What is 4” X 9” and found in tourist areas all over the country? The ubiquitous rack card, a promotional piece used to advertise shops, restaurants, events and attractions to visitors.  These vertical cards usually have a strong, brightly colored graphic on the front in order to stand out from the competition. The attractive sample… Read More

The “for lease” sign finally came down on a vacant storefront on our shopping street last week, and according to the new sign we are now going to have a boxing studio as a neighbor.  At the same time it was announced that another vacancy is being filled by a holistic vet clinic. Don’t get… Read More

We’ve all been watching the national discussion about minimum wage carefully, because payroll is the largest expense after rent for most retailers.  Last year Wal-Mart announced that it is going to raise all employees to at least $9 an hour, and it has been interesting to see how this played out.  Wal-Mart stock fell more… Read More

The first mail of the new year brought a new kind of invitation from a sales agency we have bought from for many years: Ellie & Friends.  Instead of continuing with her usual gift show booth, Ellie Garber has decided to try offering three “Pop-Up Wholesale Cafes” in cities across the country. The first will… Read More

What RTB do you present to your customers?   For the uninitiated, RTB stands for Reason to Believe — and it’s the latest term I learned during my eleven years on the United Way of Dane County (Wisconsin) marketing committee.  I can heartily recommend volunteering as a way of increasing your skill set. I can’t… Read More

I like the fact that Facebook allows us to select a target market when we pay to “boost” a post.  (Never mind the rather irritating fact that the limit to the amount of text in an illustration sometimes means that it can’t be boosted.) When you boost a Facebook post, you can select people who like… Read More

One of the basic tenets of retailing is that you can’t sell from an empty cart. In order to be successful, we need merchandise. And we need merchandise that is the right goods at the right price, delivered at the right time.   Here are ten ways that a vendor can earn the “Best of the… Read More

It’s hard to think beyond the busy holiday season, but in just a few weeks it will be a be 2016.  If you don’t take a moment now to prepare, January may catch you unaware. Here are a few tips: The first two months of the year are show season for many of us. Have you decided… Read More

“Make hay when the sun shines” is an old adage usually applied to farming, but our banker once remarked that our gift shop’s business was more seasonal than agriculture.  That may not be true (we are at least not as dependent on good weather), but it is important that we make the most of the… Read More

Every so often you have to venture into the world of big box retailing, if for no other reason than to see which of your vendors is also selling to Target or Walmart. (If the product is exactly the same, this counts as a negative when considering a reorder.)  But when the search for large… Read More