It's that time of year again - families gathering together to give thanks for their many blessings. As the day draws closer, we at WFS want to wish you and yours a warm, safe and happy Thanksgiving.
The holidays are approaching quickly and with them come numerous events, parties and gift-giving opportunities. We know this year has been a tough one for many people, ourselves included, so we decided to kick off the season with our very first annual Black Friday sale. We'll open at 8:30 a.m. on Friday, November 27th, and for 7 1/2 hours only (until 4:00 p.m.), prices will be substantially cut. No coffee, no cookies and no gift wrapping services will be offered this day, but you will find great bargains! If you spend over $50.00 at the sale, you may come back and get one item wrapped for no charge....just save your sale receipt.
Another way to grab extra savings - donate needed food items for Five Acres and receive a 10% off coupon for your trouble. Bring that coupon in on the 27th and enjoy an extra 10% savings off any item on sale or not. Yes, that's right....an EXTRA 10% savings, even off sale prices! There are only two days left to donate food to the families at Five Acres and this year they need our donations badly. Please help out this worthy Altadena cause and get a little help for yourself in the process.....a win/win situation for all.
In other news, there's lots of talk about the Pasadena Weekly's recent article about businesses closing in Pasadena and Altadena. Here's the link to Altadenablog's excellent reporting of it: http://www.altadenablog.com/2009/11/economic-woes-hit-the-denas. What is particularly interesting are the comments that follow it. There's also an interesting little article about the old days in Altadena, called http://www.altadenablog.com/2009/11/business-as-it-used-to-be-on-mariposa. There was a comment on this article that really hit me and since it mentions us directly, I feel the need to respond. The comment, from William Korn, in gist stated that it's not just lack of customer loyalty that keeps folks from shopping at their local businesses. He states that he tries to shop locally but, "On the other hand, I used to shop for office supplies at Webster's preferentially, even though the prices were substantially higher than at the "big box" places. But when they moved to an stand-alone store, they started not carrying the things that I was shopping for. I'm willing to pay a premium for shopping Altadena, but if I can't shop, what am I supposed to do?"
This is such a common sentiment among some folks I've talked to in the recent past. What stands out most in all those talks is that "prices were substantially higher for office products at Webster's but I was willing to pay them". Trust this, nothing makes me more incensed than hearing that. Do you know that the office products prices at Webster's were the absolute SAME or LOWER than the big-box prices at the time, verified by my husband, Scott Webster? Seriously, readers, the prices were honestly the same or lower, but there is no changing people's perception. They are going to see things the way they want to see them, and that is that prices were lower at Staples, Office Max and Office Depot. There is no arguing with perceived value and that's one of the main reasons I want out of selling office products, because we can't win that game. I can't change your mind, so why spend any more time (we're talking years here) and money? Let's focus on something else, something we can do, do well and win. Maybe Mr. Korn liked buying his office products with us and we thank him for that, but at the prices we were selling this merchandise at, we would've had to have the volume of sales Staples has. How unfortunate that we never did have that kind of volume. I'm done beating that dead horse and we're moving on. Hopefully, Mr. Korn will have a need for some fine stationery, a nice pen, a beautiful gift or card....or maybe he'll like the fact that we specialize in locally made, made in the U.S. and fair trade gifts & accessories. Yes, we'll still carry pens, paper, school and desk supplies, but not as much as in the past. We'll do what we do best and pray the community will support us.
Another thing in our headlights is the North Lake Pole Shop Hop on December 12th, and a book signing by Andre Coleman on the 11th. More about that in another post, but save those dates, because it's going to be fabulous!
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