Saturday Gift Post--Summer on Sale, Fall Previewed

It's our last gasp of summer, and also the last time I have display space for a markdown table.  We've reduced some of our spring-summer items to 50% off, and some of some of it is even 75 % off.

Buying gift items for the store is always a work in progress. I think we've learned a lot in the 2nd year, which I hope to apply to the third.

a. Things look worse in crinkly platic bags.  One of our vendors has a penchant for putting their candles in this not particularly appealing packaging.  We've been at a loss as to how to display these items.  Use the package and you can't see the product.  It also make it look cheap.  Don't use the packaging and expect some damage.  I think they used to use plastic boxes.  Let me just say that would be the better option for us. These floral bouquet flowers are now 75% off.

We're trying to avoid product packaged this way, but we've already run into problems with the candle apples on our fall harvest table.  After much discussion, we're doing these apples naked. They look so much better. 

b. I might be over-theming.  This was working well our first year, but our gardening table was hit or miss.  We sold out of our cute gardening stakes, our animal doorstops (they matched, but honestly, I have no idea what they had to do with gardening) but the watering can mugs and terra cotta turtles were a relative bust. And while owls are a runaway hit all around (and there is plenty more for fall), ladybugs and turtles, while popular with many lines, are more under the radar in popularity.

I'm talking to other stores and their gift items are more eclectic, thinking more about the potential customer than how it fits into their book display.  So who knows what you'll see in the store next.