Going to Market
It’s a beautiful weekend and you and your besties from high school are having a girl’s trip to your favorite resort area. Someone grabs a local visitor’s guide from the front desk, everyone jumps in the SUV and you start the pilgrimage to hit every small gift, clothing and apparel store in the area. As the girls marvel at all of the unique finds that you see, you wonder why you don’t see any of this fantastic merchandise at your local big box store in your big city hometown.
The secret of the fantastic finds is the creativity of the owners of these small businesses. They spend hours pouring over catalogs and websites to get the best variety of merchandise for their stores. Their goal is to get unique merchandise in their store to entice the buyer to buy from them. This coupled with excellent customer service from an owner who knows their wares, free gift-wrapping and sometimes a sales associate willing to part with some local gossip and you have a small town gift or apparel store.
Far and away the best way to touch and feel new products when buying for your store is to attend a large gift market that showcases 1000’s of product lines in one location. One of the best markets in the country is the AmericasMart in Atlanta.The main gift market occurs twice a year: January and July. AmericasMart is made up of three multistoried sky-scrapers in downtown Atlanta. Building One is referred to the Merchandise Mart. Its vendors represents product lines ranging from home accessories, wall decor, furniture and luxury linens. Building Two showcases gift items like table top, candles, collectibles, and holiday. Building Three is the Apparel Mart. This building is where all the clothing store owners shop. Apparel has their own markets though-out the year but these vendors are also open during the Gift Market. Located throughout all three buildings are “The Temporaries”. The temporaries are the vendors that are not represented within the larger permanent showrooms. They can be the gems of the show.
The first market that I attended as a store owner was amazing and overwhelming. Without a plan you can get lost very easily. Each building has its own design and maze of corridors, elevators and escalators. I am now a seasoned veteran and never leave the zip code without a market plan.
Months before each market every registered buyer receives a market book in the mail. Consider it the equivalent of the Sears Holiday book of our childhood. Hours are spent pouring over the contents. I make a very detailed list of every showroom I want to visit making sure to note what floor and showroom the vendor is on. You don’t want to spend precious shopping time getting lost or looking up where the vendors are. I also spend time looking at similar stores websites online to get new ideas for my store. I receive several retail publications that I read from cover to cover to see what the latest trends are in retail. Each market I try to pin-point a specific item or items that I want to find the best of. One year it was battery operated candles. I looked at every line offered in the mart. I chose a line out of Canada that looked the most like real candles and three years later they are still a best-seller.
Fully prepared with my lists, I make the pilgrimage to Atlanta. Several times I have gone by myself, but taking someone else is much more fun. My daughter Lucy could not wait until she turned 12 to be able to go ( after going twice she still begs to go every time). My husband Jim has gone several times as well as some good friends, but this time I took my sister Kristin. A second eye is always great to have. They might see something that you don’t. Or honestly say ‘Are you kidding’ when you see something different.
There are rules, however, to abide by when you go to market with me.
1-Be prepared to be there for hours. I start at the top and go down each floor according to my thoughtfully laid out list. Don’t make plans with anyone else. We probably won’t make it.2- Wear comfortable shoes. There is nothing worse than your feet letting you down at market. 3- Do not make eye contact with anyone wanting to sell you something-especially in the temporaries. This leads to a well meaning sales person spending both of our valuable time telling us about a product that we don’s sell or need. 4-Be open-minded. Support what I am doing. I am buying for a large range of customers. What might not be your taste might be mine and my customers. 5-Help shoulder the load and carry your share of all the samples, catalogs and print that you are going to receive. Abide by my market rules and I will reward you with a visit to the Gourmet floor where you can taste and sample chocolate, salsas, cheese straws, coffee and more.
At the end of the first day is the most fun. That is when I reward myself with Cash and Carry. This is the only area of the market where you can buy something and take it with home with you, It is mostly jewelry and personal items. Since I have a small jewelry area and only need one of-a-kind pieces, I tend to buy all of my jewelry here. I have several vendors that I always hit and know by name. This is when the guest gets to go wild and buy anything they want. The only rule here is to be decisive. Go with your gut and get the first thing that strikes your eye. You can always gift it if you see another perfect piece. We are not going back to that vendor.
There are many other cool things that Market has to offer that I never have time to participate in. You can take educational retail classes on everything from merchandising to viral marketing. Celebrities are also there to give talks on trends, new products or their latest book or project. Market is usually open for seven full days and you would need that to even begin to see everything that is offered.
While Market is exhausting it is so much fun to be a part of a larger group of buyers that are so excited about getting the best merchandise for their store. Attending Market is one of my favorite parts of being a store owner. That and always being able to meet my Dad for dinner at my favorite pizza place growing up in Atlanta, Everybody’s in Emory Village.
Karen Hendrix owns AccentsMarketplace on St. Simons Island, Georgia.
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