Would You Put Me on Hold - Please?

Generally speaking, without exception, I hate being put on hold.  Not because I'm so annoyed that I have to wait half a minute - I'm not that self important - but because hold music and/or sales pitches are awful, annoying and leave me wanting to scream.  Without exception!  Except . . .  there is one company I call where I recently realized that I always find myself hoping they don't pick up the phone too soon. Because I love their hold tape.  And that company is called the Unemployed Philosopher's Guild.  Their tape is hilarious.  Last time I called, I mentioned this to them, and they asked if I would like to be put on hold at the end of the call.  I said yes, please! Their "operators" say things like "we're at the mercy of your bad attitude."  And "for a limited time, you can get 25 cents off your order - that's almost a quarter!"  And,  "Our motto can be boiled down to one word - Ultimate Maximum Satisfaction."  And "the customer is the one who comes to us for buying things"  (a variation on "the customer is always right.")  Then there's a bit where the operator starts repeating how "your call is important to us" and as she repeats it, she gets more and more emotional about how important it really is, especially since her boyfriend Michael left her, (they just wanted different things) until she's in tears.  So, I guess the moral of this  story is - never say "without exception!"

Our Tribe

The Joie blogger has just returned from a few days in Vermont, engaging in the time honored tradition called "Leaf Peeping."  But another time honored tradition, and certainly one that helps the Vermont economy no small amount, is the tradition called shopping.  It's amazing how many cheddar cheese/maple syrup selling "country stores" there are.  But there are lots of lots of other gift shops too and all of them count heavily on leaf season.  It's interesting how easy it is to spot owner run stores - or to spot an owner.  Maybe it's just a case of takes one to know one - but I had a number of nice conversations with other small shopkeepers.  One of them asked me where I had bought my necklace, and when I told her I had a store, it turned out she had visited it on her last trip to Boston - that was fun. Her four year old daughter was helping out and proudly informed me that she wore size 4T.  And then there was the guy with the store full of Steiff plush animals, and Christmas pieces, Austrian pewter, Matroushkas, and lots of other enchanting things - some of which have been seen on the shelves of Joie.  He and his wife have run the store for 30 years - just a bit ahead of me.  And there was the guy who ran the birding store, who remembered us from last year, and remembered I owned a store and was happy to chat about displays and that bane of retailers everywhere, the assortment.  (Yellow maracas on special this week!)  Anyway, it really does feel like a tribe of sorts - the quirky, stubborn, still there small business owners of the world.  We may be slightly endangered these days - but it's nice to see the range - people just starting businesses and those who have been around for years.  I'm happy to have a tribe!

Our Money's Worth

Hello faithful readers - first, Joie de Blog would like to apologize for a seemingly increasingly lackadaisical attitude toward blogging.  Our apologies!  We've been rather preoccupied with our cash register.  Our register is a workhorse, purchased for $50 almost 30 years ago from a store on the next block that was going out of business.
It doesn't have a tape anymore, and it's very noisy - if you're on the phone and someone uses it, it makes it hard to hear.  On the other hand, we find it refreshingly retro - no beeping!  Anyway, a few weeks ago we noticed that the totals it was giving us at the end of the day were not lining up with the totals in our sales books.  It was off by a hundred dollars, then off by more.  We weren't sure what could be happening  and were pretty sure it was not human error.  Then after about a week of our totals being incorrect - it cured itself.  Waiting for things to fix themselves is our strongly preferred method of dealing with anything but all things do not come to those who wait or so we've observed.  So, it was very gratifying that our beloved register did in fact seem to heal itself.  We're very close to trusting it again.  Still - even if it had given up the ghost - 30 years of service for $50 - that's hard to beat!

Joie de Vivre Bag Spotted in New York Times!

The Joie blogger is a former New Yorker and faithfully reads the Sunday New York Times - Sunday just does not feel like Sunday without it.  And though neither your blogger or Joie de Vivre itself could really be described as "fashionable" we found one of our products in the Style Section - Bill Cunningham's "On the Street" column yesterday. Well... "our" product - which we got from a great little company called Hi-di-hi.  Pretty exciting to think that without even trying - we are cutting edge - at least for a minute or two.  We'll leave it to you to guess which product is ours - click on the photo to enlarge!

The Sadness of the Discontinued Item - continued

Here at Joie de Vivre, we kind of pride ourselves on trying to make people happy.  Ironically, we often wind up making them unhappy years later, when they return for another one of an item they have loved for years and we have to tell them that "you can't get there from here" - i.e. the item has been discontinued.  And we must stress, items are not discontinued because they are not popular - at least not here.  Often these items are among our most popular - but there are lots of different reasons why items cease to be.  Anyway, just yesterday I received a query from someone who sent a picture - "see the frog prince by the smoothie?"  (rather wonderfully question!)  And I looked - and saw a little fuzzy articulated frog prince that I had completely forgotten about - and that we probably haven't been able to get for ten or fifteen years.  It's good to know he's still living the good life, beloved and posing by smoothies.  But I had to break the bad "discontinued" news.  So, for those of you who have shopped here for years - perhaps you'll recognize this little prince and enjoy a small trip down memory lane.  And photo credit to the BuBBs - with our thanks!

One Itty Bitty Rubber Chicken

The title of this post was taken from the "for" line on the bottom of a personal check we received in the mail last week.  It was for $1.10 - sixty cents for one itty bitty rubber chicken and fifty cents for postage.  We mailed the chicken to Springfield, MA.  Anyway.  . ..  some might want to brag about their biggest sales - and a large sale is always kind of thrilling.  But today, we want to brag about our smallest sale.  We probably should have asked the customer to just put a dollar bill in an envelope because the cost of depositing a check probably just about cancels out our small profit on a sixty cent item.  We just might keep that check instead of depositing it.  So we didn't make any money on the deal - we like being the kind of store where one can purchase one itty bitty chicken!

