The right place

Something crossed my mind last night as I was lying in bed: "The penguin race at Joie de Vivre is in the exact right location." I must remember to blog about this, I somewhat sleepily thought and to my amazement, this morning I remembered the whole sequence of thought that culminated in that sentence. We've been selling the penguin race for over twenty-five years, long enough that people who appear quite adult sometimes get very excited when they spot it. "That was my favorite toy!" or "I had one of those when I was a kid!," and they can't resist turning it on. Little kids adore it. We have it displayed one shelf up from the floor, so a child can sit and play with it at just the right height. It's been a few other places at the store - but I would say its main function is to entertain kids while their parents get to pay attention to other things - like actually looking around the store and shopping. We have other things that are displayed in a very specific place for a very specific reason. The kaleidoscopes are quite close to the front desk, so we can easily talk about them with customers. Certain noisy toys are at the front desk so we can control their use - as well as easily demonstrate them. I've tried to move other things - the music boxes, the tavern puzzles, the Buddha Board - but they always wind up back where they started. Some items just have a place that makes the most sense, whatever the reason. On the other hand there are items we move around all the time - and that has its own interest, as people notice them more - or less - depending on where they are. Anyway, somehow, I found it deeply satisfying to contemplate the perfect location of the Penguin Race last night.

This morning I made lunch to take to work, grabbed my gym bag, and realizing I needed to pick up a few things at the market, grabbed a big bag for that. Nothing remarkable about any of that. But as I loaded up my bags and headed for the car, I realized that all my bags were Blue Q bags. And that I loved the design of all of them both graphically and functionally. Could have written: This morning I made myself a little lunch before I left the house . . . and I put it in my Blue Q lunch tote. I grabbed my gym bag, the versatile Blue Q zip up shoulder tote, and also grabbed my big Blue Q shopper for groceries. The only other thing I'll say is - that's how great those bags are. I do of course own other products that we sell at Joie de Vivre - but I don't think I own any in the quantity that I seem to pile up those Blue Q bags!

The Things We Do For Joie

So, we recently had a chance to buy some French figurines that had (very sadly) been discontinued. Some Babar figures, some little bugs and a few of the characters from a series headed up by Barbapapa, a sweet pink guy whose name comes from the expression Barbe a papa - Daddy's beard - which means - a bit oddly - cotton candy. It does explain his color. Anyway, when we unpacked them we found that Celeste and Barbapapa were quite grimy, definitely not in condition to be sold. "I'll take them home and wash them" I said. So that's how I found myself spending part of an evening standing at the sink scrubbing away at tiny, grimy, plastic figurines. Exhibit A - in the dish drainer, and Exhibit B - all clean and dry. Anyone who happened by probably would have thought I was - just a little crazy? However, this was the end of the line for these items, so complaining to the company would have done no good. So, into the bath they went, and I have to admit, it was kind of fun to fill up the dish drainer with them all...

Does Not Compute!

We send things to customers all the time, both by UPS and through the mail. Lately, we've been using the mail a lot more for lightweight items as it is generally half the price until you get over a pound. So, I've noticed some weird inconsistencies in the post office pricing - for instance, we are about to send an 8 ounce package to someone in Portland Maine. I went to the USPS website and entered all the information to find out how much postage to use and found this: to mail first class - would cost 2.58 and arrive in two days. To use standard post would cost 5.60 and would take 3 days to arrive. I just can't wrap my mind around this! In what way does it make sense to have two choices with radically different prices - and, the more expensive choice arrives later. ? ? ? Maybe there IS a reason beyond email and the internet why the post office is going out of business. But to send the same package by UPS would be $10. Granted, it would get there in one day - but if we were sending an 8 ounce package to California by UPS it would cost $11 and it would take a week. (Mail to CA would take 3 days and cost 2.92) Anyway, this is a long winded way of saying that with the U.S. Postal Service - first class is the way to go - and half the price of standard. Too bad all first class experiences are not similarly priced!!

Got Our Money's Worth!

Just before opening Joie de Vivre 29 years ago I bought a small refrigerator for about $100. It's been plugging along for all these years, but it just up and died this past weekend. Pulling it away from the wall was like an archaeological dig — we found all kinds of interesting things behind it and inside of its exterior grill — a tiny plastic groundhog, a lint brush, a small mitten, many marbles, lots of paper, a postcard from a friend traveling in India — (we kept the postcard and the groundhog.) Monday morning I called our local appliance repair guy and asked him if it was worth having him come over and look at it. He laughed. "How long have you had it?" he asked. And, "how much did you pay for it?" When I filled in the specifics, he laughed again. "I think you got your money's worth" was his professional analysis. So, off to Home Depot — no small fridges. Off to Target (the two places he suggested trying). They had one — but no sample out of the box. Off to Sears. One small fridge. With an actual display model. $130. The salesman tried to convince me to buy an extended warrantee — but I don't think we'll be in business for another 30 years! One last observation: trying to find anyone to help you at Home Depot or Target — almost impossible. Sears was a little bit better — but now I have a better understanding of why it's so difficult to reach anyone on the phone in these stores — there's no one around!

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!