---
type: Article
title: "What's Your Store's Plastic Straw? The Habit to Drop"
description: "Marriott ditched a billion plastic straws a year and nobody missed them. What's the store plastic straw you keep out of pure habit — and could finally stop?"
resource: https://amyfaychandler.com/whats-your-stores-plastic-straw/
tags: [whats-your-stores-plastic-straw]
---

[Curate With Courage](https://amyfaychandler.com/category/friday-retail-tidbits/curate-with-courage/) | [Weekly Retail Tidbits](https://amyfaychandler.com/category/friday-retail-tidbits/)

# What’s Your Store’s Plastic Straw? — Weekly Retail Tidbits #254

	By[AmyFay Chandler](https://wordpress-1600709-6279960.cloudwaysapps.com)
						June 19, 2026July 31, 2026

“Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off.”

— Coco Chanel

## What’s Your Store’s Plastic Straw?

Wow. What a week in Atlanta for market. If you were there, you probably could catch the elevator faster and not feel like a sardine in the halls. There were not the usual number of shoppers at one of the 2 biggest gift markets of the year.

The move to June likely had a lot to do with it. The FIFA crowds starting to arrive in Atlanta toward the end of the week were fun to watch. (I love some good people-watching. 🥰)

But you shoppers who made the trip? Y’all were ready to buy. You were prepared. You knew what you needed to reorder — which left more time to check out all the new.

It was a fabulous week. Coming home, my brain was full. Full of new, full of pretty, full of all the things that my stores are going to rock in sales. At some point it hit me, the way an “ah-ha” always does after a big market: the question is never only what to add. It’s also what to stop.

A few years back, Marriott — yes, the folks behind the Ritz-Carlton — stopped putting a plastic straw in your drink. They didn’t ban them. They still have them. They just quit handing them out by default. The result? More than a billion straws a year, gone. And at the table, most people never even noticed.

That’s the part that stuck with me. The thing they stopped was a thing nobody missed.

The only time I miss a straw is when the server puts my glass down with his fingers on the rim. I would like to think Marriott trained their staff to add that extra care since they subtracted something else.

We don’t think that way very often. We’re wired to add — a new line, a new product, even expanding the store walls (sometimes all great). But the stores that feel best, the ones that feel like somewhere, are almost never the ones with the most stuff. They’re the ones with the nerve to take something away — and focus on doing what they have better.

Think of your store’s plastic straw. The thing you do every single time, out of habit, that nobody would miss if you stopped. The category that doesn’t sell well but you reorder anyway. The discount you run because you always have. The stuff that has piled up near the register trying to be that last add-on sale.

Market was a blast. In fact, Tango did just what I described. Our showroom has four new lines and lots of new products within all of our lines. But we did not just add. We subtracted first. We see the difference! You will, too, with your store — keeping all this in mind. 🤓

And here’s the fun part. There’s a darling new book from Compendium called I’m Not Doing That Anymore: A DIY Boundaries Manifesto. It’s a little fill-in manifesto of exactly this — all the things you’re finally giving yourself permission to quit — with fill-in-the-blank lines like “Just because I can ___ doesn’t mean I have to.” It’s an impulse buy that practically sells itself at the counter, and honestly, it’s this whole post in a gift book.

On the counter: I’m Not Doing That Anymore: A DIY Boundaries Manifesto, by M.H. Clark, illustrated by Jessica Phoenix (Compendium) · $15.95 retail, out January 2026.

Write yours down this week. One line. We’re not doing ___ anymore. Put the date on it. That’s the aha.

xoxo,
❤️ AmyFay

P.S. Thank you for making time for me in Atlanta, truly. If you couldn’t make it this round, no worries at all — send me your numbers any time and I’ll put a reorder together for you to look over.

Working with me

More than the order

When you carry my lines, you get a partner, not just a rep. Most folks don’t realize I can do all of this for their store. A few of my favorites:

✓ Reorders from your numbers

Send your sales report and I’ll draft one around what’s selling. Yours to trim to fit.

✓ Couldn’t make it to market?

Send your numbers and I’ll plug in the new season for you to review.

✓ Opening orders for new lines

Curious about a line? I’ll build a first order sized right for your store.

✓ Your order, ready for Shopify

A file you can drop straight into your system, with no re-keying by hand.

✓ A price book for your disp