♥Delightful Scenery at Tattered Rose...and Other Musings♥

When you are at your store almost every day, it is impossible to see it with fresh eyes, as a customer would see it.

The only time I can do that (see it as if for the first time) is to do a complete overhaul of the store and displays and then come back the next day to see what I did.  Only then am I able to see, for a brief moment, what you might see when you first walk in.

A feast for the eyes.....delightful scenery.....a beautiful store like no other, if I do say so myself, but I DO know from my customers say too. Yes, it is fun to work in this environment of beauty but it is also fun when people are buying because then I know I am doing something right and that the store will continue to be here for many years.

I am mindful of the Best Buy shops that are closing in Canada...that the main reason is that people are going into the stores to learn model numbers and features of the electronic items they seek and then buying them online......that is SO sad.  At least give the store the opportunity to match the lower price you have found online.

Here I go again...on my soapbox but someone has to speak for us retailers and for the businesses in our city.  It is disheartening to know that people are in your shop just to get information, prices details about items that they KNOW they will not be buying from you but from some online business that is somewhere else.  Who are you supporting when you do that? Certainly not your local community of businesses.

I am so thankful that most of my customers are loyal to me and to Tattered Rose and that what we carry is not usually available online.  That means I can continue to bring fresh new ideas and beautiful clothing & jewellery to Edmonton.

The world is changing and I can see that it is not all for the better.  I don't want to live in a ghost town of big box stores and no individual shops that couldn't survive because people are buying online.  Even Best Buy deserved to remain viable because they had a lot to offer the consumer.  I will miss their stores...like I miss Blockbuster....oh, how I miss being able to buy previewed movies from Blockbuster to add to my collection of DVD's.

I guess the bottom line is this:
If you can think of the long-term and what is best for your community/city/country please be mindful of where you are spending your dollars. Why send your money to the USA or China if you can support local by buying local? Try putting your money into the community in which you live....it will make for a much more diverse, thriving and interesting place to live and work...and that is better for ALL of us!