Archives: News
The Little Merchant part of the community
Talking shop with Michele Buonocore, owner of The Little Merchant in Bonita Springs. The store sells children’s clothing, accessories and toys.
“We are part of this community. We’re not corporate,” said Buonocore. “This is who we are, after 35 years through three recessions.”
The Little Merchant is at The Promenade, 26811 South Bay Drive in Bonita Springs. Store hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday and 9 a.m. to noon Saturday. Call 992-6480.
How long have you been in business?
This September will be four years for The Little Merchant.
Gift and Home Trade Association Announces September Sales Training in New York
Grand Rapids, Mich. – The Gift and Home Trade Association (GHTA), the gift and home industry’s non-profit professional trade association, announces that it will host a two day sales training seminar, “Selling in the Gift Industry,” on Tuesday, September 22, and Wednesday, September 23, 2009, in New York.
Unique Product Introductions to Take Place at the 2009 Gourmet Housewares Show
White Plains, NY—Gourmet Housewares Show® exhibitors continue to impress as the 2009 show nears. Adding to all that is unique, a sampling of exhibitors explore avenues of gourmet products for children- the next generation of gourmet industry leaders! From cupcake stackers to kid safe cutting boards, buyers are sure to find something interesting for this small in stature, but not creativity, children’s market!
Bridging the art of building, baking and serving, Gourmac is delighted to introduce the Cupcake Stacker.
Home Furnishings Industry Leaders Launch Innovative, Multi-Channel Consumer Campaign
Las Vegas, NV — In an unprecedented initiative to unite and energize the $133 billion home furnishings industry, World Market Center Las Vegas, along with leading industry groups, is launching “Is it Home yet?” campaign. Designed to position home furnishings as a needed and desired enhancement to the family’s home and lifestyle, not a luxury, the campaign will simultaneously ignite consumer interest and increase retail traffic and sales.
Fest means cash for Marion retailers
Marion – One of Sherrie Haver’s favorite times of the year is a month away.
The Marion Popcorn Festival will fill city streets with downtown visitors Sept. 10 through Sept. 12, looking for elephant ears, stromboli, amusement rides and musical entertainment.
As a retailer, Haver knows some of the festival-goers also will peruse her shop, Home Again Stained Glass Ltd., 198 W. Center St., many of them seeing it for the first time.
“It’s wonderful,” she said, of the annual three-day festival’s impact on her business.
Focus On: Anna Lee’s Gifts & More
Valdosta, GA — Susan Bean made sure travelers at the Valdosta Regional Airport can take a souvenir from Valdosta or Georgia home to remember their time spent here.
After nine years of running a gift shop in Lake Park, “it was time to start my own,” she said.
Bean owned another gift shop in South Carolina before she moved to Valdosta.
Bean opened Anna Lee’s Gifts & More on July 13 with the idea to sell local gifts and necessities for people who are coming to and leaving Valdosta.
She said she is always open to new suggestions about different things travelers m
Red Maple Gifts and Your Silver Spoon is a gift shop, caterer and more
While traveling on South Main Street in Petal, a sign with a large, red maple leaf stands out among the pine trees.
Red Maple Gifts and Your Silver Spoon is a gift shop, caterer and event station rolled into one location. Offering anything from baby shower to housewarming presents in Red Maple Gifts, Your Silver Spoon has casseroles, cookies, sponge cakes and petit fours.
Both businesses are owned by Angela Loper and Melissa Lee. Red Maple has been around for four years – 1 1/2 years at its current location.
Wisconsin’s Mustard Museum on the move
Mount Horeb, Wis. — For the final time, people will gather here Saturday on two closed-off blocks of Main Street to celebrate National Mustard Day. There will be free hotdogs with mustard — there’s a $10 surcharge for those who dare to request ketchup — mustard painting and music by the Poupon U Accordion Band.
Mustard Day and its host, the Mustard Museum, are relocating 18 miles away to Middleton this fall. The move will leave a gap on Main Street and reroute the tour buses that bring visitors to the Mustard Museum and its gift shop.
Leanin’ Tree offers puzzles and crafts to gift retailers through a new partnership with MasterPieces Puzzle Company
Boulder, Colo. — Leanin’ Tree has partnered with MasterPieces Puzzle Co. as a non-stocking distributor to bring a broad line of puzzles, crafts and games to their greeting card and gift retailers. The new partnership went into effect July 1, 2009 and greatly expands Leanin’ Tree’s gift line heading into the holiday season.
Ivy’s Vine owners put new spin on shop
Genoa — Ivy’s Vine has put a new twist on its new and vintage gift shop.
Now the store is turning the vintage into something new.
Owners Carolyn Huffman and Cindy Nolte have created Beadyize Vintage Bead-tique inside of Ivy’s Vine, where vintage beads are restrung to make new, unique pieces of jewelry.
