....

im not very tekky....but IM so thankful for the internet....now it is a part of our business and my day.... FOR ME ITS A WAY TO CONNECT, A PLACE TO GET INSPIRED, A GOOD PLACE FOR ARMCHAIR TRAVEL...AND SOMETIMES A GREAT PLACE FOR BUSINESS BRAINSTORMING...and info...

.........HERE WE ARE.....
http://www.magpiecottage.blogspot.com/
http://www.greenoakantiques.com/
http://www.gypsymarket.etsy.com/ our etsy
facebook!!! look under green oak antiques..or friend me.. http://www.facebook.com/people/Ann-Burton-Wootten-Furnivall/1421037692
http://www.vintagevillage.ning.com/ about etsy mainly
http://www.junkrevolution.com/ all about junk and the junky world
http://www.giftshopmag.com/ some good articles on here...and a forum
http://www.small-business-forum.net/ good informative posters on all things web related
http://www.giftbeat.com/ ....just joined and really like it....good active stores on there....good nuts and bolts store talk.....

here are some of my WEB issues right now....

how to use facebook as well as possible....and how to have it interact with our other web parts ....im considering an ad for the store on there....facebook can be so local....and altho i love being all over the place on the web...my MONEY comes from people who are here in indiana and can actually drive to my store inan hour or so......and i think they are on facebook....especially my new young homeowners.... any comments on this idea sure would be appreciated...hint hint...

how many times to email customers in a month

just figured out the link within widget!!!! its pretty wierd...i dont know how it works....but its on my magpie blog....it shows you 3 related posts within your blog.....how does it pick? who knows!!!!

how to sell my junk art on the web,....new website, etsy, facebook, ?????? and would it sell.

get a better camera...and the hard part...learn how to use it better...

and last but not least.....how to connect ....cyberley... with my local customers and not be a pest...

thats about it....

decision time

2009-10-08T14:02:00.000-07:00

WE ARE ALL ABOUT CHRISTMAS RIGHT NOW.....

THE BIG OPEN HOUSE IS THE FIRST WEEKEND IN NOVEMBER....

im on line with lots of other stores ~~~~and hearing all their ideas~~~~ its putting me into OVERLOAD....

HERE ARE SOME OF THE IDEAS IVE HEARd ON LINE ;;;

PEACOCK TREES, lime trees, upside down treses, wall trees , ornaments on trees, theme trees

TRUNK SHOWS, yes or no...

SOME KIND OF PROMOTION THAT GETS THE HUSBANDS IN , INCLUDING BEER, how many promotions..

parties,LOTS OF IDEAS INCLUDING WINE AND SPIRITS..super food layouts, invitation only

COUPONS, BE BACK COUPONS, drawings,

DEMONSTRATIONS on decorating, flower displays,

GIFT BAGS, what to give your best customers.

every store does it different, and some have really wonderful events and some dont think it works at all.... ..

SO ITS SURE ON MY MIND TODAY... i really have to figure out the prop and furniture configurations very soon........we changeover so much of the store for christmas...

also

#TRYING TO REMEMBER....another problem is the stuff is mostly packed away and i havent seen our christmas merchandise since we packed away when it came in..ididntmake workbooks of the different displays as i ordered..

#MELDING TOGETHER all our advertising , newspapers, radio and ...

ALL THE CYBER PLACES... our site, blog and facebook...EMAIL making the most of it all and connecting witH as many fans as possible...my cyber work is so hard since i cant do any of it myself... thank heavens for my dh and dil....

last year i was good and made lots of notes....so its time to dig all that out and get a real plan going...

its been such a scary year but im going to try and make it as big and nice as ever...

I CAN HARDLY FACE THE PHYSICAL PART....WE HAVE TO MOVE A WHOLE SECTION OUT...

ALSO... just signed up and joined giftbeat.....it really seems nice....with lots of active stores talking....i love to hear from stores...so much better than the experts and female press....imho

heres our newsletter..... terri my dil....does it for us... http://www.greenoakantiques.com/oct2009.htm

2009-10-07T17:55:00.000-07:00

well i got this from my antiquing buddies on http://www.rhubarb-reign.blogspot.com/.... its a game or award and im supposed to write 10 things you might not know.... so thanks guys and here are my 10...

im a war orphan...ww2,my dad was killed by a kami kazi
......i went to arkansas by car with a black family when they couldnt even get served a roootbeer at a drivein...or stay in a motel....it was whites only.... 1950s i was little...they were helping to raise me and my sisters...
i was once a republican....for barry goldwater..
i never worked as a kid.... didnt have a job until about 27....except for about 3 weeks in college. dh an i have never worked for anyone in 35 yrs...
i cant fly
many local people, think i get a million $$$$ a year...... so not true...they cant seem to imagine that the reason i have money to spend because i sell a lot...duh...this nasty mean rumor has given me very tough skin...my family could have done something like that but they didnt....DANG...
no good at vacations
i love the dirty parts...gardening, digging thru stuff at auctions, painting ....very messy...
sorting is tops with me...and puttering...
i never grocery shop or do laundry...

too much?

2009-10-04T05:18:00.000-07:00

my week ahead

DEALING WITH jons auction..he went to a good one yesterday and got 2 box trucks full.... it was a camp selling out...i think we got about 70 chairs, 10 huge tables, lab equipment, cute little metal boxes with birdhouse shape....tampon receptacles....lol... he didnt know... 5 pianos, 20 little oak kids chairs, and 27 old hickory couches and chairs....he brought 2 truckloads home...and will get the rest monday...jon gets all the fun...i had to stay at the store and work...i used to go every saturday....

CHRISTMAS ...... OPENHOUSE.. THE WHOLE STORE WILL BE TRANSFORMED FOR OUR CHRISTMAS OPENHOUSE IN ABOUT 4 WEEKS........INCLUDING PLANNING FOR :::::christmas gift bags ...THE TREES...... CHRISTMAS SCHEDULING, CHRISTMAS LAYOUT, CHRISTMAS ADVERTIZING...RIGHT NOWITS ALL PACKED AWAY....

.FLUFF UP THE STORE...we can hardly get thru the antique primitive room...

wreath project...carol is making the neatest christmas ball wreaths...i think they will be good sellers...

etsy plans...want to present it with more emphasis on steampunk....ITS GOING PRETTY WELL AND WE HAVE LOTS MORE TO PUT ON http://www.gypsymarket.etsy.com/ weve decided not to go for another website for selling...

where to go with junk art....way too many ideas in this world....but i dont even have a good place to sell....i think its a huge trend and getting bigger and bigger on the national scene....

THE LOGISTICS.... where to put 10 8 ft tables...just the physical part of jons sale seems pretty impossible...we are packed right now before we unload all the trucks....

final christmas orders

necklace project...ruth can solder!!!! i just bought a big collection of old matchbooks....with great vintage art....

upgrade my computer skills and try and use the web better...im loving facebook but have no idea where its place will be...we do have a fan page....i m on a great business forum with such good guys who are so generous talking about blogs and all things web related....im trying to learn from them......http://www.small-business-forum.net/

thats about it...once in a while i get a negative thought is we are too big for our location.... we have too much stuff , too many things going on....but like dh says it is what it is....we arent moving....somehow we just have to get more people to come here...

whenever i think we might have too much stuff , or too much going on, it passes quickly... therE is always room for more... if its interesting...

our business has been built on .if its a good price go for it..if we can sell it.....thats why jon bought 5 pianos...at least he passed on 40 boxes of books for 1$ each....if a good primitive buyer comes thru boy will i have some tables to sell....the bad part is our habits formed when we had tons of wholesale buyers who could use a truckload if it was priced right...oh well!

like mae west sayS

TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THiNG CAN BE WONDERFUL....

2009-09-26T06:05:00.000-07:00

steampunk altered art, trash to treasure and junk
thats where my head is lately.... and for a long time as you can see in our robot above...we had her made about 15 yrs ago...shes 14 ft tall...
see the baby...and the iud...
back to the junk idea

its all over our store...

#from our giant islands and counters from salvaged parts....
#to all things industrial that we stock and sell to stay at home moms as well as the big time show dealers
who come thru sometimes...

# to our rough room,aka junk rooom,aka orphan room...its is full of nice saveable stuff, so superior to the particle board crapola out there in the furniture world......

