Wednesday, November 14, 2007
| Holiday Open House Quandry
Current mood:  frustrated
Category: Fashion, Style, Shopping As the owner of a small flower shop in rural Indiana, I find myself in the midst of preparing for the upcoming Holiday season. A lot of work goes into transforming the shop interior & our front windows to WOW our loyal customers & potential new customers. As I find myself in the middle of this process, I am questioning if it is worth all the effort, money & time spent.
In years past Holiday Open Houses were a traditional event looked forward to & were well attended. But in the recent (past 5 years) I have found that it seems to not be such a big deal anymore. Why? Are we all too busy? Has the large "super stores" who have "one stop shopping" crushed the "Little Business" owner? I say yes!! Why do all of these stores feel the need to sell EVERYTHING? I do not offer bread & milk or motor oil & tires in my flower shop!! No one can be good at everything....so I say, pick one or two things & then do that to the best of your abilities & offer quality service & products.
I find that the a lot of the people who do attend our Open House only come in for the refreshments served, items we are giving away that day & they all want to sign up for our shopping spree that we give away every Christmas. What gives? What about all the lovely items we offer for gift giving? How about the thought & design skills that went into creating this beautiful Holiday atmosphere? I feel that we have a lot to offer if only you will shop with us.
Small town business have much to offer that cannot be found at large "super stores". I cannot understand why consumers do not support local small business anymore. I love to shop small boutique type shops for the mere fact that they offer something different, not mass produced items that will be found under everyone's Christmas tree. Wouldn't you rather have something that is unique & know that the person who gave you this gift put a lot of thought into YOU when selecting it. Any one can walk into a chain store, grab the first bottle or box of something wrap it up & slap a bow on it & call it done. This is mechanical shopping. Where is the fun it this? I love the process of considering who I am shopping for, then searching for the perfect gift. I feel it is more meaningful to the recipient & it makes me feel good to when they love it.
Gift giving is not even what the Holidays are all about, but if we are going to give the gift anyway, why not make the thought & the gift as special as the person receiving it!
Wow, that was a rant! Now I must get back to the transformation of my shop, because I realize that if I do not do it, then the public will complain that I didn't! So come on in & see what we have done for you, we love it & hope you will too! I might have to post some pictures when we are finished.
Happy Holidays! Tammy  | Currently listening :
Carnival Ride
By Carrie Underwood
Release date: By 23 October, 2007 | |
