An Accidentally Purchased New Line of Boxed Holiday Cards, Opportunity Buying of Cute Pitchers, a Little Zombie Afternoon Wrap Up.

Our crazy event schedule for fall has left me with slightly less time to do a great job on gift buying. I can usually coast by restocking, but we've had a rash of reps selling in the stuff we've done well with to lots of other stores in the area, leaving me to cut back on some lines.  That's their job, more power to them, but we don't want folks to walk into Boswell and think we are copying the other stores, even if we sold the product first.  Plus if something is everywhere, you simply won't sell as much.

With a few lines de-emphasized, I had to find something new. We decided to stock Running Rhino individual cards. In error, the order was packed as boxes.  After looking at the designs and how they would fit in with what we had, we decided to keep and pay for the boxes sent to us in error. And when I got home the next day, I saw the box of Hanukkah cards on our counter. "Huh?"  It turned out that Kirk had already been into Boswell and bought a box for us.  I guess I am my own target market.

We've also put in a second order for Potluck Press, which I haven't seen around too much in the area.

The other thing Anne and I put out were these little mini ceramic pitchers that we found on a vendor's clearance list. We're able to price the small ones at $3.50 and the larger ones at $4.95. It's a nice deal; they are dishwasher and microwave safe, and also would probably make nice bad vases. Anne and I were sorting them out and immediately Beverly took one for her purchase shelf--it turns out she likes a nice pitcher as much as anyone.

Our friend Jessie and I had a nice conversation after our Zombie afternoon (it actually went pretty well; while not a huge crowd, Angus Macabre's tour manager noted that we had more attendees than Zombiepalooza. Andy Rash showed us techniques for splattering blood that could prove to be very useful--one of his zombie portraits is at left). We discussed that hot button topic of when to put out Christmas stuff.

In addition to the boxed cards, we now have an inconspicuous table of holiday books. But when to put out the ornaments and the like? I don't think we can be like Nordstrom and wait for after Thanksgiving, but post-Halloween seems to be acceptable to most.

But I did give one of our good customers a sneek peak; she bought a winter wonderland apron/dish towl set.

Back to Andy--he signed our copies of Ten Little Zombies. Here's what it looks like.  Pretty cool, huh?