# our big signs on shutters and windows..and cutting out words from the ceiling tin...
# jons birdhouses out of old cans and garage junk
# the raw materials , like doors, windows, spindles, shutters, and getting to hear or see the neat results in peoples homes.... they bring me in pictures sometimes...
#to filling our etsy site with the fun junky vintage raw materials for the junk/steampunk/altered artists out there on the web... http://www.gypsymarket.etsy.com/

this is the theme im seeing in so many places...

i think its a big trend that will fit our store like a glove ...
. its in the shelter magazines,

the big antique shows,

in the most high end shops,

at the fleas,

the big altered art/junk events that just happened.... both packed with buyers ..
[.country living faire and junk bonanza,} all the wonderful texas shows you can see in the blog world... etc etc....

so our job, in the retail world, is to figure how to best make money on this big idea thats sweeping the country.... thats all...
like my daughter says...weve always been about junk.meaning green oak ,,.. .and its nice to see the rest of the world catching on....

just take a look at the pottery barns ads....you can easily see they check out the fleas and antique stores.....

wierd, but our store has been reflected in country living since it started publication.....from deep country back when we covered everywall with everything and the colors were mostly dark......to now with completely different approach and colors but the same fun reusing spirit.... i still cover every wall at home ....

funny money,,,,

2009-09-23T05:55:00.000-07:00

value is so funny in antiques....jon got these rugs at an auction...they look great , the family was rich, one is marked made in iran.....we paid about 80$ .....they are either factory made, and worth very little, like karastan or real orientals.....i cant tell ....the pattern is on the back , the colors are great..... so whats the price..?

..yesterday i said they are between 100 each or 1000 each..... im waiting for my rug buyer , he will want them if they are good orientals, if he doesnt want them that tells me they might be worth 100.... hes the expert....and weve sold to him before...

we sent word to him thru our antique buddy network,i dont have his number, he just called, hes on his way.... now i have to decide how to handle this.....should my goal be 1000 each? what if they are 5000 rugs? should i care.... maybe ask 2000 and let him take that or offer less......i am so rarely in this position,,,,as i think its horrible and unprofessional to not have something priced....rugs are about the only thing i ever dont price by what i paid.....but he is getting to see them instead of me selling them for 100....

the last time this happened....our parting deal was him paying us 6000$ for a big filthy pile of rugs... after the deal was made, he said he would have paid $7000....and i told him i would have taken $5000.....it was pretty funny......the big one he sent to turkey to be repaired....it must have been a heck of a rug...

...but we have a good relationship...the only way i ever get good rugs is by dumb luck at auction.... i know a teeny bit , but not really enough to know w hat im looking at...

he told me on the phone that the made in iran tag meant they were after ww1....

maybe i will just throw myself at his mercy.... or offer them at 2000, for the pair...

hmmmm.

FINAL REPORT;;;;; ..basically , let him have them at any price.... one was horribly damaged...and the other also not good...i knew there was a hole., thats all jon told me and it was that plus water damage....... but big and worth sending to turkey to get repaired...costing way more than what he paid....im satisfied...and happy with the guy...he knows i know nothing....and respect his very good reputation.... .i told him i was hoping for 2 or 3000 and he said he was too....

what we learned..... since hes spending 7 or 800 to get the hole repaired and it will still have lots serious off color and worn down spots....bad ones....my guess is one like this in good condition we could sell for 2 or 3000....thats my wild guess anyway....

isnt it georgous!!!

outside the box inventory

2009-09-18T15:56:00.000-07:00

today im at a big antique show/flea in springfield ohio.......getting great outside the box inventory..... stuff you cant get at the gift shows....things i really think make our store a destination....things that you just cant get at the big gift shows.....
we bought all day today including...
.antique ships wheels
huge baskets
locker baskets
old road signs
all kinds of antique wooden containers from china
little stools
halloween crafts
big fun carved fish
little buddah heads
big glass jars
recycled cow, penguin, and car....these are so cool!!!

and so much more!!!!
got to meet sandy and joe from http://www.rhubarb-reign.blogspot.com/ and see their cool booth in person...i love reading her show adventures....
we are close to the country living show in columbus...but are passingit up formore fleamarketing tomorrow...its a beautiful weekend over here in ohio..
the guy who sold me a lot of this sells to terain...which i gather is a big deal altho i have never seen one....

today i liked about everything junky and tried to restrain myself.....

wish i knew ....

2009-09-16T06:25:00.000-07:00

is this what they call steampunk!!!!!

this is by an old antique buddy who is an alcoholic and fabulous outsider artist.... http://www.alcoholicoutsiderartist.blogspot.com/

wish i knew how to do some of this...DONT YA JUST LOVE ARTISTS!!! where would we be without them..

really i wish i had the clientel to sell this kind of stuff in the store.......and support the artists ....but im in corn country for one thing....and i cant get

$$200 for a darling little robot...dang!!!! i really love them....but i cant blame the artists for their prices either....

i do buy for myself sometimes....and sometimes i think hey i work for very little a lot of times..now and in the past.....so why do artists want to start out so high?....

for the inner wonk in you

2009-09-06T06:36:00.000-07:00

heres a new place i found http://www.laurenandemira.com/ and their blog about business...they wrote a book ... the boss of you..

LOOKS LIKE A LOT OF GOOD STUFF IN THERE...

lots of interesting business info and ideas... a new place to explore. im going back tonight....now off to work..

A GREAT DAY.... we had such a good weekend....and im so glad we went to the cash and carry and got all that fall...it looked great and sold great..lots of garland, and all the misc . went out the door today.....our idea of good used furniture is paying off too....it was like a party in there today...over 10 cars in the parking lot most of the day....

. A SUPER HOT THING...those great battery LIGHTS AND CANDLES.

.we are reordering like mad tomorrow...

MAYBE THINGS ARE TURNING AROUND...

clint eastwood and toughts for the day

2009-09-03T07:06:00.000-07:00

~~~~I WANT TO BE LIKE CLINT EASTWOOD, BB KING, AND SENATOR BYRD..or alan greenspan ....... and just keep working deep into old age...im definitely hoping for 20 more years in the business....if my luck holds out ..

in antiques, i have lots of great old role models who loved their work and never did give it up.... until their bodies just gave out....

.one old customer actually came here the day he had chest pains, by old i mean in his 80s...his wife was furious wanting to take him to the hospital... .instead she had to drive him 45 miles to come see us.........he always wanted good things before 1850 and i had one.... a big corner cabinet...he couldnt get out of the car, . we drug it out into the parking lot and twirled it around and he bought it....then said ...take me to the hospital alice.... he was so rattled he didnt even beat me down on my price... he was one of my favorites....back then...he looked down on anything made after 1850...such a snob....but he would call me faithfully every week to see if i had something for him..that was the last time i saw him....... also on a different occasion,he was blind in one eye, he fell down in my rocks on the way up the steps to the store.....

~~ SMALL WORLD.... my blog is getting me in trouble....i talk about one guy a lot..hes so much fun and gives me business and show info and stories from texas to atlanta... i never use his name...well he was somewhere in america and talking about something and his buddy said"oh, i know all about it"...and that he'd read it on here...and recognized his friend/my friend ....... my friend kind of ripped me..i was so innocent....and i dont ever tell anything i consider bad...it was maybe about the deer head he painted like a Holstein...

~~ DUH....DONT ORDER WHAT YOU CANT PAY FOR... .i think i ahave read this as a plot before...... what maybe stores dont REALIZE is that your reputation gets tossed around all over a show or on the road...among reps, among companies, between reps and other stores...... if you dont pay on time or if your credit card gets declined , a lot of people know about it...especially if you are well known.......its a bad sign.

~~~KINDNESS OF STRANGERS... there is a lot of that going around..... today a dealer called....and said she had 8 tables and just got charged for 7...shes sending a check...

.i wish i had a picture of her for you...she and her dh drove a long way to come here....in a car!! and they got 8 tables in it.... shes going to paint them up for her store....

~~~~we might have to make our thing function on fewer or lower sales.....that would be so bad....but if the economy doesnt come back right that might be our new reality.....my plots in this direction would be MAKE MORE ON WHAT WE DO SELL... but how? **** to have a few more nice big expensive things for some of the buyers........*****and to keep working at being way more careful about the buying, the shipping , the bulk discounts....and all those things that can make lots of little differences.....****keep our prices down and try to be that place with the right stuff at the good price....

having our monthly and yearly numbers not grow or even sink a little is just gross to me....and scary.... its like we are STARTING ALL OVER IN A WAY... and we are definitely in a region with horrible un and under employment......they just dont have as much money to spend as they used to....thats a fact...

whats working this week......

2009-08-30T05:12:00.000-07:00

this week our fall is selling great..
some things that are working...