At one point, the shop had a lot of vintage jewelry for sale. Huffman, who had been making jewelry out of beads for a long time, decided her customers might want to try it as well.
“I’m always thinking, how can I make it better?” she said.
Tax Holidays Still Worth Celebrating
Even as states scramble to get their budgets in order, many still plan to offer summer sales-tax holidays. All 15 states that held summer tax holidays in 2008 will suspend their sales taxes for at least a day this year.
In fact, several states have expanded their holidays. West Virginia doubled the price threshold for its fall holiday on Energy Star products to $5,000, and New Mexico expanded its August coverage on computers and computer accessories to per-item maximums of $1,000 and $500, respectively.
Without an anchor, small businesses get moving
They include a 63-year-old barber, an optician, an immigrant-turned-pizza-shop owner, and a couple of small businessmen who opened stores after layoffs by downsizing employers.
They are tenants at the Collegeville Shopping Center – mostly local folks running mom-and-pop shops – and they are enmeshed in a recession-era web of misfortune brought on by the loss of their big anchor supermarket a few months back.
Theirs are not the only small businesses suffering as anchor stores vanish in a weak economy.
Moss Hill: Louisville’s newest soap star
Jeanine Moneypenny has moved her Moss Hill operation out of the basement of her Crestwood home and into a bright and open new space in Butchertown Market at 1201 Story Ave.
Not only does the move give her more room to create her small-batch soaps, oils, creams and lotions, it also allows her to open her first retail establishment.
“Andy (Blieden, owner of the building) made me an offer I couldn’t refuse,” Moneypenny said, “and it felt right.
First, Do No Harm to Small Business?
“First, do no harm.” Evidently those words don’t apply to Congress and health care reform, at least not as it pertains to small business.
Under the legislation introduced in the House of Representatives as America’s Affordable Health Choices Act, “Businesses that do not offer health coverage to their workers would pay an 8 percent payroll tax to help subsidize coverage …”
What will this mean for small business in this country?
Council seeing red over pink Perthshire shop
An award-winning Perth shop owner is seeing red over Perth and Kinross Council’s stance on her pink facade.
Bertie Browns in South Street is the second victim of council ‘colour wars’ in the city this summer.
A month ago a row erupted after Perth and Kinross Council started painting the Queen’s Bridge in its corporate colours of turquoise and dark blue.
Contractors were stopped in their brush strokes when the vociferous ‘paint it black’ brigade overturned the council’s ‘brighten up’ approach.
But now the council are telling Bertie Browns’ owner Jane Atkin
Entrepreneurs Leverage New Orleans’s Charm to Lure Small Businesses
It has been a long time since the word “optimism” was spoken in the same sentence as “New Orleans.”
But a small group of entrepreneurs has been using that word lately to describe their efforts to attract small businesses to New Orleans. For now, their enthusiasm may be greater than their results.
Managing an Online Reputation
Your customers are talking about you — and the whole world is listening.
Local review sites are reshaping the world of small business by becoming the new Yellow Pages, one-stop platforms where customers can find a business — and also see independent critiques of its performance.
How do you manage your reputation when everybody is a critic?
For some business owners, this is a terrifying prospect that seems more like mob rule than the wisdom of crowds. Negative reviews can hang an albatross around your neck if they appear prominently in search results.
TODCO Adds New Styles and Colors to it’s Popular Line of Reusable and Fashionable Insulated Lunch Totes
Burlington, WI – TODCO™ has expanded the styles, colors, shapes and sizes of its popular line of Insulated Sachi™ Lunch Totes adding appeal to an individual’s taste, style and personality. TODCO™ is a member of Hannon Group, Ltd.
Designed to provide consumers with a fashionable and practical way to carry and insulate their lunch, dinner or snack, the eco-friendly lunch totes are reusable and are intended to replace paper or plastic bags to help the environment.
Airport Retail Sales Soar with My Pillow Pets
San Diego, CA – Whether you are about to catch a long flight, or need a last minute gift for those left at home, the original My Pillow Pets are ideal for the airport gift shop. My Pillow Pets are snuggly plush companions that are also a comfortable pillow perfect for travel time, bedtime or television. Made from the softest, high-quality chenille. There are more than 26 styles of loveable Pillow Pets available.
“We added My Pillow Pets to our assortment in April 2009.
Unique Product Introductions to Take Place at the 2009 Gourmet Housewares Show
White Plains, NY – With less than two weeks away from the August 8 -10 Gourmet Housewares Show®, anticipation is in the air as exhibitors and attendees prepare for innovative product introductions and prime time 4th quarter buying. Appealing to the highly sophisticated gourmet audience, the Fall 2009 product launches and 2010 assortments are sure to please those in attendance at the Show.
Greystone Brand, Wine Things Unlimited, will be expanding their collegiate collection of glassware, plates and wine charms at the 2009 Gourmet Housewares Show.