Time to Get Off My Duff and Order Some Stuff

I usually comb my regular vendors’ spring catalogs and dutifully order new products from February through April. By May my cellar is full and my bank account is empty.

Without really planning to, I skipped that this year. (My one $900 gamble, the Solar Powercap, flopped bigtime.) Now I have money in the bank and virtually nothing new to sell. I’d always rather have money than stuff, but being in the business of turning stuff into money compels me to buy stuff. Stores supposedly need constant novelty to seem fresh and exciting and keep customers coming back. But spring is weaker than fall for product introductions and most of it wouldn’t sell until next Christmas anyway.  

I’m tempted to blow off the spring catalogs entirely and wallow in my positive open-to-buy and cash flow. Regular readers know that business is down by double digits so far this year, though. A lack of new products is not going to help with that. Novelty creates excuses to put out newsletters and make Facebook posts. When I fall silent, I fade even further into obscurity.

So with today’s dawn of a new credit card statement period, I’m gingerly ordering stuff again. Don’t get the wrong impression: I’ll easily spend the whole surplus in a couple of hours this afternoon, and sales are too poor to replenish that cash. When it’s spent, it’s gone. I’m going to be selective and bring in just enough new crap to justify regular marketing contacts. I’m also going to stretch out those announcements to keep up a steady low-level presence.

The Corn-n-Tater reusable microwave cooking bag is the product that I mentioned finding at the Boston Gift Show. The vendor’s grandiose promises of partnership dissolved into unanswered email – I finally had to snap my own photos after requesting product images that never came three times. It still might sell respectably, but its odds of becoming the game changer that I had initially hoped have fallen to zero.