~~~on the the harvest tables, the long candle holders with garland around them , are selling

~~and im so glad i bought lanterns...we have been putting the battery tealights or tall candles in them with some fall foilage...and the are selling....

~~~~lots of wire and metal pumpkins are selling...

........we have a whole new section of fall....

its refreshing

..i think our customers hope for something nice seasonally from us....even tho they can go almost anywhere....

facebook and shoptalk

2009-08-26T04:59:00.001-07:00

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Rochester-IN/Green-Oak-Antiques/128260302593?ref=nf

well, im trying it..... i love blogging and dont plan to give that up,and i dont quite see how facebook would be different...but im giving it a shot.....its a different venue i guess....

im also doing a personal page....ann burton wootten furnivall....or just ann burton....... AND HOPE SOME PEOPLE over 40 or business people OR CYBER FRIENDS find me and want to be friends....oh gad, i think one of my kids did just hit 40..... so far its mostly family and people my kids age......... lots of my antique buddies dont even have a computer!!

so IF YOU NEED/want A FRIEND COME SEE ME/ FRIEND ME???!!! weird words.

and from my class of 1962 only 4 are on....so im kind of lonesome on there....

but im trying to listen to Rick segel and others telling us businesses we should give facebook a whirl..so im doing a fan page for green oak...

ON MY MIND

THE ECONOMY...i think its getting better but will be different..... and i worry about the big stores and All their constant sales.... this is so against us....as small retailers...
NEED A NEW VENUE...the things i tried this year didnt work.... 2 mall booths..... we continue to have all our eggs in one basket, THE STORE, and that scares the @#*&&^ out of me....weve always had something major on the side... ..... oops i forgot about etsy....its another basket but only about 1 to 300$ a month...we cant do shows.... no people...we cant move......i dont see the Internet working at the level im talking about...... im loving junk art..and like what we are making.....but where to sell it is the question....also thinking about offereing trunk shows... with the garden iron...
NEW CUSTOMERS...scary thing is i dont quite get them... i dont have the seat of the pants intuition about them like i have always had about my old customers..i dont have the code words to attract more of them....they are young and like our stuff but i dont know what they do with it or how they decorate or what their ideals are....
PRODUCTIVITY.....we have a workforce...and i have to keep us making money not just dusting!!! but what...
INTERNET DECISIONS..we have a new selling site ...laying dormant....i see so little evidence of a site in my field making money...to me making money would have to mean at least 5000$$$ a month.... i cant make us put out the effort to give it a try on the info ive gathered so far........ do you know anyone making that amount on line? would love to hear...
WHAT to buy .....thats always a fun problem.....im going for the new girls ....and they sure arent like me in their choices............so im trying to figure it out...the good thing is they really seem to like our store....im thinking its about style, recycling, quality and saving money....AND they are kind of adventurous and outside the box...so that still feels right...

road trip

2009-08-21T05:43:00.000-07:00

we went to saugatuck michigan..... such a neat town....and a yearly get away for dh and i......full of arty shops and clothes....and several antique stops on the way.... its always inspiring to me to see others stores and how its going and whats working......
the whole town was having its sidewalk days...thats why we went.....huge crowds...nice loud band playing in the middle of town.... some kind of sale about everywhere...end of summer and its on the lake....
we went to our favorite restaurant....and they forgot us, they sat us and never came back....and they werent busy at all....... in 2 places someone said hi....both were the owners.... have you ever been waited on by a guy from india!!!! its almost always a great example for what to do right...
lots and lots of closed shops on the way up on the red arrow highway......you would have tons to choose from if you wanted to be up there........ but we did see 2 nice busy antique places....
what i brought away....besides way too much totally bored young girls representing businesses....trying not to do their jobs...was.....
*****a big funky art sign....hanging in an art section..that might be fun here ..IM THINKING OF AN ART SECTION...OR JUNK ART SECTION
***a cute pic of little kids....in the big family restaurant that forgot us.... labelled ...FUTURE OWNERS....we have jons kids pictures on the door anyway....they might like that..
***the most gorgeous place was marco polo..in harbet.... closed for the day, but i could look in the window....it was fabulous...the total gallery affect...showing how the pieces would look in a fabulous home.....wouldnt work here we have way too much stuff but it was very impressive...kind of a mix among industrial cottage and mission...
***outside displays...one place had wonderful tall metal fountains and used arches really well...
i get so bogged down with our different spaces....i love seeing how others arrange theirs.....

not to be braggy....but our workers get compliments all the time for their friendliness and helpfulness..... i know we have awful problems like any store....but hardly any customer has ever been here and not been spoken to...at least once!!! anyway, thats always our goal....and its sincerely bought into by our workers.... we just dont sit around and look bored with you and keep talking about the party, the kids, the whatever....we know our money comes from our customers....

after we got forgotten at the restaurant we headed down to south haven and ate at clementines.....totally packed with diners and a gorgeous building all put back into its antique glory........and super super service....and reasonable prices.... it was a huge place and just doing great.....

im so into junk art now and was sorry not to see more of that.....

another business part of the day was listening to npr on the way up...... lots of talk about the economy....and how its getting better but we americans have lost equity in our homes , lost our 401ks etc etc...so we are grumpy and not in a big hurry to spend like before......and dh and i acted in the way they were describing......we like nice expensive sheets from the outlet polo store so we stopped there on the way up, at michigan city....we like high thread count but are too cheap to pay full price.....but there, at discount, the pillowcases were 69$ and the whole set would have been almost 200$....i guess we could still afford that if we just had to have them...., we bought there before, but it felt too extravagant and we didnt buy ...

big changeover

2009-08-17T05:24:00.000-07:00

now its all about fall.... we went to offingers and bought lots of great stuff....this week we will be bringing it all out....garland, pumpkins, great signs, big handmade things, some barnwood frames..... the fall season is pretty short....but i love it....

i bought lots of lights and lots of block things....

we went to offingers in Ohio.... a big one day cash and carry....i love cash and carry... no shipping, no bad catalog decisions, no back orders, big stuff, ....and lots of competition so good deals... they were packed and lots of happy vendors....

lots of big orders coming in too.... so we will be super busy for a week or two...

my work list is huge....but we have lots of help....moving a whole section today...to make room for fall....

im on facebook...kind of weird.... so far its mostly personal but im hoping for some business friends....since my main life is about this wonderful business adventure....and my family is out there with me....my personal is under my name...annburtonwoottenfurnivall.....and the store fan page is greenoakantiques... im not too sure how this will ever relate to sales at the store....but its kind of interesting and fun....im hoping t find some old college roommates....

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1421037692&v=feed&story_fbid=1127355110339

and heres the stores fanpage..... i dont wuite see why....the blogs seem bigger and better....but its a different venue i guess...and rick segel says to do it....i like him a lot...

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rochester-IN/Green-Oak-Antiques/128260302593?ref=s

found and enjoyed...

2009-08-12T04:30:00.000-07:00

usually i dont care for anything written just for women..especially when it comes to business,,,...but i just got a wonderful book....BLOGGING FOR BLISS.......BY TARA FREY...heres her blog http://www.bellapink.typepad.com/

the book is laid out so nice...kind of like a blog i guess....lots of eye candy and great info too..it gives a lot of basic advice and introduces a lot of wonderful blogs.....i want to see every blog in it....looks like some will be a little sweet and tame for me.... the ones about family and entertaining and cooking and sewing and soccer practice,,,but im looking forward to reading on lots of new spots....

its a beautiful book and im really enjoying it.... its written by a real blogger, not a tekk guy....

`````````````````````````````

its nothing like my favorite cyber business expert... http://www.ittybiz.com/ .who plainly talks about making business work right.... especially web businesses...its a huge site but somewhere in there she walks you thru her launch of a web book or whatever it was .......where she made 175,000$ in a short time..

