We noticed the inviting “Buzz Point” sign at a downtown Madison retailer while Christmas shopping last December, and made a note to find out more about this program. We discovered that in our community, Buzz Points is offered by locally owned Park Bank. It serves as a way for the bank to promote the use… Read More

Walking down the street and popping in to explore a locally owned shop is one of the great pleasures of visiting a town or city.  It remains to be seen whether doing so virtually via Google Street View — without leaving the comfort of your easy chair — is as rewarding, and whether this new… Read More

It turns out that too much wool is not a good thing, whether you’re a knitting store or an Australian sheep. Chris is a renegade Merino sheep who apparently got separated from his flock in Canberra and missed his regular appointments with the shearer. Although he evaded capture several times, he was finally sedated and… Read More

Once upon a time, in the early days of the Internet, stores that wanted a web site had to hire a webmaster to create one. Web design required knowing how to use HTML, which was not a skill that most retailers had in their wheelhouse.  Even back then, some designers were better than others (I remember seeing sites… Read More

It’s been nice knowing that accepting a fraudulent credit card could only cost your shop, or the consumer, a small amount of money.  Considering the enormous overall annual cost of credit card fraud ($7 billion, by one estimate), we should all be grateful to the credit card companies and banks who have assumed this liability.… Read More

We all have a pretty good idea of what it means to be a sales rep in the gift industry — but what if there was a new way for some major vendors, and large sales agencies representing key lines, to structure the role of their sales reps in the future?  A recent chance meeting… Read More

Independent retailers in the US have never really come together to form a trade association with far-reaching goals, but thousands of our colleagues in the UK enjoy the benefits of bira (The British Independent Retailers Association). Of course I think that “buy local” organizations like BALLE and AMIBA are great. But wouldn’t it be wonderful… Read More

Looking over our assortment of Wisconsin-themed products made me think of a wonderful song by the Madison-based songwriting duo Peter and Lou Berryman.  As they explain about the writing of “Your State’s Name Here”, they perform around the country but usually their songs only feature their home state of Wisconsin.  The song was an attempt… Read More

Housewares buyers talk about creating a “dominant assortment” in various categories, but this term (and concept) isn’t very common in other retail fields. Thinking about creating a well-balanced assortment can be very helpful in making buying decisions, and in creating a store with a focused look.focused look. Before considering how you plan your assortment, you… Read More

“I haven’t been in your store for years — it looks great!” is a bit of a backhanded compliment.  And yet it’s not uncommon for someone to remark that although they have been in our store in the past, and were favorably impressed, they somehow neglected to come back until something reminded them to do… Read More