A Riddle

"What is the difference between a pussy cat and a sentence?" A charming older woman asked me this question the other day. We were alone in the store and she had just wandered in. I had to admit that I didn't know. "Well," she told me, "A sentence has pauses at the end of its clauses - and a pussycat has clawses at the end of its pawses!" That made me smile; I love word play, and I also was taken with the use of the old fashioned "pussycat", a word rarely heard these days outside of "The Owl and the Pussycat." She then continued her way around the store, eventually coming back up to purchase a book and a flower pen. Just before she left, I thanked her for the riddle, saying I would be sure to remember it. She smiled, took her bag, looked at me, said "Meow!" and left. Delightful!

Kids

We were lucky enough to overhear two great comments here at Joie in the last few days. The first, from a young boy - probably five or six - killing time while his mother chose a gift for a friend. He was looking through a glitter wand kaleidoscope - the kind where the glitter floats down through liquid and forms a kaleidoscopic image. "It's like a party!" he excitedly said, and I told his mom that I just might have to use his quote. Then this morning three teenagers were in, just looking around at everything (it's school vacation week) and having fun with our stock and with each other. Sometimes three teenagers can seem like about a dozen people - they get very excitable and crazy around each other, all in good fun, but these three were very easy to take. One of the girls looked at a miniature coffee creamer we have, and said "I love this even more than I love myself!" Then later today, a mom was in with her two daughters and each one purchased something with her own money - something we consider a compliment of the highest order! Anyway, bearing in mind the recent awful events in Boston, it's nice to have a little something on the lighter side to share with you blog readers. Happily, having kids around makes it very difficult to concentrate solely on the darker side of life.

Just Saying

So, the phone rang at 9:30 this morning. I picked it up at my desk in the back office. "Hello, I know you open at 10," a man's voice began. "But - if I happened to be standing outside your door, and if I happened to know exactly what I wanted . . . . " "Are you standing outside our door?" I asked. "Yes." "Of course I'll open," I said - and 5 minutes later, he was happily on his way with a Newton's Cradle for his elementary school class. One minute to open the door, one minute for me to find out what he wanted and go get it, one minute for him to buy it - and two minutes for us to talk about what a cool thing a Newton's Cradles is. Just want to say - I don't think he would have had the same luck at Target . . . . or Walmart . . . or a department store . . . or even the local mall. It's nice to be able to be flexible - and to say yes instead of no!

The Way It Always Is

A few days after Easter, we look at our Easter stock section in the back of the store to see what is left over. There's always a few things that we think we'll sell a lot of and don't - and sometimes they are quite wonderful things. Of course wind up rabbits and chicks and a great deal of springy and chickeny related merchandise just goes right back into our year round stock, because we sell chicken bags and rabbit puppets all year long, same for egg shaped ice cube molds and pinwheels and butterfly bubbles. However, if something says "Happy Easter" or is too overtly Easter related, we pack it up and put it away until next year. (Sad thing about that Easter chocolate that won't last a year without going bad - we are forced to eat it!) Anyway, we packed it all up yesterday, including the 50 cent chenille chicks, and we put it as high up and out of the way as we could, knowing that we wouldn't be needing it for awhile. And this morning, a woman came in, and asked for - chenille chicks. It's just a law of the retail universe - pack it up and put it in a hard to access place - and someone will really really want one!

Spring is Busting Out All Over!

Happy Easter, Happy Spring Solstice, Happy Weekend from us to you !

The Terrors of Pleasure

The title of the late and much lamented Spaulding Gray's monologue really resonates with us at this time of year. We know that jelly beans are not what he was thinking of when he chose that particular title - but it works for us in the few weeks that lead up to Easter. We have always felt that it was a nice thing to offer our customers seasonal candy at certain times of the year - candy corns at Halloween, chocolate kisses for Valentine's Day, and, jelly beans for Easter. And we've discovered you can eat quite a lot of chocolate and be fine - after all, it is a not a seasonal, but an essential part of a good diet, so we are accustomed to it. Not so for jelly beans. Those beautiful little candies are pure sugar. And so easy to eat. And, one doesn't generally eat just one jelly bean, one must take one of each of one's favorite colors . . . and then perhaps another round and so forth. By the end of the week just a few jelly beans can bring on an instant headache. But - we're willing to suffer for you, our beloved customers . . . we just hope you'll come in and help us out a little. (Especially customers that like black and green jelly beans) And somehow, we know we'll manage to forget that sugar headache by the time the bowl of candy corns goes out in October!

Sign of the Times

The stock market may be at an all time high - or it was, last time we checked - but we don't think that's a sure sign that our actual economy is getting better, and here is an example of why. Joie de Vivre has been in business for almost twenty nine years so we'd had a lot of experience with placing and receiving orders. Back in the old days, we would actually call our orders in or mail them to our various suppliers. This generally took a lot longer than faxing or emailing - mail, obviously took a couple days just to arrive, and a phone conversation could meander off in any one of many different directions. (Fear of pronouncing Joie de Vivre and an attempt at a phonetic lesson being high on that list!) But today, we don't pick up the phone that often; we email or we fax. And back in the booming economy days, we often waited several weeks for our order to arrive - companies were busy. But times have changed: we placed an order this morning and received the shipping confirmation a few hours later. Which means people are sitting around waiting for something to do. This is particularly true for suppliers with manufactured goods - our craft accounts - people who actually make their products themselves are not close to this fast. Anyway - this means if you don't want the order instantly, you'd better put a future ship date on it. Much of the time I'm glad to get what we need quickly - but on the other hand, I do wish people were busier - i.e. doing better with their businesses. It seems to me that would be a very positive economic sign.