.whenever i think about web selling i have to remind myself that this ittybiz woman is one of the few i know of who, imho, im pretty sure is actually make a great wage off their web efforts...lol... ..if i ever try a web thing i will go to her and try and soak up as much as i can.. shes very cool and knows a whole lot....lots too tekky and webby for me......its full of really great ideas and practical info......

watch it...she cusses .......

what amazes me is im all location and inventory....and her thing, thru my eyes, has no location and no inventory.... and she got to move to england because it sounded fun...i assume her business fits into a laptop...... mine needs 10,000 sq ft....plus jons yard!!! and we work like dogs dragging it around..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

also found this week, over on http://www.rhubarb-reigh.blogspot.com/ ... this exciting artist, http://www.maggietaylor.com/ .....a beautiful website with the wildest pictures......

i love her work...

~~~~~~~~~

rick segel....i really like him for retail advice....today he was talking about the new economy....like it was going to stay kind of down or at least different and not ever back where it was....but it could still be good...

he was also all for facebook for stores....i dont quite get that , but thinking about it...

AND he said a store was a love it or leave it situation.... heres his blog... www.ricksegel.com

its over.....

2009-08-10T18:52:00.000-07:00

we had a great sale....even better than last year..up about 10%.....one lady scraped her leg, a glass disaster, about 10 goblets crashed to the floor mortifying a nice shopper.... a scuffle in the road when the traffic jammed... 90 + degrees..and at least 2 people there on oxygen....

. .3 wonderful big sales, and great crowd of buyers at the smaller level....

......if you came ....thank you so much....

..now the remains of the 50 cent row is in our good will store........and lots of the rest will be at nappanee auction in a couple of weeks... my oldest grandson worked helping people to their cars.....and got a tip!!! its such a relief when this thing is over and no problems.....

we partied pretty hardy at the lake....until late....

today we got 3/4s of it put away....

and trying to get back to normal and all our fall plans....

today 2 men asked me for work.one, a neighbor, knocked on my door before 9....... i wish i had more to offer, or some idea that could productively use the workers available....

we got a 2$ check....and the woman who bought 700 50 cent items one year...came....but didnt break her record.... the farthest travellers were about a tie...one from tennessee and one from wisconsin....ONE LADY ON OXYGEN!! sat in the shade and smoked like a chimney for a long time, while her family shopped...

we think about 900 came...

hot and perky...

2009-08-09T03:09:00.000-07:00

we got featured on a beautiful blog.... http://lapetitcoterie.blogspot.com/ shes an old customer and a good cyber friend...she has a new french flavored business...

..another very exciting frenchy friend also put us on her blog... http://www.peacockparkdesign.blogspot.com/ she loves big fabulous architectural stuff just like we do... i love her stuff!!!

yesterday was great....shock!!!! we did much better than the saturday the year before.... i really think things might be getting better and there might be lots of pent up desire ..

..back to today....wade stayed all night and is out there in the kitchen making salmon cucumber sandwiches and dealing with his 24 lbs of chicken wings.his lunch menu....after piles of pastries and fancy cookies for breakfast ..

...he stays all night with us on yardsale day...and we watched rumpole of the bailey last night....we love LOTS OF english tv...

the chaos starts at 8....this year my grandson matthew will be helping too.... first time....
18 people working today....
its going to be hot and we are all ready and perky... i get lots of compliments on my crew....boy does that feel good....

YARDSALE....great start....

2009-08-08T15:42:00.000-07:00

....its all ready .....today and friday were great.....we are about as ready as possible..

one shop keeper drove from tennessee....thanks gina!!! and another from wisconsin....and both seemed real happy with our stuff and prices...

this is us after setting it all up....lisa and christa unloaded it all earlier in the week.......mimi, carol, me , lisa ruth and christa.. setting it all out and pricing everything in 4 hrs!!!! we price by sticker color..all one price on each row....we sorted by price quite a bit in the store so that saved a lot of time...

all done and covered up...lisa and christa..

carol and ruth above

ruth and christa below.

it is so full this year!!!

wonderful....stuff this year.....we are hoping for some serious junkers....everybody coming thru the store seems excited about it..... .....its going to e super hot tomorrow..90.....but hey its august!!! and thats normal....we have tons of great help tomorrow....and are about as ready as we can be.....

tomorrow is all about caviar cucumber sandwiches, wade in his tux, and long rows of cheap misc..... and hopefully about 800 people..... there were sure a lot today......

THIS WEEK....facebook , work, and etc

2009-08-05T05:22:00.000-07:00

this is the biggest work week we have and the biggest money week....the yardsale is sunday....ive been keeping 6 or 7 people working on many projects all week....very very exhausting....we have moved so much merchandise to its right place for the sale..... kind of scary, investing this much effort....paid effort....but our customers have come thru every time....i know this whole year has been different tho....and locally our school starts tomorrow!!! poor kids....so our date might be all wrong./...the sale has been so good in the past i just cant risk changing much about it.... last year was over 800 people...

last night i let 2 women in after hours..i was way too tired!! and almost said no to the person on the phone...........i cant let retail come in after hours....it takes a long time to see everything.... .after she let me know she had spent plenty with me in the past and if i didnt want to bother with her she wouldnt stop, i came to my senses and realized they were dealers in an 18 ft trailer so said yes!!!! thank heavens!!! 5 nice pieces of furniture sold...and i got to meet 2 fun women with wads of cash and heading to the 127 yardsale...i asked how far they would go....i think it goes hundreds of miles...they had no restrictions except the 18 ft of space i guess....those lucky dogs....i let them use their credit cards so they could save their cash for the shopping...

FACEBOOK...my dil , terrri, will be working in the store soon...shes our webmistress and im trying to make some web goals for us.....

facebook is a total mystery to me....but i know its a possible tool and used by lots and lots of my customers....so im going to try to get up to speed and try some ways for our store to use it....... some good talk here http://ricksegel.com/blog/

i dont get it at all ....yet...if they already go to my store blog why would they go to facebook? whats the difference? why do both?...... ANY HINTS FOR ME??

gad...i heard 2 twitter plots yesterday....im not going to be twittering!!! one was a fancy resturant on wheels in santa monica that used twitter to tell customers where the truck is....and another is a michigan shopkeeper who lets her customers know her schedule...

im not going personal....altho i do have some college friends i would love to find..

new projects...

2009-07-31T05:45:00.001-07:00

i have so much work to do this week getting ready for the yardsale..grueling work and a whole lot of it...last night we stamped 1600 postcards....
.im enjoying thinking about those far off projects that dont require immediate action.....the new ideas that are percolating up and look all good...baby ideas that only have high hopes and good parts...
like.... giant collages
cement fun...rock mosaics ,
cement troughs
a whole new look around the amy butler colors, for my young homemakers
a new black section...
big dressforms decorated
captured fairies...
my collage ideas
a big steampunk robot
a dressform covered with jewels.
fabulous cloches covering little wonders

i love this business!!!!
my work list today,double check scheduling for sale... rearrange chickens, plan out the work for 4 people, start packing up the half price room and mark it right for the yardsale, saleprice the furniture about 200 pcs, , call in 2 more ads for the sale...pricing all the stuff that came in this week..... and deal with who knows what...jon is at 20 yardsales this morning... we have a great crew ....
I LOVE THIS BUSINESS....PART 2 today was great
...one wonderful young fun creative customer....who i want to see what she does with all her stuff and ideas....name of rhonda....she has a big booth in hearts desire up in elkhart...going there to see her booth is definitely on my to do list...its so inspiring to talk to someone loving the same stuff/junk i do..and she might even have a worse work schedule than me...lol.....our husbands sound a lot alike too....showing fake panic when we say we have an idea!!!
AND ANOTHER funny old man.... i feel i can write about him, since he doesnt even own a computer...and will never see.... he comes pretty often, and collects something very wonderful and expensive and wanted....big metal statues of women, the beautiful metal and ceramic ones from the early 1900s....dh does too, but this guy has a big enough wallet to pay for the good stuff...marble and bronze,,they are usually draped but definitely WOMEN...with lots of good parts apparent...., anyway we are friends and he comes in once in a while.... today he was so cute..hes a widower and lonely....he kind of giggled and said....my wife used to make me keep my statues hidden away but now they are all over the house.....
the other old guy i had yesterday was with his wife...who i really like...i gave her a great price on something and then the husband tried to beat me down more....he had a patch over his eye!!! he was nice too tho...
my 2 other favs always butter me up, they are in their 80s, and very big spenders if i get the right thing... hows my girl doing....before trying to get something out of me...i save victorian gold for one and the other is lusting for a bottle thats not for sale....
i seem to know a lot of old guys and one of the best things about them...is i seem kind of young to them!! that doesnt happen too much to me.
some places im the old bat whos got it made ....or if they dont know me, the little frumpy housewife...actually i have a housekeeper and dont even do grocery shopping or laundry....THANK HEAVENS..

2009-07-30T11:37:00.001-07:00

