Working in the Shopping Centre

We are at The Glen Shopping Centre at the moment and will be there for two weeks (as well as the store in Malvern).  It is a great place to people watch.  We are right next to Santa and it is amazing to see the mix of very excited and very terrified children who see Santa.

And what is even more amazing is the amount of bribing we do to get a photo of the kids with Santa.  I have probably been guilty of it in the past, but you see some of these little kids sitting there looking bewildered, scared, overwhelmed and you have to wonder why we put them through it.

It is also interesting working in the middle of a shopping centre. We are in an open display with no where to hide.  We can get very busy for short bursts, and then not really have much interest for an hour.  In the time when there is little interest it is very difficult to look and stay enthusiastic.  The last thing people want to see is a bored looking sales assistant - but if you have been there for 6 hours and only spoken to a dozen people it is very hard not too.  So my mission for myself today (and I'm there 12 hours) is to stay looking interested.  In the shopping centres it gets busier later in the week so this should be a bit easier today.

I'll add a photo of the stand (which looks lovely) soon.

Have a great day.

Magazine Comes Out

I was really excited to be asked to provide a Christmas tree for the cover of a national home magazine.  The magazine has come out and the cover looks great.  (see attached).  It is amazing how clever these stylist are.  I must say for that tree I have always used the silver tone decorations due to the blue in the tree branches, but the gold looks fantastic.

Cup Day is Over

This is now our third year of trading and it is fascinating seeing how our Melbourne based customers divide their Christmas interests into "before the cup" and "after the cup" (I'm obviously referring to the Melbourne Cup).  Before the Cup they are interested in having a good look but so often we hear "oh, it's too early for Christmas".  Once the Cup is over, however, everyone feels like they are in the home stretch to Christmas.

Hence, our busy period really begins this week end.  I must say I'm happy that we are as prepared as possible for this time and I'm looking forward to being so busy.  It's now that we find out whether the planning is on track or not.

Once we get busy it is really hard to pull myself away from the shop and sit back and manage the marketing activities.  I managed to complete the newsletter yesterday but before I know it the next will be due.  Sometimes I feel I am chasing my tail, or never able to clear to the bottom of the 'to do' list, but boy is it worth it.

The other part of being in business (or simply working full-time) is fitting family commitments in with work commitments.  The school fair is on tomorrow and the last thing I feel like is staffing the crazy hair stall and cooking for the cake stall.  But these are the things the kids need and expect - so the feet will have to just put up with a bit more pain.

Anyway, enough from me - the cake baking is calling.

Have a great week.