Quotation Books

We here at Joie de Vivre love a good book of quotations, and among our all time favorites are three books by Richard Kehl, that we have been selling for years and years: Silver Departures, It Takes A Long Time to Become Young, and Love Letters to the Universe. He is a collage artist and teacher, and has a knack for finding quotations you have not encountered a million times. I frequently pick up one of his books just to read a page or two, and while doing just that, found this optimistic quote on meaning from an extremely unlikely source — Francis Bacon. Francis Bacon, the artist — and if you've ever seen his work, you'll be aware that it does not generally make one smile. His quote:

"There it is. I don't believe in anything, but I'm always glad to wake up in the morning. It doesn't depress me. I'm never depressed. My basic nervous system is filled with this optimism. It's mad, I know, because it's optimism about nothing. I think of life as meaningless, and yet it excites me. I always think something marvelous is going to happen."

It makes me happy to think that despite those tortured artworks, Francis Bacon still feels this way. Thank you Francis Bacon, and thank you Richard Kehl!

Please Find Attached Our Event Flyer!

We get a lot of donation requests. From schools, advocacy organizations, art centers, you name it. Almost all of the organizations very worthy ones and we like to help out as much as we can. We must have given away hundreds of things for auctions and door prizes over the years. But opening an email titled "donation request" this morning it struck me how impersonal the way of soliciting these donations has become over the years. Initially, it was almost always done like this: a customer of ours, who we knew, would ask us if we would consider donating to something that he/she was involved with. We would talk about it and find something for them. These were people we saw on a regular basis - they were patrons of our store. Over the last few years in particular, requests have become very official - form letters send often to lots of local businesses via email. The cause may be worthy, but we don't know the person asking for the donation. And I'm realizing that it makes me feel a little - used, somehow. I prefer the personal approach. Of course, I donate to national organizations and causes where I don't know the people involved personally. And of course, we do still get requests from customers we know. And I know everyone's busy and harried and trying to be efficient. But the flood of requests from people we don't know, somehow doesn't feel right. (A smiley face in an email is not the same as an actual smile!) In any case, when we say yes, at least they have to physically come in to the store to pick up the donation. Maybe some of them will stick around and become customers. We hope so.

Oh .. .. from Joie de Vivre? Hi !

We carry a lot of different items here at Joie de Vivre. It's a lot to keep track of, and we are thus almost always out of some of said items. And of course, as the laws of the universe would have it, as soon as you are out of something is the time that a customer walks in and asks for it. This is all a rather long winded way of saying that we wind up taking customers names and phone numbers and calling them when an item comes in. We can email too of course, but a lot of people just give us their phone number. Depending on what it is, the item wanted may return in a few days, a few weeks, or even a few months, but no matter how long, we will still call. And I've noticed something over the last five or ten years. Most people are not friendly these days when they answer the phone. Many could almost be described as hostile, their hello conveying something along the lines of "who are you and you better have an excellent reason for bothering me!" When I identify myself as calling from Joie about an item they were interested in, their tone changes to normal friendly human being. That's what getting hundreds of unsolicited sales calls will do to you - turn you unfriendly and suspicious, I guess. I understand, but it's kind of sad.

Before and After

Yesterday a customer came up to the counter to buy some cards, and pulled out a bag she had bought here. It was - very well used. I asked her how long she'd had it and the question elicited a heartfelt statement about how much she loved this bag, plus, my answer: two years. She told me she liked it so much she had bought a spare to replace it when it had really come to the end of its useful life. She kindly gave me permission to photograph it and I present it here - evidence that people really do use our products. And also as a testament to the wonderfulness of its makers, one of our all time favorite companies, Blue Q! Their bags are made of 95% post consumer content - and then that recyled content goes on to provide happiness for a good two years at least. What could be better than that?

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 . . . .