heres our mailer....the postcard we are sending out to 3800 this year..... the stamps went up of course...we have about 800 on our email list....thats the easy part...i wold be afraid to give up the snail mail tho.....we print them here and will be stamping them tonight to be mailed out friday or sat....

i cant say enough about annual events....this one is about 30 yrs old.....every year.... and attendance has been as high as 1000....who knows this year....our garden party this year was almost on track....the big minus is the dealer buying...they havent been around much this year....

we comb the store and take out tons and tons....plus the auction leftovers all year which are in storage until next thursday...

i have to have extra help for the next 10 days....to do list for the week..... the yardsale tables stretch about 120 ft and are totally full and priced...we use color stickers to tell the clerks the price...

heres part of my list...

scheduling the 18 to 20 people for the big day....finishing up the advertising, sale pricing all the furniture, making room outside in the parking lot for lots of prim furniture, unloading the rough room,combing the store for all the merchandise that goes in all the different places..50 cents 24 4$ or half price.....its a true sale...and a way to get rid of all the leftovers, mistakes, damaged, tired of , overpriced, etc etc etc ...

this is so worth it...and im not complaining....have to say tho, in the old days the dealers would come on friday and buy up 7 or 8,000 of stuff.that was a great start to the big event.....thats not really happening anymore....the antiquers are about gone....and too many of the new store girls are closed or on budgets....hate that...

ITS A JUNGLE OUT THERE

2009-07-25T06:05:00.000-07:00

my childhood heroes; nancy drew , sheena queen of the jungle and later ayn rand have really helped my form my business outlook .....
too bad they cant fix the pesky economic climate..... ....
i wonder what they would do this year ...
WORD ON THE STREET.... i have heard of some back to work talk around our area....some good g.m. talk ...some new things going on..... i sure hope so...
. we are working hard to not lay anyone off.... we dont want to....it takes at least 4 people to run the store whenever we are open..2 to carry, one on the floor and one at the counter.....and i dont want to change that..
.being A VIRGO im good at worrying...will the customers really go back to their old spending habits? or will they be more conservative?... in lots of ways tighter budgets work for our store......
yardsale..WE ARE WORKING ON SO MANY PARTS OF IT....
.postcards....half printed
..ad...finalized
....STORAGE AREA PILING UP...last week we priced about 30 MORE boxes of stuff for the sale....... and yesterday i bought a whole truck load of cheap stuff at auction.... .....
going to auction makes you realize how bad looking and cheap old giftstore merchandise is...im thinking here of resin angels and fairies...
the yardsale does have about 40 ft row of 50 cent items so i went kind of wild!!!!
????? i could have a ball going back to my roots, going to auctions all the time and getting tons of antiques..BUT WOULD IT WORK FOR THE STORE ????.. would the new girls buy or even care? they dont really seem TO value or know real antiques...i need to get to know these new customers better...

DELEGATING

2009-07-24T05:17:00.000-07:00

dh says i cant delegate...but i dont think thats right..... he doesnt delegate much at all in his part...ive seen him struggle of hours to find a 50 cent mistake on the books... and he would never let anyone esle do any of his bookwork...
im so glad to have delegated lots of things i used to do alone...
*counter work im sure glad to get out of this one....you can get trapped....and it has to be just right...and she can shield me from some of the phone calls...
*most of the carrying, i can still do it of course....but i try and let someone else do it....still if im there a lot of time its easier for me just to grab...

*half the buying, and carpenter ordering..jon does half and i do half.... he thinks i should be out buying more because i know the smalls better.....
*half the fluffing i would love to hire a great merchandizer....we do the best we can... im in awe of a great displayer.... of course its art and they cant tell you how they do it!!!
*ordering, for the gift department i mark what i want in the catalog and how many with a sticker and carol does the rest!!! yay i dont get why i should care if my workers know what we pay..... not many secrets around here...
cleaning......i dont think we ever cleaned in the old days...i sure didnt...
i would like to delegate more....but not so much that i dont even need to be in the store.....

i go for the idea that the best manure for the garden is the farmers footprints

...... i would like to delegate more like the emyth says...and make more time for running the business not just doing the work..... but its pretty hard....i need to know whats going on at all times........ lots of my customers tell me i work too hard...but i dont see it that way...4 or 5 things going on at once and getting interrupted all day long seems normal ...

i have so much stress and pressure and frustration...its a boiler room for me most of the time... .there are so many details and people to deal with..and space and projects.......sometimes i just go in the back and paint ON a piece of furniture....now WE have about the best crew weve ever had so that helps a whole lot... the stress doesnt spoil it for me thats for sure...
ive tried hiring a potential manager about 3 times....and it never has worked out yet.... ...

THINGS I WISH I COULD DELEGATE....and have it turn out like i want...

advertizing
a whole section, like the foo foo or the country, ordering and displaying...
putting the antiques away correctly...

THINGS I WOULD NEVER WANT TO DELEGATE

BUYING
display, not completely anyway
designing
painting
being on the floor with the customers, roaming around on the floor..

thinking about stress....im on a stress discussion online....mostly about women with stores and stress......and i m getting to feel like the oddball, for being too ok or positive....... i know i face tons of stress too ........BUT and its a big one....our store is DOING WHAT ITS SUPPOSED TO DO, it supports us and lets me do my own thing...that outweighs a lot of the hard parts of running a store....... .....

if i was facing closing or not being able to pay the bills , or owing friends or family that would be a whole different thing...

.my point is stress is probably more about the math or financial health of the store . and not the hassles and workload.....im a happy camper and work like a dog....i want to keep on working like a dog... if our math goes lots further downhill i dont know what i would do..

as always, i cant help but blame the advice women seem to soak up, from the popular press and their friends and from people wanting to sell them things... live your dream, you can make it, go girl..when really we are in the same boat as the men in business and better look hard at the realities we have to face if we want to survive........

. we experienced having a business go under, about 30 yrs ago and it was devastating.....all i can say is if you are facing that....get it over with quick..... if its really unsolvable..... and our situation was... the whole thing had changed and we were stuck with totally the wrong price.... and our customers moved on to the other store .... this was a record store when a discounter came to town with new record prices... we had to close....it was very sad and embarrassing and taught me a lot....mainly that its all about the customers...lol... but it gave us a good hardnosed, careful background for our green oak antiques venture... http://www.greenoakantiques.com/

the woman thing

2009-07-22T15:19:00.000-07:00

the woman problem...im reading a lot on line about how hard a store is on your life...that doesnt sound like a concern most businessMEN would be talking about... ...... . ..most women do have to work....why should we, shopkeepers be so different than them? i would hope we could work at our stores and still have regular lives before and after..... lots of women work 8 hrs , at hard jobs and then take care of kids and the house.....
my husbands mom worked in a factory for years....she had a life there and friends there and a life at home....i wouldnt think it was a worse life because she worked ..she probably had pressures there too.....most women have to work these days....its not a choice....i couldnt stand working for anyone ..this life seems much better.....

scary slow today at the store..

..we ordered more christmas and a big hearthside order......their plates and all our word things sure sell.....

FOR THE YARDSALE we got our postcard designed today and an ad...dh does the work,, i ok it.....its so hard for me...i cant do the computer work and dh isnt that picky if all the right words are there he thinks its ok.... or if my first idea isnt working its all my fault.... ....its not exactly a meeting of the minds....he is so good on the computer...we had an apple 2...

but the ad looks good and we will be able to email it to the papers where it will run..... i figure on an event its ok to spend about 10% in preparation and advertising..... that would be about 3 OR 4000$ for us....with the stamps and card taking up at least $2000 and the food about $700 and the extra help a whole lot..THE COSTS ADD UP FAST......im going into this like it will be just like normal...GREAT.... BUT this is a totally scary year for us.....no skimping tho, except on the postcard...we chose a regular size instead of jumbo....saving 700$$ ...but it looks great...

DONT GET ME WRONG ON WOMEN....THEY ARE THE MAIN THING HERE...THE MAIN BUYERS FOR SURE....AND I WANT TO BE A HAPPY WOMAN WITH ALL THE STUFF THAT TAKES.... i just dont expect my business life to be that different than a successful mans.

i think women are different than men etc etc.... but business is business....

.I do KNOW GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN AND THATS WHAT I TRY AND PROVIDE..and that a huge portion of our business depends on women..... AND I WANT TO HAVE FUN TOO....mainly it has to please me..and fit what i can handle...

unfortunately i have to compromise all the time with dh and son jon....none of us get our way all the time....and all three of us are the first born....which really makes it crazy sometimes.... luckily we all have kind of separate parts...

word on the street..... from my bella chica, my daughter...who has a store http://www.bellachicinteriors.com/ she says shes hearing some good things about the economy from some friends working in the bank industry and also some happy real estate people.... so maybe we are turning around a little....... the other thing she told me was that her good customers, who are used to buying whatever they wanted, but are supposed to be on budgets now, have discovered tjmaxxx etc, and think they are getting the same stuff that the big companies are trying to sell us...so she is dropping home decor..and lotsof other smalls...

