Not to give you another thing to think about on the brink of what for most of us is a very busy couple of days, but the shop will be 5 months old tomorrow. We opened for business on Saturday, June 29 and I remember the feeling when the first two customers walked through the door. I was like, “oh boy– people really are going to come here to shop!….here we go!” (I think it took two for the reality to start to set in…)
In addition to being our five-month birthday, tomorrow is Black Friday, and as a retailer, it’s something to take very seriously. To be honest, preparing for our first Black Friday has been giving me a little stress. I’ve done a lot of thinking about how this little bra shop will fit in to the Manchester shopping mix.
Like every other day in the past five months, we’ll be ready, willing, and able to help with bra fitting for those of you who are in the mood for that tomorrow — as we will be every day to come throughout the holiday season. One thing I do know for sure is that we LOVE helping you find the right bra. That’s never gonna change no matter what day it is.
But I suspect that most of you will be shopping for gifts, and as much as it pains me to say it, a tan bra just isn’t something people give as a gift. (now here’s where I could go on and on about our gift cards, but I’ll save that for another time) This is where the “stress” has come in. What else to have in the shop? What else can we carry that people want to shop for? There’s a lot of pressure on making inventory decisions: what to carry…how much of it to carry…how much can we afford to carry…when to bring it in… (sidebar to my music industry friends reading this – my respect for buyers has gone to infinity!)
Basically, we’ve gone bananas with pajamas and robes because, hey, nice pajamas are hard to find. You know how the UPS guy is really strong and can carry a 50 lb box no problem? He’s had to use a dolly and the ramp the past couple of days to bring in mounds of boxes! And since we’re one of these little specialty shops, we can special order something for you, say if we don’t have the size or color you want/need. Happy to!
We’ve brought in more lingerie type stuff because, well, guys like to buy us that kind of stuff and sometimes maybe we like to buy ourselves that kind of stuff. So…just so you know, we have a lot more lingerie stuff than we ever have had before.
We’ve brought in more “little” gifts too. The kind you stuff stockings with or bring as little hostess gifts when you go to holiday parties. We have these soaps that smell really heavenly and are packaged in really (really!) gorgeous paper. We have cute wooden signs that say things like “Love You More” or “A Meal Without Wine is a Meal Without Sunshine.” We have all sorts of little fashion emergency solutions that would make a great gift basket.
Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Black Friday, and Happy Birthday to JOY. We can’t promise doorbusters, but we can promise love, gratitude, smiles, and doing our damndest to help you find what you want and need for YOU and anyone you’re buying a gift for. (Not to mention the comfortable chairs, big and beautiful dressing rooms, the Barbie dolls, and the chandeliers.)
We’d love to see you this weekend. One more thing – we’ll have belly dancers in the shop at 3 p.m. on Saturday for Small Business Saturday! If you can’t make it in, maybe you can tell two friends about us. And maybe they’ll tell two friends. And so on and so on and so on. That’d be a really great birthday present.
Much love,
Joy