To Another - Thirty Eight Years?

Next year will be Joie de Vivre's 30th anniversary - (get ready to party!) - and ever so often these days, we find ourselves wondering just how long Joie de Vivre will go on.  No immediate plans to close - don't panic anyone, but as some of our friends and aquaintances out there in the real world of regular jobs start talking about retiring, we can't say that the thought never crosses our minds.  But today, the Boston Globe ran an article about a local toyshop owner who is still happily working at - age 99!!  She has been running her business since 1939, and is hoping to celebrate her 100th birthday in her store next year.  Her name is Ethel Weiss and she says running that toystore keeps her young; one look at her picture and we think she definitely looks like she'll make it - she looks happy and full of life. So who knows - maybe Joie de Vivre will still be here in . . .2051!  We have at least one employee who says she'll still work Christmas - she's young, she'll only be 90 then.  And in the meantime . . . we would like to congratulate Ethel on her years of community service.  If there was ever the perfect time to use this expression, we think this is it:  You Go Girl!"

Sometimes It Takes a While to Be Sure . . .

Still at the New York Gift Show.   Sometimes I look at things for several years,  loving them, but not sure if I should order them.  Usually my reason is price - they seem too expensive.  But at this show, I capitulated and ordered these free trade, made in South America, alpaca octopuses (octopi?).  I love them.  I've picked them up many times and had a hard time putting them down.  I hope Joie's customer's will love them as well.  But I figure, if I can really really love something for that long . . .  I should just take the plunge and order.  And I realized that I do that with other things as well - you look for a few years, and suddenly think "why aren't I just ordering this wonderful item?"  I talked to a few vendors about this today and they laughed - all knowing customers who had gone through the same thing.  So - coming this fall to Joie de Vivre - amazingly great alpaca octopuses, crabs and lobsters.  We hope you will love them as much as we do!  Worst case scenario - they all come home and live with me!

The difference between Cambridge and NYC -

Joiedeblog arrived in New York today to attend the New York Gift Show.  (A show which for no apparent reason was recently renamed "New York Now!"  with much accompanying hoopla - though no one we've talked to - other buyers, exhibitors, sales reps etc - think this change makes any sense and the show is the same as it ever was.  We do digress but  I guess the supposedly snappy new name makes someone feel like they're of the moment and exciting .. . .)   Anyway, I ran into some buyers who have several stores in New York who visited me in Cambridge a few months ago.  While they were at Joie de Vivre, I shared with them the sourcing for a few of our popular items  that they were not familiar with.  When they spotted me walking the aisles today, they rushed over.  "You're our hero," they said.  "The No Button you showed us is now our best selling item!  We're selling over a hundred a day!"  Wow!  It was a best selling item for us when we first got it in a few years ago - and to us, a best selling item might sell a couple of dozen a week.  In the big leagues, they're selling ... 700! And therein lies one of the many differences in running a store in Manhattan as opposed to Cambridge. Honestly, I'm not sure I could keep up that pace .. . .. I'm thinking I like our somewhat sleepy town!  They proposed that maybe I should be their buyer and I immediately thought - I'm not sure I could take the pressure.  Who can really tell in advance that any given item will be that popular - or make such predictions on a regular basis?  Over the years, I've found it to be a very tricky art,  so, I think I will stay right where I am!

In My Inbox

When I wrote "In my Inbox" I realized I should say - in my actual physical inbox - we do still get (an increasingly little amount of) mail here at Joie de Vivre and we have an inbox to put it in.  Said inbox often collects a variety of other items during the day and right now it is home to an otter and a sort of alien reindeer.  The otter was a heating pillow.  We sold it recently and the purchaser returned it saying her microwave had burned a hole in its skin - our first complaint of that nature and we suspect a very very powerful microwave.  The little reindeer was spotted in our front zinnia garden a week or so ago.  We brought him in to protect him from the rain, and left him in the front window in case a distraught child was roaming the street looking for him.  However, a week brought no takers, so he made his way to the back room - and made an excellent companion for our burned otter!  I guess I can't keep them in my inbox forever, but I'm enjoying their gentle company for the time being . . .

Better One or Better Two?

We have been selling the lovely solar queen for several years.  A dignified small version of Queen Elizabeth, she stands quietly in her pastel colored (or should we spell that coloured?) dress and does her mini version of the Queen's subtle wave.  Yesterday I went to the back to get a boxed queen for someone and was slightly taken aback by the first one I picked up. . . . it was something about that mouth - it looked not unlike - a vampire.  Just another example of what we learned a long time ago examining our plastic dancing ballerina magnetic toy (click the link and scroll down to May 1st) - some of the people who paint the faces might not be doing their absolute best.   Or in other words, it does not pay to look too closely at small plastic handpainted faces!

Do I Own a Store?

Readers of Joie de Blog may have noticed a lack of posts in the last two weeks.  The blog writer's ladder related injuries have not gotten worse, in fact, the scars are almost gone.  There is a much happier reason for this silence - an actual two week vacation!  At the beautiful New Jersey Shore, specifically, Long Beach Island.  Finding that there is something about swimming, thunderstorms, sunsets, light on the water in the late afternoon, playing cards, cooking, reading and catching up with family that puts thoughts of Boston and Joie de Vivre right out of my head.  So, apologies to anyone who misses our posts - and soon - we promise, we'll be back!!