--- type: Article title: "Going Analog — Weekly Retail Tidbits #250" description: "Five years of Friday Tidbits, and the country turns 250 too. Three picks for the Fourth, a market prep checklist, and the two data sites quietly listing you." resource: https://amyfaychandler.com/going-analog/ tags: [going-analog] --- [Weekly Retail Tidbits](https://amyfaychandler.com/category/friday-retail-tidbits/) | [The Human Edge](https://amyfaychandler.com/category/friday-retail-tidbits/the-human-edge/) # Going Analog — Weekly Retail Tidbits #250 By[AmyFay Chandler](https://wordpress-1600709-6279960.cloudwaysapps.com) May 22, 2026July 31, 2026 “I don’t remember what I watched yesterday on TikTok, but I remember what I did years ago when I didn’t have a phone.” — Nancy, 19, university student, London (Fortune, April 2026) As I prep for market — like I know bunches of you are — one word kept popping into my head: analog. And the more I thought about it, the more it confused me. Technically, analog means a continuous signal: the smooth sweep of a clock’s second hand, the groove cut into a vinyl record, mercury creeping up a thermometer. But when Gen Z (born 1997–2012) says they’re “going analog,” they mean notebooks, film cameras, paper planners, shopping in person. Are those really analog? Turns out Merriam-Webster has two definitions. The technical signal one — and a second that basically means “anything that doesn’t involve computers.” Both are legit. And right now, Fortune, CNBC, and TikTok itself are all using the second one. That’s good news for you. It reinforces everything you do every day to create the best in-person experience someone can have in your store. Which brings me back to market. Our Tango team is learning the digital way daily right now — mostly Zooms and emails — because digital speeds everything up so we can slow down and enjoy the analog way: being present in our gorgeous showroom starting June 7th. And gorgeous it is. I say that with the most unbiased opinion. 🥰 I can hardly wait to see what our designer has done — “analogically” speaking. I’ve only seen it digitally, because our showroom manager, Debbie, gets so excited she runs around with a laptop during our Zoom meetings showing us! 💫 ### How to make your market the best — use the digital to enable the analog 1. Download the ANDMORE Markets app. Scan & Go QR means a 30-second badge pickup. Floor maps and turn-by-turn navigation across 7+ million square feet. Save showrooms as you walk, build your Market Plan at home, and follow it on the floor. The app is excellent for logistics. It does NOT tell you what to buy, what to skip, what’s launching that nobody knows about yet, or which gap in your floor is hurting you most. That’s the rep’s job. (Hi.) 2. Plan your walk before you arrive. Jot the order: Building → Floor → Showroom. Hit your must-sees first in geographic order so you’re not zigzagging between Building 1 and Building 3 four times a day. 3. Send your reorders to your rep before market. Have us hold them so you can review the new alongside the proven. Better decisions, faster. 4. Then do what only happens in person. Touch the line. Meet the makers. Be present. That’s the analog half — and nobody can do it for you. Exhibit A — analog. Compendium’s new summer plush family. The most analog thing a child can hold. Pure hug. Can’t make it in June with most retailers? There’s an apparel market the first week of August. And our Tango Showroom is open year round, M–F, 10:00–4:00. I am excited to see you. I hope we have an appointment. I love working with you, and I do my best to make it worth your effort. Whoopers — one more thing before I close. This is Tidbit #250. Five years of these Friday notes. I want to mark it with you. Read on — there’s a little 250 moment from me to you just below. ❤️ xoxo, ❤️ AmyFay A 250 Moment 250 & 250 Two milestones in one year. This is Tidbit #250. Almost five years of writing to you on Friday mornings — I can hardly believe that either. Some of you have been here since the very first one. Some of you joined last week. Every one of you matters to me. Thank you for reading. And on July 4, the country turns 250 too. America’s semiquincentennial. A bigger arc, but the same idea — continuity worth celebrating. Both milestones are about staying with something. Showing up week after week. Or year after year. Or, in your case — opening the door of your shop every morning, restocking the same beloved corner, remembering a customer’s daughter’s name. The slow accumulation of presence. That’s analog too. I want to introduce three pieces from our Tango lines made for this 250 moment — two probably new to you, and one you may already know. All of them for the Fourth, for the flag, for the country turning two-an