Monday, August 31, 2009

Remembering my first

The day I opened my store was such a blur, but in all the craziness, I can clearly remember my first real customer. The store opened at 10 AM and for the first few hours, friends and family popped in and out. My first sale was to a friend of mine, a fellow store owner in the shopping center. She bought a hipster overnighter as a birthday gift for a friend of hers.

But that sale didn't really count. She knew me, and like many of my girlfriends, had stopped by while we were setting up. She spotted the bag a week before we opened and said that she would buy it as soon as we were "officially" in business. While I sincerely appreciated the business, it wasn't a bonafide honest to goodness real sale to someone I had never met.

That happened just after lunch.

A group of women wandered in and began checking things out. I followed them around with enthusiastic and over-eager explanations of all of the products they were looking at. They finally gathered around a display of fold-up tote bags.

"Oh, these look just like the Longchamp," one of the women said. I had no idea what she was talking about.

Another added, "Fifteen dollars? They would make great gifts!" She scooped up three bags.

The truth was, I hated those totes. But they were inexpensive, and I needed some filler items since my opening budget was so tight. The colors worked for our display, so I ended up ordering a ton of them. We wrapped the bags and sent the woman on her way. Later I found out that the bags were a knock off of a ridiculously expensive brand of collapsible french bags.

So that is where I am now with my writing. Lots of friends proclaiming the cleverness of my products and a few lined up to "buy," but no real customers yet. And the truth is, I can't wait for that first sale.

Knock off cheapie thing that I hate or not, it is going to feel damn good to sell it.

1 comment:

latisha said...

i remember that feeling, im sure...somewhere sometime. been looking at kiddy programs. inspired. needing break...