Summer Begins

it's officially summer and that means rain, humidity, extreme sunshine, noisy neighbors, people on vacation. i totally understand the european siesta as there is nothing going on in the middle of the day, but a burst of energy when i open (and people leave their house) and at the end of the day (when the sun is lower, it's cooler, they are foraging for dinner, etc).

sales are better than the beginning of the month. overall expenses aren't too bad as the buying has slowed down, but the quarterly sales tax payment made a big dent. can't forget about the sales tax! i need to creates a net sales column in Excel so that i don't look at the gross number and get really happy.

still undecided on the clothing issue. some shops like Living on 7th/5th are the same as me, they have gift and houseware and bags, and then a rack or two of clothing. i wonder how it's working out for them.

pros of keeping the clothing: draw young women customers in who may not generally enter a "gift" boutique. draw in their boyfriends who read books and mags while they wait for girlfriend to try on clothes. basically, draw in people who aren't just into buying a gift.

cons: keeping up with the fashion lifecycle, committing to buying clothing 4-6 months ahead, having to deal w/ the fickle and trendy fashions (especially in NY), lack of space. let's face it, if i didn't have the clothing rack i'd have 5 more linear feet of space. and i can fit a lot of shelving for other goods in a space 5 feet wide.

one option is to pare down to just printed tees, which are seasonless and more or less a gift item. some stores don't even have a dressing room (ie Giant Robot) as the shirts are just an impulse buy. if i just have tees, i can do men's and women's, and even fold them and put them onto said shelves, and have shelves leftover for housewares or books.

why am i resistant to this? it seems like an ideal solution. well, i still am wedded to the notion of supporting tiny designers and i have some very tiny clothing designers doing great stuff and they rarely get rack space. i definitely want to keep some of these people, clothing is all some people around here will buy, etc etc. i don't know what to do.

anyway. i found a leather handbag line that hovers around the $200 mark, plus or minus $30. that is the sweet spot i hope! categories that are doing well - bags, ceramics, little beauty products, wall art, jewelry. i wish i had a bigger store.

June update

Summer doldrums have started to set in. It's not going to be as slow as, say, January - but quite a change from May!

Fortunately there is the magical Internet, and online sales. People may be going to the Hamptons on the weekends here but there are plenty of folks not going anywhere, tap-tapping on their computers all year round.

This could be why I maintain so many businesses and projects - when one slows down, the other one is there for you.

The shop is quite warm now, I run the A/C all day. But, the direct sunlight is shallower as summer approaches (high school physics [or astronomy] to the rescue) and at least I don't have 6 foot beams of sunlight hitting my candles, soaps, and other meltables.

Other things I have learned - when I get down to one item or so, remove it. Nobody likes taking the last one. However...someone will come in looking for it, and then you can sell it anyway, and it wasn't even taking up display space. Cool!

Another good thing to do - put little explanatory labels near the inscrutable items. More things fit in this category than you think. People still like to read, thank God.

One thing I have been wondering about is when to retire a product. There is the whole "rare" notion versus keeping a product that you know you can reliably sell all the time. I tend to want lots of new stuff but I think designers get mad when you don't reorder. I know I get mad when a store doesn't get my new line of jewelry! But, I understand it a bit better now.