Saturday Gift Post--A Day at the Atlanta Gift Show

One of the tricks of writing a blog post about a gift show is that I couldn't figure out whether it was considered ok to take pictures. At least one vendor we carry had a no-picture policy, but with the others, who knows?

In the end, I decided it was more important for me to carry my notebook and a pen and write down the vendors and items that interested me; that left no third hand free for a camera.

I'm feeling a bit lost after my first day at the show. There are a ton of vendors here, and needless to say, most aren't appropriate for the bookstore. However, I am sure there are gems in here and it's up to me to find them. The problems with bringing in vendors run the gamut, but these are the most frequent issues that prevent me from

--opening order too high

--item count too high (in other words, you need to buy 12 of something and we'd be lucky to sell 6)

--display issues. Where do you put this stuff where it seems like a natural part of the bookstore?

Today I'm looking at trends and trying to spot items that might work together. Tonight I'm hoping to review spring titles in our electronic catalogs and see if the book and gift trends converge anywhere. I will say this--remember our six-month display of French stuff? Well I had my choice of metal Eiffel Tower stands. I must have counted 20 models in various booths.