lots of my customers tell me i work too hard....i really like to ....if i get more help i just think up more work....to me the store has endless possibilities and endless fun ideas waiting to get their chance...

slow and trash to treasure

2009-07-22T05:53:00.000-07:00

one of our trash to treasure counters...
or cash wrap or kitchen islands...
it was so slow today!!! ..so we fluffed and made stuff.....we always have lots of work to do...
thank heavens for trash to treasure ..we have theparts cheap....for our creative customers and on slow days like today we make good saleable inventory out of old windows, shutters and old tin.....shelves signs etc etc....there are so many good junky ideas out there,,,,and the public seems really into it too..... so even tho we werent busy today we were making money......
at our store we have to have 2 people to carry all the time...plus a counter person and a floor person....and sometimes a couple more....
orphan ideas
mosaic on big stuff...like a dressform or furniture....but i dont know about glue...
big branches in side the store
trunk show....i like this idea...but dont know who or what would work
indie art show...ive heard of some great ones....like at the blissful...but can i realy throw another event on the schedule....and wouldnt be sure the local girls would be buying enough and what artists i could find......
girls day out....such a good idea but how to market it!!! we are that for lots of women.... how to find more in other towns is so illusive
custom tables and counters....could i really face the hassle?....i hope we dont have to go this way...
selling website....are we nuts?....i bought a site already, from avalon rose, and might try it....but i would like to know one store who is accomplishing anything on it, by my standards meaning a few 100 a month.......it seems pretty unlikely....especially with paid help...im sure not going to be doing it... i can barely turn the computer on...

executive decisions....

2009-07-18T21:12:00.000-07:00

**i have a huge order made, lots of it isnt christmas.....we are hoping for the normal 7 or 800 buyers to come for our yardsale in august.....should i have that order on the floor? yes...so it will sell faster, so they can see what we have for them for fall
no....they only have so much to spend and its better to sell old than new...

****where to advertize the sale radio what papers
***what to get new for the foofoo ...the amy butler idea is growing on me...some color!!! we have pink and the country colors....but the monotone isnt making it and im excited to try something new and fresh..
****should we go deeper into custom? so many ask for custom furniture,,but i know what a hassle it could be....and that time and hassle isnt figured in our low prices..... yes, we need every sale and the customers want it..

****should i reorder fairly good sellers or must get something completely new instead? thinking here mainly of my hearthside plates ...yes, because we get new people in all the time....no because the regulars need to see lots new all the time...???
***what are the staples in each of our categories? country, foo foo, modern indiana young homeowners..
*** what to bring home from the mall booths for the yardsale? all the duds.... half of the iron....its so wrong to have things at the malls that we are sold out of here....

what do you think?? what would you do?? how do you make these decisions??

this is definitely my busiest month... we were so busy today.... sold a lot...scary tho , lots of familiar faces arent here....im feeling bad about the economy....

our etsy....got lots more watches and keys to put on....its going pretty well.... http://www.gypsymarket.blogspot.com/

my social error of the day,...one of them... a customer came in and i said i got some flow blue for him....thinking he was coming behind her....she had to tell me they were split....

my smartest move of the year....hiring a really good seller...

sold today....a peace sign on a window,,,,a love shutter, a big chicago cabinet, lots of brackets and hooks, lots of windows, some flowers, frames, a big pile of jewelry,, lots of the cheap little stuff from the yardsales lately...

bought today a nice trunk, wire baskets, old watch dials, little chairs, china cabinet....lots more

our entrance is a wow,,with 3 or 4 big chicago cabinets over 1000$ and our good oak and our harvest tables and a counter usually...,new people are always suprised.... ,,,but we have tons of little stuff in lots of price ranges in other parts of the store.... which is real good too.... its a big job to keep the main entrance cleaned up....we all tend to plop on empty surfaces....and we are buying everyday...

work done today.. boxed up about 20 boxes for the yardsale, and hauled away to the building, priced everything from saturday, cleaned up the aisles, put out all the painted stuff, totes and shutter shelves, filled in the holes from what sold friday and saturday...

a big difference between us and boutiques...... we are aiming at a big target group.... trendy fun upscale homeowners....i think of a boutique is aiming at one style....we can change with the times....but still aim at the same group.... if your whole store is pink and the trend moves to amy butler colors or gothic french where are you? ..our store is big enough to have a broader aim....and one thing they like here is a very seperate part where one look can go extreme and wonderful....so if they hate foo foo they dont even go in there...we have a foo foo boutique and a key west boutique and a country boutique...and a garden boutique... etc etc

off to work!!

indy boutique talk...if you are hiring a 60 yr old to do something important for you...dont call her a shopgirl.....it would probably sound minimizing and condescending to a lot of us....... altho i know its not meant that way...like calling a black guy boy...

Fall .. we decided to put it out and some sold today....i guess the thoery is when the kids go back to school they think about fall....and our poor kids go back august ..... 6.....

the woman problem...im reading a lot on line about how hard a store is on your life...that doesnt sound like a concern most businessmen would have...... . ..most women do have to work....why should we, shopkeepers be so different than them? i would hope we could work at our stores and still have regular lives before and after..... lots of women work 8 hrs then take care of kids and the house.....

my husbands mom worked in a factory for years....she had a life there and friends there and a life at home....i wouldnt think it was a worse life because she worked ..she probably had pressures there too.....most women have to work these days....its not a choice....i couldnt stand working for anyone..this life seems much better....

i was lucky...had a a model...

2009-07-16T05:50:00.000-07:00

when we started our business we were lucky.... mainly that we fit into the huge trend of the day....or probably we were so flexible we wormed our way into the biggest trend of the day.... the trend of antiques and the country living version of decorating...
funny but country living still shows my kind of customers and their kind of decorating...
BUT MY BIGGEST HELP WAS having a business model,SMITTYS ANTIQUES ,......a store who i could see was making it ....and big time!!! as in a real income... ...the owner was an old guy and very popular and sold tons......his store and clientele fit me like a glove........ i wanted to handle what he did and sell to the kinds of buyers he had..the big guys..... i could see that it was totally possible...i wanted to be smitty junior......so i copied tons of his policies..... they were unconventional,,,,and not like most of the stores back then....but thats what i did and it worked out great.... he was about 60 and i was 27...
this got us out there into our market on the right foot..meaning our offerings were interesting and reasonable with a big turnover not perfectly staged and overpriced .. pleasing the buyers right from the start.... and there were tons of buyers back then....
he would sell out to almost the bare walls a lot...i never quite managed that...
and 20 yrs later he and i were still in business..when he was in his 80s he was outbidding me at auctions or visa versa ..and most of the other stores were gone....

now hes gone, its 10 yrs later his policies still are a big part of our store philosophy...

if we had followed the conventional version of a store i dont think we would have made it...

my point is ..copy someone in business that you see working...... not just theory or a pretty magazine shoot........look around and find a store thats making it in a way that would satisfy you..... then try and figure out how they did it what they do that works etc etc...

every year country business magazine spotlights some wonderful store.and really gives lots of business details.......thats the kind of info i really like to read.....
here are some of smittys rules that guided us....
..sell low if you can....if he got something reasonable he would pass it on...but next time it might be real high because he paid more....and this was back when most places were pricing their stock by the price guides.he priced by what he paid....he would definitely pass on a bargain to his customers.......we have made tons and tons of money on this one idea....

..no credit or layaways...perfect for us nobody owes us money...nobody is dodging me because they owe me...

..sell as is where is...but no hand holding or guaranteeing...duh

...stay till the end of the auction.... i still feel guilty if i cant make it to the end...

...ignore your auction competition....so smart

...total honesty...show those flaws

..buy by price....if something is going cheap go for it...if its in your buyers category..... he had the knowledge and the money to buy the good expensive things....he sold to the top guys in our state, in many fields but he also made lots of money on the lowly things... he wasnt afraid of the hassle and work of hauling big piles of mediocre things...he had auctioneer buyers, the cheapest guys out there for us,, but they had lots of money...and could use big groups of things if the price was right..............he knew his customers very well and what they would buy....

...learn learn learn....he was so smart and skeptical and curious

....know your customers and their wants....when id walk into his store he would let me know he had something for me...he knew what i liked...i was his customer after we got more established...he was my customer at the start.when i was really new and cheap.....we eventually switched places in a lot of categories, ,,,.due to price and our spots on the totem pole or pecking order of the antique business....

