What Else? — Weekly Retail Tidbits #271
“I realized that there’s a fundamental problem with a game if you leave the game in the middle of the game. And so we said, all right, well, what if we made our own rules?”
— Jesse Cole, owner of the Savannah Bananas · PBS News, July 4, 2025
“Why aren’t you coming to our games?”
That is what Jesse, the new owner of the baseball team, asked his community.
It started with that question. Today there are more than 4 million people on a waitlist to come to a game.
Have you heard of the Savannah Bananas?
I had but had no idea about their story. Ron Tite, the opening keynote speaker at the Gift and Home Trade Association conference last week, shared it. We were in Savannah – so it was especially relevant and fun.
The first answers Jesse received were the easier ones. Tickets are too expensive. Jesse did not just cut prices. He started running his own ticketing, so fans pay no added fees.
The food? He started making it in-house and included it in the price of the ticket.
The ads? (People complained about all the advertisements around the ballpark.) Gone.
Jesse kept asking, “What else?”
Until finally it came out. Baseball is boring (and long).
As Ron told it, Jesse took the idea of shorter games to the other team owners in his league. “Baseball is supposed to be long,” they told him.
So Jesse built his own game. Banana Ball has a two-hour time limit, no bunting, and Ron’s favorite rule: “If you hit a foul ball into the stand and the fan catches it, you’re out.”
The Bananas had been in a category that defined them. They changed everything and made a category of their own.
Fourth quarter has more opportunities than just selling.
The people who shop with you are going to say things. When they do, try Jesse’s question: “What else?”
Pay attention. I am careful to do this at market with you. What am I hearing?
Is the same thing being said by many of you?
At the end of December I hope you have a treasure trove of comments that will act like little dots just waiting for you to connect them. Who knows – you might make a category of your own.
Isn’t Buc-ee’s a gas station? 😂
xoxo,
❤️ AmyFay
Technology Tip
How Many Ways Can a Shopper Buy From You?
Start with the phone in your hand. Pull up your own website and your store’s Instagram or Facebook page, and shop them like a customer would. If someone falls in love with something tonight, can they buy it – or at least ask you to hold it?
Another speaker in Savannah, Nicole Leinbach Hoffmann, named five ways shoppers can spend money with a store:
Do you need all five? Maybe not all, but just be aware of them. Then pick one to make easier before the holidays.
3 Tango Tidbits
Three for the Home Stretch
EvaBelle — Six on the Shelf, Reorder at Three
Keep at least 6 of this friendship 4×4 on hand going into the holidays, and reorder when you’re down to 3. Stand them with the rest of your EvaBelle on one shelf. A restock takes two to three weeks. Please plan accordingly.
Mary Lake-Thompson — There’s Still Time for Christmas
Get your order in now. Flour sack towels are still number one, but there are so many good extras, like the mulling spices.
The Winding Road — Felt Cardinals for the Tree
Cardinals are always popular. Are you stocked? Handmade in Nepal and fair trade. Nice extra – they don’t break.
“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself.”
— Peter Drucker · Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices (1973)
| Shop Tango here → |
The Tango Showroom is open 10 to 4, Monday through Friday, at AmericasMart in Atlanta, Georgia. Come see us! 🌟
AmyFay Chandler
AmyFay Chandler started out as a teacher, then spent 15 years as an independent retailer. Along the way she bought for multiple stores, dabbled in wholesale with two lines of her own, and found her way to repping. Today she is a sales rep for the brands she represents. That view from every side of the table shapes Weekly Retail Tidbits, which she writes from Knoxville, Tennessee, to help local retailers feel connected and maybe see something they do every day in a new light.
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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