She Never Just Corrected Us — Weekly Retail Tidbits #266

“Where’s that at?” she said.

“Behind the at,” he said.

She looked at me. “What?” she asked.

I explained. The at was not needed. Where’s that? says the same thing.

She said, “Oh my gosh, AmyFay,” laughed, and moved on to the next thing.

Growing up, my mother was strict. She stayed home with me and my four younger siblings while Daddy worked. About grammar, strict is an understatement. Even today, if one of us — children or grandchildren — says something incorrectly, we get corrected and a little reprimanded.

“Me and Emily are going outside.”
“No. Emily and I are going outside. You wouldn’t say ‘me is going outside,’ would you?”

“This is her.”
“No. This is she.”

“He is standing by I.”
“No. He is standing by me.”

And so it went. Daily. Little corrections, constantly, until our brains were so wired we couldn’t unwire them.

She never just corrected us. She told us why. Emily and I because you wouldn’t say me is going. This is she because you have to be able to turn it around and say she is this. The rule came with the why, every time.

Knowing the rule is what let me let it go. I could weigh it in a half second, because I understood what the rule was protecting and what it was not. Whatever we were talking about mattered more than one extra word.

Look at your team. You probably have people like this already.

Your stock lead knows the receiving flow so well that when four freight deliveries land on the same Tuesday, she can rearrange the whole thing and nothing gets lost. She is not ignoring the system. She knows what the system protects.

Your manager knows which policies protect the store and which ones are just habit.

These are your artists. They earned it by knowing the rules cold, not by skipping them.

Now look at the associate who is wonderful with customers but leaves the stockroom a mess. She is not a problem to solve. She is someone who has not been taught the why yet. Tell her the system is not about tidiness, it is so the next person can find it in thirty seconds on a Saturday. Give her the reason, and she will stop needing the rule. (Hopefully 😉)

That is the work. Not writing more rules. Teaching the reason underneath the ones you have, over and over, until your team can do what you do.

My mother did that daily for years. Little corrections, constantly. She was not making us obedient. She was making us fluent.

Teach the reason. Then trust them to bend it.

xoxo,
❤️ AmyFay

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Technology Tip

Tell It Why, Not Just What

Ask AI to write a caption for a necklace and you get a caption for a necklace. It will be fine. It will also sound like everybody else’s.

Now give it the reason. “Write a caption for a customer who has never heard of this brand and is deciding in about three seconds whether to keep scrolling.” Same request, different answer, because you told it what the caption is for.

Try it this week on something you already ask for. Whatever your usual request is, add one more sentence to the end of it: who is reading this, what they already know, and what you want them to do next. Start that sentence with “This is for” if you need a way in.

It costs you about ten extra seconds, and you are not writing a fancier prompt. You are handing over the part you were keeping in your head.

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What the Headlines Mean for Your Store

A survey out this fall — Salsify’s 2026 Holiday Pulse Report — found 69% of shoppers plan to buy at least some of their holiday gifts in a physical store, up 11 points from last year. It polled 1,212 people across the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, so read it as a direction rather than a number for your town.

People are planning to come in. The small move is to pick the day in December you will start marking down holiday items and anything that has been sitting, and put it on the calendar now, while it is quiet.

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3 Tango Tidbits

One Good Reason Each

LJ Sonder — Three Rings, Three Finishes, One Earring

Three rings, three finishes, one earring, so you are not betting the case on gold or silver. The rings are not fixed flat — they are threaded through each other and move on their own. “Kind of classic with an edge,” the LJ Sonder founder says. “That’s how we always consider ourselves. We try to put a little twist on anything we do.” $47.50 retail.

EvaBelle — A Friend Gift That Says It For You

This is one of my personal favorites, and it is a best seller. Friend gifts are in demand, and this one does double duty: it is the gift, and it says the part that is hard to say out loud. Sweet friendships refresh the soul and awaken our hearts with joy. Proverbs 27:9. Clear acrylic, hand-torn paper, gold leaf at all four corners.

Mary Lake-Thompson — Halloween, and About Two Weeks

Mary Lake-Thompson is quoting about two weeks on fall and everyday right now, so ordering Halloween now puts it on your floor around the end of September. Write that PO on its own to keep the turnaround fast. The Trick or Treat display is a minimum of one, a countertop box that comes already merchandised. You can order it with the container or without, so plenty of stores double the towels and take just one container.

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Atlanta Fall Market

Fall Market is September 15 through 18 at AmericasMart, Building 2, Showroom 1000B. If you are coming to Atlanta, come see us and bring your list. If you are not, call or text me and I will walk you through anything you want to see.

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xoxo,
❤️ AmyFay

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June Market Fun

With our star eyes on, because Tango is exploding with great stuff! 🌟

❤️ Studio 29 — Chatham, VA

Shop Tango here →

The Tango Showroom is open 10 to 4, Monday through Friday, at AmericasMart in Atlanta, Georgia. Come see us! 🌟

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