...no gossiping about customers...and he would never brag about what he just sold.. and he would never tell what price he sold something for...now i tell stories on my customers...but i never use their names.... well ,except here with smitty...
..... he was a huge buyer and if someone had a big expensive collection to sell he would give a fair price, and always had the money ...but mostly he was an auction buyer...many times he would buy the biggest best piece at auction.... ....and he had buyers waiting for him every Saturdays night, when he got home from the sale.........he never ran out of money.... that part really impressed me... his turnover must have been amazing....

at auction, if i would buy something huge or say 40 shutters, sometimes i would be called smitty junior....which i took as a compliment...he took advantage of every money making opportunity, even if it was a big hassle...

thats what got us started....and i know its not even close to a gift store....then we were almost all wholesale selling and on the secondary market, with nothing new...........but it helps us now too... in our current version of green oak antiques...
...after we got going and got our own set of buyers i bought many many truckloads from him....he was a great supplier for us...i felt like he always tried to give me a good deal...

..i learned a lot from him... he never tried to be a teacher to me...maybe he realized what a mentor he really was to us but im not sure on that...

i wish i knew my new customers like i knew my customers when we were mostly in antiques....

**********************

*************************

NOW we are almost all retail and not many avid antique buyers...i guess we are a vintage indie gift lifestyle green store now..lol... with few models to loook at and learn from ......i would like to see some good models of retail gift stores working, i hate to think its a big trick and there arent any....i do appreciate style models , like the mags cover...but for survival thats not what im looking for...

so now wheres a good model for a working retail store... at least 5 yrs old? what kind of store is out there producing an income for the owner? im all over the place and i dont see very many..cant think of any left in our town....

heres where i have seen some money making stores...

**a few stores featured in country business...

big full country destination stores

***a few with gifts PLUS something else...

interior design services

big fabric department offering custom work

custom furniture

classes and supplies

***a few perfectly focused on their one big segment of retail....

*** several meeting the family goal of a supplementary income...

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR MORE GOOD REPORTS OUT THERE from the people in the retail trenches.......i can see why the big gift mags dont cover this....it might be a dirty little secret...

now on a fun note........

one of our customers, peacock park has us on her blog!!! http://www.peacockparkdesign.blogspot.com/ shes so much fun .... i love her designs....she stops by about once a year...one year she invited me to go to paris with her and her lucky customers.... she likes it crusty and beautiful....she has a great eye and i love her style....she gave me some display advice on the foofoo room.... plus its so neat to know someone famose!!!

a good day

2009-07-12T13:47:00.001-07:00

busy saturday...
this nice pile sold and on its way to ohio....to a great store over there and a cyber buddy...
... part of a great day....we were swamped most of the day..
lots of retail and a nice bit of wholesale....

road trip on thursday

we went to a hobby lobby....saw tons that i was getting ready to order...including word frames, signs and even those wonderful bottles with the big leaded stoppers...and almost all of it was half off....there they were at my wholesale or less.... i cant swallow that my customers would think my made in china is better than hobby lobbys made in china......

i dont see how to deal with this... they have current things, its not old rejects....what is the smart thing to do...? i think i will be rethinking some of my ordering ....

question of the day....do you know any strictly gift stores who are making it? wow ....the barriers are huge..

..im glad to have the things that make us different....but i need gifts for sure!!!

im buying like crazy this week for the 4th quarter....

word on the street....

2009-07-06T05:25:00.000-07:00

from a fellow retailer yesterday...this woman is running a great store thats doing just fine..... i love hearing her view of the world.....
...shes dropping french....wierd , i am too....she says her customers just dont get it....and we have to listen to them...
.... moving things around is working
.....for christmas...shes holding back ON ACTUAL CHRISTMAS ITEMS a bit and plans to buy more gift things for the season...
...every season needs somenthing new...for the faithful customers who excpect us to have something exciting for them...

SHE WANTS HER STORE TO LOOK FULL....SHES HEARING FROM CUSTOMERS THAT lots of other stores are looking a bit low ....and boring with nothing new......i feel that way too....she also said she stays positive and neutral when the customers ask how shes doing.....no griping and no bragging....mainly just ...we are hanging in there...
we need to learn what the customers want....she sees her customers homes and thats helping her a whole lot....she must do some kind of decorating for them...but seeing their houses inside is helping her pick the right merchandise....... she is always trying to figure out what her customers want...instead of trying to convince the customers to want what she likes.....big waste of time we think...also a fine line...since they come to us for new ideas too...
.......we both agreed ..sex and jesus should have no part in our business decisions..... we laughed about this a bit..from reading quite a bit of it in on line places............and i do have a question for those who think jesus is in charge....why didnt he save all my nice customers who are hurting so bad or had to close their stores?? im keeping religion out of my business....

and as always my view is that :::::my customers and the bank and my suppliers could care less about my sex...the idea that women in business, have different economic laws doesnt make any sense to me....and imho...its a very hurtful idea and a menace to women starting out...are we babies who need special instructions? .... ... and a lot of this is by magazine writers ....not real business people... .

....women are my business for the most part.I LOVE women, i depend on them........ ..but the idea that a womans business decisions should be different than a guys just doesnt make sense....unless she is someones pet and is just playing around...then ....go girl....do your own thing... i would like to try that sometime....if dh wins the lottery...

in my world ... business is about the math....and the pleasure...and i think guys care about the pleasure of their workday too....but the bills and the math have to come first......

im too old time, womens lib to expect special favors because im a WOMAN.......im not into i am woman i am victum...to me women shouldnt expect special favors in business....they dont get t hem in reality, not in my world anyway, .... so why expect it... we have to face our money situation just like the guys do...

i love talking to other stores....and getting their take on the world....the one yesterday always inspires me... we are in the same state...indiana corn country..and we both try to appeal to the homeowners with money to spend in our areas.....she displays beautifully and really seems to like and enjoy her customers.... i hope her store continues to grow...sorry she doesnt have a blog or website, so i cant show you her beautiful store........

half time....

2009-07-04T04:51:00.000-07:00

now its july and half the year is over ....time to look at whats working and WHATS NOT....

our GOOD THINGS SEEM TO BE...

COUNTRY ROOM ...especially the word things and the family things and the garland and berry things...sometimes this seems so over but to be observant it is really selling.....weve sold about 8 of the big 40$ stars...I NEED TO GET GOING ON THIS AND GET SOME NEW THINGS FOR THEM...

THE KEY WEST ROOM....this has worked out great....and peps up the store...its good in summer not winter..

THE ROOTS PROJECT....THIS HAS BEEN GREAT AND PERKED UP THE STORE A LOT.......more old stuff, more auctions, jons going to yardsales again.... im getting out more and trying to get the GOOD STUFF..and the fun junky cheap stuff.....

several big ticket items...this has been a good thing....and apparantly ive chosen a couple of the big expensive things right....like our big 80$ fish and our parrot butler @250

ETSY....this is pretty neat and bringing in some cash

THE AMY BUTLER IDEA.... this is helping me see my new girls better...we probably had 4 big pregnant girls in yesterdsay....with their moms...they like our store..... i know what the moms like and i better be learning what these new homeowners want....

NOT SO GOOD.......

MY FRENCHY STUFF..the castle look, the monotone look, the crowns... . i love it but its not going very fast...is it over or not yet started around here? i have no idea...

my big folkart animals.... too weird and expensive i guess....i love them...they have gotten lots of smiles but thats about it...

FURNITURE... has been hard all year.....so im going for more smalls and a little less furniture... and being pickier and cheaper on it

so THE PLOT for the rest of the year is forming....get to know the new girls better, somehow, i think this means a new color direction,, a litlle l more color , but not the dark country colors,,,amy butler???? whatever that means... build on the black trend , black words , back and white signs , all seem good... and the country get more and more up to date country in here

...go for new inventory....thats what they like ...they already have bought what they want of year old stuff..... lots of that will be in the yardsale....

our numbers are still bad....retail is good and wholesale is in the pits..... i just hope when things turn around our old customers will remember us ....the ones still in business..... its so sad...

it should be interesting...we live in a very depressed state....thats obvious...

whats working this week......

2009-07-01T00:58:00.000-07:00

a new color direction ..

..i always listen to a certain shopkeeper and cyber buddy, over in PICKERINGTON ohio....her store is called ,feather your nest, ...its a cool store and in about its 8th yr i think...so she has survived and knows a lot..... AND she gets good input from her college age girls ..... anyway, shes been talking about amy butler fabrics....i never heard of her, its not my thing..thats not my color range....

