The System That Gave Me Poison Ivy — Weekly Retail Tidbits #262
The System That Gave Me Poison Ivy
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
— James Clear, Atomic Habits
I want to scratch my face, my ears, my arms, my hands. I got poison ivy this week, and it is my own fault.
My husband said, “I know what poison ivy looks like.”
I said, “I do, too. I pulled it on purpose.”
Dumb, I know. But my system usually works — pull it gently, throw it away, wash my hands immediately. It did not work this time. My system is officially retired.
I stood in some of your stores this week trying not to scratch, and one conversation stuck with me. A store owner and a longtime team member were describing their frustration with donation requests — especially the ones from people they have never seen shop in the store.
I bet you can relate. Someone is always asking for money or product on behalf of a well-intentioned nonprofit.
So do you have a system? Is it like my poison ivy system, or is it one that works every time — one that leaves you feeling good about supporting your community all year, with no frustration attached?
I hashed out some ideas while I traveled this week. The problem isn’t that you don’t want to give. It is that requests arrive unexpectedly, employees don’t know what they are authorized to approve, decisions get made based on who is asking, small amounts add up fast, saying no is uncomfortable, and nobody tracks the total.
Option 1: Loyalty customers only. Requests must come from a member of your loyalty program. Then you can look up their history. Are they a current customer? How long have they shopped with you? How often? Have they asked before? Being a loyalty member doesn’t guarantee a donation — it makes the request eligible for consideration. A customer who spends $2,000 a year asking for her child’s school auction is not the same as a stranger walking in for free merchandise. You never have to say you are prioritizing customers. It is simply information you use.
Option 2: One standard gift card. Approved requests receive a $25 store gift card. No cash. Decide how many you will give annually and keep that number to yourself. Require the form ahead of the event, and let management review it rather than an employee deciding at the counter. A gift card is not the same as $25 walking out the door. The recipient walks through your door, spends $60, applies the card, maybe joins your loyalty program, maybe discovers a store she has never visited. The donation can create a customer.
Option 3: The mystery donation bag. Build ready-to-go bags from discontinued merchandise, previous-season goods, samples, and product headed for deeper markdown. Seal them, make them attractive, number them — DONATION BAG #027. Distribute the oldest bag first. Employees don’t choose the best one. The requester doesn’t browse. The next bag is the bag. That ends the “Could we get one of those instead?”
The form is the backbone. Your team says one sentence: “We’d be happy for you to submit a request. All of our community donations go through this form.” Capture the name, loyalty account, organization and type, event and date, and contact information. If you do hand over a bag the same day, record the bag number, the date received, the employee who fulfilled it, and any previous requests. An interruption just became data.
Five rules, whichever option you choose:
No cash.
No guaranteed same-day decisions. Someone walking in does not get to create urgency for you.
Nothing pulled from regular inventory.
A request is not a promise. The form means it will be considered.
Track every donation, including an internal value on the mystery merchandise.
After two or three years you will know: 47 requests received, 31 from existing customers, 22 approved, $1,100 in retail value donated, $340 in actual cost, 14 local organizations supported.
That beats standing at the counter thinking, “Somebody just walked in and asked me for something. What do I do this time?”
Don’t decide whether to give when someone asks. Decide how you give before they ask.
xoxo,
❤️ AmyFay
Technology Tip
The Voice Memo You Are Never Going to Play Back
Last week the tip was to talk to AI instead of typing at it. This is the next step. I recorded myself thinking out loud about donation requests while I traveled this week, and I was never going to sit through all of it again. So I did not. I pulled the transcript instead and handed that to AI to help me make sense of it and turn it into notes I could use. I used those notes to write what you just read.
Your phone already made the transcript. You just have to find it, and in most voice apps it is hiding behind the three little dots — tap those and look for Transcript. Then you need it out of the app and into the AI. On a Mac: Command + A to highlight it all, Command + C to copy, Command + V to paste. On a PC it is the same three with Control instead of Command. On your phone, press and hold the text, tap Select All, then Copy. Some days I just email it to myself and grab it there.
It works on anything you have already recorded — a team meeting, a vendor call, a walk through your store naming out loud what needs fixing. Paste it into the AI and ask for the notes, the to-do list, or the decisions that got made. Nobody ever sits back through twenty minutes of their own voice. Reading a clean page of your own ideas takes two minutes.
3 Tango Tidbits
Three Lines That Feel Good Against Your Skin
Whispering Willow — Natural Body Oil
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This is what I have been putting on my hands all week, and it has helped the itch so much. It works as a lightweight moisturizer for summer too. A 4.5 ounce pump bottle that comes in its own printed box, so it goes straight onto a shelf already looking like a gift.
Faceplant — White King Sheets
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White king is almost always the number one SKU in the whole line. Once you sleep on these it is hard to sleep on anything else. I have slept in mine every night since I started representing Faceplant. They are my standing wedding gift too: I look up the size on the registry and send white.
Cobblestone Living — The Alessandra Wrap
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It was the number one seller last fall and winter, which is why there are new colors this year. Wear it with or without a cami. Many stores have already pre-ordered — some are shipping now, others in the coming weeks.
Featured on Instagram
LJ Sonder
@ljsonder earrings are designed to stand out with unique details, a little edge, and just the right amount of polish. Meticulously crafted with 18k gold plating over nickel-free brass and specially sealed to help resist tarnishing, they’re made to be worn, loved, and noticed.
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| View on Instagram → |
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”
— Annie Dillard, The Writing Life
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Set up the system once, 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 262nd 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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