Customer Rituals

Ever so often we become aware that we're seeing a lot of a particular customer. Actually, "customer" in this case may not be quite the right word as this type of customer is generally not known to buy anything. But someone will come in, head for an object - our fortune telling Q cards, the Magic 8 Ball or often the big xyllophone that's on our front counter. These people rarely look at us or respond when we say hello but suddenly we realize that we're seeing this person almost every day. And that they're doing the same thing every day. Right now, we have a gentleman who comes in every morning, plays the xyllophone just a bit, wanders to the back of the store, and puts on the hologram eyeglasses, then takes them off and leaves. It's been at least a month or more, and actually, he now occasionally responds to our hello. But I'm also sure that eventually he'll just stop this particular ritual, maybe find himself a new one, and we won't see him again. Just another funny and slightly odd little part of the retail biz . . . .

lmgtfy

Do you know what our post title means? I didn't - until yesterday, when I read a piece about digital etiquette in the Times. It was interesting. The writer and his friends were complaining about things that are kind of vestigially polite - leftovers from the olden days if you will - like a final email saying "thank you" after a back and forth about something - or even worse - leaving a voice mail instead of texting. Another complaint was people emailing to ask questions about something they could easily find out themselves - hence lmgtfy. It means "let me google that for you" and someone has made it into a website. Although I find it hard to sympathize with people who complain about someone saying thank you - I think lmgtfy is very funny. And when I think about it I realize our store telephone rings much less frequently these last few years - because if people want to know our hours, locations, whatever - they just google. However. That said. We here at Joie de Vivre are happy to answer questions in person, by email or by telephone. We like talking to people and we like the sound of the human voice. And emails saying "thank you"? Guilty as charged. And phone messages? Maybe not as often anymore - we do admit that texting is pretty practical and easy - but if you leave a message for us - we will listen to it and answer it. Who says you can't be old fashioned and modern at the same time?

Our Own Product!

Our very own. Or as they say in the catalogues - "ours exclusively!" We have been selling spills for many years and they remain amazingly popular. Hardly a week goes by that a person or two does not approach our desk with a grave, concerned expression and pointing at some countertop, tell us that someone has spilled a cup of coffee. And these people are 99% adults - that's how convincing some of the spills are. Sometimes we ask them to pick it up - and they initially look at us like - are you crazy? You can't pick up a cup of spilled coffee . . . . and then they see us smiling and begin to suspect. Anyway, we recently ordered a couple of glasses of spilled milk, and then - this idea just came to us. It's perfect consolation for all of us who've ever made a mistake . . . . or broken something, or forgot an important date . . . at least those of us old enough to remember the original expression!

Sister Store in Sister City Visit

A few years ago we became aware of another Joie de Vivre - I may have even blogged about it back in the early days of this blog. The odd thing about this other Joie was it's location - Cambridge, MD - just one letter away from Cambridge MA. Vendors occasionally mixed us up, and we also got the occasional call from a customer that confused both the caller and us - the "I saw this in your store and was wondering if you still have it" type of call that left us desperately trying to remember an item that we had actually never carried or seen. Anyway, I was visiting some friends in Easton, MD last week and realized that Cambridge MD was only ten miles away, so we decided to visit. They warned me that the town itself was pretty run down and deserted, and it was true - lots of empty storefronts and almost no people to be seen, though it was Presidents Day, so maybe they were all home baking Lincoln Logs. Anyway, we peered in the windows, (very different merchandise) and took some pictures, got back in the car and left. If I visit them again, I'll try to return.

Kind of A Shock !

Joie de Blog is in Philadelphia attending the Buyers Market of American Craft - a well respected craft wholesale only event that has been running for over 20 years. And of course we've enjoyed it thoroughly- time spent talking with old friends, finding new work from new exhibitors for the store, meeting new people - even if that excruciating traffic jam on the New Jersey Turnpike was kind of soul numbing, it's been a very good trip so far. The Buyers Market has been run for years by a woman named Wendy Rosen. I never got to know her beyond a hello, but she's been a constant on site presence so I was well aware of who she was. Last year, she decided to hand the organization over to her daughter so that she could run for the House of Representatives in Maryland. But she was here at this show and people were talking about her in a kind of hush-hush way. I finally asked someone what was up - it turned out she had been arrested this fall for voting twice - in two national elections - in 2006 and 2008. In Florida and Maryland. And was forced to drop out of the race last fall at the last minute, allowing a Republican win in MD. Call me naive - but the news boggled my mind. For one, because there seemed no choice between just plain unbelievably stupid - or on the other hand, mind bogglingly sleazy and arrogant. Not a good choice - and to be honest, it's hard for me to believe that a woman who put together the Buyers Market and ran it succcessfully for twenty years, then put together a viable run for public office is . . . stupid. Looking up the story on line I saw no apologies only rationalizations and denials and I really wonder how she can bear to appear in public. We human beings are curious creatures indeed!