..but anyway i heard denise talk about those colors and the style and i love the look of her s tore............so I ORDERED SOME THINGS from creative coop in the mid range primary colors.... and put them in my foo foo room....and WALLA ....THEY SOLD....AND TO A COUPLE OF MY BEST CUSTOMERS..... SO maybe ive found something popular that i wasnt aware of.... .

ALSO our peace signs are selling...she has that too... on baby clothes!!!????...

..... THANKS DENISE....

i wish she had a blog so i could show you her store....

ALSO WORKING SO FAR....OUR ETSY PROJECT... I CANT TALK MYSELF INTO fullblown ONLINE SELLING..who is making it work? i just dont see it happening for very many.... waiting to hear on that....to me, working would have be something at least around 10$$$ an hour in profit...or more....

.. but our narrow etsy thing is going pretty well.....within our narrow rules, mainly vintage supplies for the artists and nothing under 20$.... we have 96 sales in just a few months.....im aiming for big piles of vintage at wholesale prices... http://www.gypsymarket.etsy.com/

ALSO WORKING....LOTS OF THE CUTE AND REASONABLE MISC...THAT HAS BEEN COMING IN FROM THE YARDSALES AND ME OUT BUYING.... THE FUN AND JUNKY....

as well as the good stuff....if priced right...

A NEW IDEA..........i might have a baby idea here who might have a chance!!!.... one of our workers has a vinyl machine...and a daughter who can and needs to work.... we have tons of young married girls thru here ..they probably go to lots of weddings..... WALLA....I THINK I HEAR A NEW POSSIBILITY TRYING TO POP UP... like a cyber buddy posted....there are births weddings etc in any economy.... we could make personalized wedding signs

my rule about new little baby ideas...dont squish it...try and be open, dont tell dh , he loves to stomp on them..before they even get filled out..... if i say i have a new idea he covers his ears... .

i need to think this thru and try and plan it out right.....

i need frames, samples, a clear easy way to present it, pick the choices, and aim at the amy butler girls....

my day.....

2009-06-29T17:41:00.000-07:00

the first .3 hours today were chaos..the gardenwire came...a big trailer full out in the parking lot..it had to be priced and put together and placed in the right places..... ..at the same time many phone calls...and i knew a sales rep was coming and i needed to get 2 big christmas orders finished....dh and jon are worthless on this...jon wants all the money for auctions...dh is pathetically apathetic about it, ...so at least i wanted to show my selections to carol and ruth..before committing to my choices....the rep came and stayed about an hour...luckily i mark the catalogs and dont have to sit there with the rep...

and 3 fairly big groups of women came in...and jon and lisa had 3 big pieces of furniture to move...right in the mid part of the shop....and we hung 2 of our 6 ft wide signs up 12 ft high on the wall...one, my favorite....be nice or leave.....

... it was awful....that was before 2 in the afternoon..... then it got better then about 9 boxes came from cr,...coop....including those locker baskets.....naturally their packing slip didnt have the prices on...why do they do that????

so that was my day.... now home on the couch with dh ....and hercule poirot and later the naughty weeds...

WORD On the street........

2009-06-28T06:34:00.000-07:00

heard thisweek...old lady stuff like china and silver....oh dear!!!! good antiques are really in trouble...
french is out and i cant sell it....heard that from a city dealer from ohio...also .. i love my white monotone frenchy room, but maybe i should change it to perky amy butler....my neat castle look, including crowns, isnt exactly flying off the shelves....i just dont know what those amy butler girls would want tho.... and i love the decayed dreamy white castle look...its hard for me to think perky and plain in midtone colors....

WANT TO SSEE SOMETHING REALLY MEAN about the resale and junk world...? GO TO http://www.secondhandnation.com/ SECONDHAND NATION , its a blog, AND LOOK AT .... may 24 2007
all i can say is wow...she has issues....there is so much wrong with this view....
starting with no ability to look into someone elses pleasure or world.....
does she think that these people she is making fun of, someone in an suv and coach bag is some wierd creature ....would it be ok for the coach lady to makes fun of the workers in the goodwill store...or the poor suckers at mc donalds...or the ones punching a clock for 6 $ an hour ?
its like if a hardcore runner started making fun of a couch potatoe quilters legs....or a model making fun of someones clothes...or a button collector making fun of a train collector..... just lame....and blind....
sounds like a big case of jealousy to me....

and this person is in the thrift world....
i found this wild site , above, while going
around the web ...trying to find out what happened between the junk girls ...sue and ki....they wrote that book about junk style a few years ago....and they were in a lot of mags.......remember.?...and on sues website...she doesnt even mention ki.... even when promoting the book they wrote together...so its a little mystery i would like to know about....
i know ki on her fun junkrevolution site.... http://www.junkrevolution.com/ shes so nice and runs a really friendly and interesting forum... a great place to talk to fellow junkers...in the business and not... and people who like to just gather and reuse....i would love to see her big show in minnesota...junk bonanza i think...

i really like the junk world....it has so many different parts....from the uppity and snooty...like my buddy who sells to the big decorators , or the uppity and nice like so many i know in the antique world... clear down the the grandma crafters...and down to the ones who would never pay my prices..and only gathers tuff that was actually in someones trash....

a lot of it is the same stuff tho....

natural progression.....

2009-06-28T05:55:00.000-07:00

ive noticed a natural progression...one ive seen so many times and one that often runs the early creators out of business......this time it those neat soldered necklaces.

.i started seeing them about 3 or 4 yrs ago......i just love them and almost have bought the kits to make them....its a picture a piece of glass some words nice silver solder around the glass and a chain....my boughten ones are 19.00.....
the big country wholesaler, pbk is offering some that look pretty neat at 2.50......they are made by the retarded as a project for her company.....at least they arent made in china!!

seeing this tells me not to order anymore at 10$ wholesale.....

a new price might be coming.... i hope the artists who make the really neat ones can get their production up and their prices lower.and stay in the market... .....the real natural progression in this is having them get cheaper and start showing up everywhere and in then in walmart and the dollar stores and then its over...

when i should have done the math

2009-06-26T05:59:00.001-07:00

****WHEN it takes 2 workers TO HAUL OUT some HUGE 30$ ITEM OUT OF THE ROUGH ROOM..

****WHEN ITS TOO MUCH TROUBLE , or too busy, TO CALL IN SMALL DAMAGE FROM AN ORDER or to return about anything ..

****WHEN 1/3 OF AN ASSORTED item IS A DUD AND WONT SELL
****when A COMPANY TOTALLY WASTES SHIPPING MONEY...LIKE SENDING THINGS IN 4 BOXES INSTEAD OF 1 BIG ONE....COSTING MORE THAN THE PRODUCT CAN MAKE UP.......
*****when my main salesman gets called from a big furniture looker...to talk about 3$ knobs
****when we scratch something and have to repaint or ????....

***when we do an hours work on a 20$ item

****when we pick out something to refinish...

****when 3 workers are helping the same person...

the math is our friend!!! even if its mean sometimes...

do the math:::::JIGGLING....

. i can never explain this to dh..hes such a conServative on numbers....but jiggling fits into my math usually at auctions...and thats how ive bought and priced for our store..pretty successfully...and without a calculatort......say i buy 10 things....one is super cheap and one is a big mistake....like if i missed some horrid flaw...a crack, made in hong kong , etc....when i thought it was a good antique, etc etc...

.so to make money on it all i jiggle the numbers together and WALLA the disaster cost nothing and the great deal that i got cheap now has a little higher price in my head wheni price the load...........i wouldnt suggest this all the time...its better if you make good money on your great buys......but it really gets the bad buys out of the way....and if it really was a bad buy it would be hanging around and just cause you effort and space and not sell anyway....

i jiggle in my head if i got a run of things really cheap at auction and then the best thing comes up....if im really doing well at the auction i might pay a little too much for the best thing , just to get it.....and still feel good about the auction....that way i can have the best peiece for the store and in my head anyway that exact auction still makeS great sense money wise....

the down side of JIGGLING might be my reputation.......BECAUSE I BUY SO MUCH..im usually very UNpopular with SOME OF the other buyers.... im very popular with the auctioneers...lol.... its really kind of bad...

.but to me an auction is my job and my income so i just bid on what i want.....anyway THE BAD THING THATS BEEN SAID, the word on the street sometimes, is that i dont know what i paid and sell things for less than i paid...WHICH IS PRETTY MUCH AN INSULT AND BULL S....... and probably third hand since my auction competition doesnt usually come to the store..

.but it could look true sometimes too.... i might have jiggled..

.which makes perfect sense to me....or i might have bought a box lot and counted one thing in it and sold the rest cheap.... so if you were bidding on something else in that box and heard i sold what you liked for less than i bid well you might have missed what i was bidding on and valued in the box...

ACTUALLY I CAN and do PRICE A WHOLE AUCTION load WITH DOZENS OF ITEMS BOUGHT...WITHOUT using ANY RECORD.... which is a good thing since the auction tickets dont really tell you much....like a 100$ roseville pot in a box of planters or a box of clay pots might both be described as a box of pots on my reciept.....

ON THE PLUS SIDE....THE REPUTATION OF low or CRAZY PRICING ISNT ALL BAD....IN FACT IT MIGHT BE GOOD BUZZ FOR THE STORE..

we do price antiques by what we paid a lot more than by book price.....if im low and still making money ...WITHIN MY FORMULAS.... ...im happy...

I CALL IT OUTSIDE THE BOX MATH....