The Drawer of Wrong Ribbon — Weekly Retail Tidbits #259
The Drawer of Wrong Ribbon
“It’s the little details that are vital.
Little things make big things happen.”
— John Wooden, They Call Me Coach
My husband has texted me two Leanne Morgan clips recently. One about being a grandparent. One about the thermostat. Both so relatable for us that I know he could not hold in his bursts of laughter any more than I could. 😂
Leanne grew up in Adams, TN, and today lives in Knoxville like me. I remember meeting her years ago while I was standing on a ladder in my shop. A mutual friend introduced us. She was making people laugh back then — but she was still well over a decade away from the fame she has now.
Leanne has honed her craft little by little for twenty-five years.
You have probably read about comedians hanging out at clubs night after night, getting on stage, trying things over and over. Jokes not landing more than landing. Learning every gesture, pause, phrase, story — until one day it looks to the world like they are an overnight success.
When I started my retail business I researched tags. The first thing I did was look at how lots of other retailers did theirs. What size was the price tag? What shape? What information was included? How was it organized? Was it all the same size type? Font? How was it attached? Sticker? Tied? Knot? Bow? Color of ribbon? Kind of ribbon? Did the price end in .00? .99? .95? What did the numbers say to the customer?
It’s past time to donate all the ribbon I collected trying to get my tags right.
That drawer of wrong ribbon was my open mic night. Every spool was a joke that did not land. I did land on something: lavender, grosgrain, wired, .75″ tied once with a dovetail cut. 🙃 Too labor-intensive to last, but it got me started.
And that was just the tags. LOL. You know how much more there is to figure out in retail.
By my 15th year I was a pro at popping out computer labels en masse. Not because the details stopped mattering. Because by then I knew which ones did. 🤓
This week your reminder is details. You probably have more time to scrutinize things right now than you will in a couple of months.
What is one thing you would like to do better? Are you gathering information on how others do it? Gather from businesses outside your area, and even outside your specialty. If you do general gift, go look at a sports store, a bookstore, an ice cream shop.
Then put your spin on it. That second half matters as much as the first. Leanne does not hide her southern. She uses it. She does not hide being a mom, a wife, or big-boned. She layers those pieces of what make her Leanne on top of all the good comedy rules.
Learn the rules in detail. Then be the only one who could have done it that way.
xoxo,
❤️ AmyFay
Technology Tip
Could the Newer Model Do It Better?
Here is one I love. These AI tools get noticeably smarter every few weeks, so the work you handed them last season is worth another look now. Take something you already finished, like your product descriptions, and ask today’s model to look it over again and tell you what it would sharpen. What felt finished six weeks ago can quietly get better, just by running it past the newer version.
Point it at your website, your descriptions, or something as simple as your hours. One rule though: make it check the facts, never invent them. You may be surprised what a fresh set of eyes catches that you have walked past a hundred times.
3 Tango Tidbits
The Little Things, Done Right
True South Puzzles — Santa in the City
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Five hundred pieces of Santa on his day off, and all the fun is in the hunting. Look closely and you will catch him doing everything, right down to a turn at the karaoke bar.
EvaBelle — Mahjong Mat
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A soft, roll-out mat for game night, carrying the words “He makes all things beautiful” from Ecclesiastes 3:11. This is one you will want to leave out long after the game is cleaned up and put away.
LINNEA — Harvest Pumpkin
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Everybody makes a pumpkin candle for fall. Nobody makes one like LINNEA. Harvest Pumpkin skips the sugary pumpkin-spice you have smelled a hundred times. Instead you get roasted pumpkin, browned butter, and a little savory thyme, the kind of scent that smells like someone is actually baking in the next room. That is the difference all those little details make.
“Find out who you are and do it on purpose.”
— Dolly Parton
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Pick one small detail this week. xoxo, |
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June Market Fun
With our star eyes on, because Tango is exploding with great stuff! 🌟
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| Shop Tango here → |
The Tango Showroom is open 10 to 4, Monday through Friday, at AmericasMart in Atlanta, Georgia. Come see us! 🌟
AmyFay Chandler
She reads all of this so you don’t have to. Based in Knoxville, TN, AmyFay is a wholesale sales rep for the brands she represents across Tennessee and Kentucky, and she oversees the D2C side for Sweet Tree Jewelry and Caroline B Cook — two of those brands — making sure brick-and-mortar retailers always come first. She writes Weekly Retail Tidbits (now in its 259th issue) because she’s living the same questions her retail customers are living, and figures things out alongside them. Her whole project: helping independent retailers stay human while the rest of the industry tries to automate them away.
Also from AmyFay
Two of the brands I represent run their D2C side through me, with brick-and-mortar partners prioritized at every step:
- Sweet Tree Jewelry — school-spirit polymer-clay earrings
- Caroline B Cook — children’s books (the Virtue Series, Church Kitty)
Wholesale questions? [email protected]
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