Sunday, January 11, 2009

New Year, New Opportunities....g'bye 2008!

Here's to 2009! Happy New Year to all and we at WFS hope you had a great time ushering it in!

2008 was a challenging year for most of us, wasn't it? I'm not sorry to see it go but at least I can say it went fast and I'm grateful for the learning experiences. 2008 wasn't the ideal time to have just taken over an independent retail store, especially one that primarily sells office supplies....make that lots of office supplies. Since Scott has been involved in some capacity with the Stationery department of Webster's Pharmacy for years, I've been watching it develop (or not, as the case may be) for as long as I've known him. I always asked myself why they bought so heavily and carried so many items, a lot of which didn't move much. There were tons of pens....clips....badges....labels....staples....plastic geegaws for your desk. Many of these are still on the shelves. In conjunction with our supplier, Webster's put out a full line office product catalog and sent it all over Pasadena and surrounding areas but never made any effort to follow up on any leads generated by those catalogs (if there were any). We have exactly two commercial accounts that we inherited from the main store, both of which we're extremely grateful for. However, we've learned something about office supplies in the past year or so and it's not good. We're fighting against the mentality that Staples, Office Max and the like are less expensive than we are. We're faced with dwindling sales due to the stores being split up....a lot of traffic flowed through those entryways to get to the post office, the pharmacy or Hallmark and the pass-through traffic boosted sales....now that traffic is gone and the sales have suffered. Add to that, no cosmetic work had done on the Stationery department since 1959 and it wasn't memorable in any way, other than being the home of the Post Office and customer service. To this date, at least 10 people a day come in and ask where the Post Office is or where Hallmark is....or they just ask, "What happened?".

So we bought a store that wasn't memorable, had tons of stuff that really wasn't moving very well now that the walls were up.....what to do? We came in with clear ideas about how we wanted the store to look and knew we had to streamline the office products down to a manageable level. What to add to the mix to differentiate us when there's a Hallmark store right next door? Enter the addition of some home decor items and my decorating ability....and enter the media's blasting the bad news of recession. Add that to the swan song of our office products supplier. Yes, we lost our vendor with whom Webster's had dealt with for well over 25 years. They couldn't make it through the recession and sold out to another larger, commercial vendor - S.P. Richards. SP said they'd carry everything that our other vendor did but that's not happening. We're now having to "go fishing" between 3 different suppliers and poor Michelle spends most of her time doing just this. What we're going to have to do is whittle down the office supplies yet again so we carry a good selection of what actually sells. I realize that visually, entire isles of pens and pencils, file folders and expandable files, ink cartridges and copy papers, dividers and binders and hundreds of different note pads are very cool to look at, but it's just not realistic anymore. You can go to Staples and see the same thing at a lower cost. It's true and I know it....we don't have the big box's buying power.

There's the conundrum, my friends. We hope to solve this by becoming a lifestyle store....one that can outfit your home or your home office, help you with entertaining, making invitations or having them custom made by us. A store nearby your home that stocks quality children's toys, educational material, books and games. A neighborhood store that you can turn to when your child has a project due at school and you need supplies. A retail outfit that has people who know what they're talking about and who really do care about you. Does Staples offer to put your ink refill into your pen after you purchase the refill? Will Staples or Office Max help you try to fix your broken pen? Does Kinkos offer a volume discount for faxing more than 5 pages? Will The UPS Store or FedEx/Kinkos offer fresh coffee and snacks to their customers? I think not and they probably never will. Their volume insures that they be impersonal.....their bottom line is their focus, not you. And their aesthetic is certainly not as nice as ours is. In addition, none of the above stores will let you buy one single envelope or pen anymore because everything is packaged in multiples. This is a great way to increase your sales, I agree. But sometimes you don't need but one new pen....or an envelope to mail something in....and we know that. Even if it doesn't help increase our bottom line, we'll continue to offer single items for sale because you asked for them.

That brings us to something else we've learned this past year....listen to your customers. Throughout the year, we've taken quite a few of you to lunch to find out what you think about the store. Like I mentioned above, many of you wondered about the changes at Webster's and this gave us the opportunity to explain things. A few were afraid we'd do away with the office supplies altogether and we were able to reassure that we're not. All of you seemed to be solidly behind us and the direction we're headed....thank you for that. We listen to the customers in the store, too and most, after hearing the reason for the changes are supportive. A lot of people seem excited to know there'll be a familiar place to shop for quality stationery (we now carry Crane & Co.!), gifts and toys, in addition to home office supplies. Of course, we can't please everyone, and there have been some who just don't like change. I mentioned this way back in my first posts and unfortunately we're still dealing with the few who don't get what we're doing. We've dealt with people who come in and state very loudly how much they hate it. We deal with people who argue about prices and tell me that (insert name of big box or chain store) is cheaper. It's a part of the job, and we try to be very courteous in reply to these remarks, but sometimes it gets out of hand. The remarks made are so rude that we have to ask these people not to come back in. Scott and I have spent so much time at the store and have put so much of our heart and soul into it that it feels like our home. I'm sorry, but I don't come into your home and tell you how awful it is and how much I hate it - please don't come into our store and tell us that.

Now for what's on tap for the coming months. The LA gift shows are coming up, starting tomorrow, so we'll go and see what's new. They tell us that because of the economic downturn there won't be many new designs out there, but we'll be on the hunt for something exciting so do check in with us in the coming weeks to see what has arrived! We're striving to add recycled paper to our Paper By The Pound selection and will most likely bring some in this season. We're also looking for more unusual papers, like handmade papers with botanicals and decorative designs, that will be lovely additions for your choice in card and invitation making. New books and toys will be ordered, too, as well as some new Altadena-centric signs. All in all, it's shaping up to be a great year....stay in touch with us through this blog, on Facebook, MySpace, check our ads on AltadenaBlog.com and listen for news of further plans to benefit The Quality of Life Center!

We wish you the best of everything in the new year!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You just cannot possibly receive the same customer service, or the simple comforts of a family owned business. I'll support them everytime! Love the direction you're taking Webster's Fine Stationers.

Unknown said...

Thank you, Lisa!