Friday, November 26, 2010

:: thoughtful is the new black ::

"I'll give you all I can" by brandon christopher warren on flickr
so here's the thing: i'm not having a black friday sale. or a cyber monday one for that matter. i've hosted my fair share of very enticing sales in the past and without fail they have generated not one single purchase. no one has taken me up on my free shipping sales; no one has ever gone in on a 50% off everything sale.

that and i am so freaking annoyed by the barrage of emails and facebook posts i've received touting Specials! and Savings!

and honestly, as much as i rely on my customers for my family's actual livelihood (your purchases from my shop make a real difference in our lives, and for that i'm so very, very thankful to you), i'm just really turned off by the whole concept of black friday. the thought that companies lie in wait all year just itching to earn your big christmas-spending dollars on the friday after thanksgiving just makes me want to turn in my official entrepreneurial spirit card.

with each year that passes my gift giving becomes a little bit more personalized. something about the confluence of having children, and my husband taking a huge pay cut in order for us to move home to new york, and home ownership and, yes, being an indie business owner has just made me think so differently about the holidays and about gift-giving all year long.

the last year i shopped at a mall for christmas was 2006. i remember it well because i was in my first trimester with evan and the pregnancy migraines were so bad that all i wanted to do was walk and walk and walk because it sort of helped, so hubby and i hoofed it from end to end and back again at the local mall one november night (before thanksgiving, even -- my crazy-sick bubble-gum-sticky memory is pretty sure it was november 18th) and by night's end we'd covered most of our christmas list.

but since then i've taken a different tack: i buy fewer gifts, for one. i suppose i also make fewer, which is to say that i try only to make things the recipient will not only love but also use (or happily display, if display applies). i don't knit scarves for people who won't wear them, don't stitch pillows for people who won't put them on their beds or couches. maybe because i don't want anything extra around my own crowded house i just can't bring myself to give gifts simply for the sake of fulfilling a gift-giving obligation.

none of this is to say that i eschew traditional mall-type gifts if that's the kind of gift a person really wants the most. if my sister has been saving all year to buy a nook (the barnes and noble e-reader) then heck yeah i'll give her a barnes and noble gift card. but giving a barnes and noble gift card just because i can't think of what else to give someone? i just don't do that anymore.

and as far as my own shop goes? well, i guess i've just come to know that the people who shop from my store aren't shopping there because the prices are the cheapest or the sales the shiniest. they're not people who will see that i'm having a sale and just impulsively click "buy." they're people who want to give a friend something personal. people who can't resist buying that card that so perfectly sums up the state of their love for someone else that they must have it, minimal shipping cost be damned.

so i'm not having a sale. i do hope you'll shop at up up creative this holiday season if you think your gift recipients would love what you can get from my shop. if you'd like some gift giving ideas i can even help you out with those, and i'm always happy to do custom stuff if that's what you need.

so happy friday, black or otherwise.

Comments (8)

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Love, love, love this post! I totally agree 100%!!! Last year, I made everyone simple paintings because we were low on money, but more than that, because I wanted to give something personal. Every single person has theirs hanging in their home, which speaks volumes to me.

This year, I'm having a hard time coming up with what to do for gifts. Money, as always, is again an issue and I just don't want to buy "something". I want it to be perfect for each person. I want it to be meaningful. I want it do be something that isn't just, as you said, an obligation.

Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts on this. I think a lot of people feel this way and just are not sure how to change things. :-)
Ditto, ditto, ditto, ditto. YES! To all of it. We're twinsies on this for sure.
Oh my GOODNESS, you've summed up my attitude about this whole black Friday thing exactly! amen.
I'm going to forego participating in the Black Friday madness as a shop owner next year. This is the second year I've had a big! sale! and ----> well, for what? I've had one sale today & I've been glued to my darn laptop relisting, etc. I haven't participated as a consumer in a few years either and it's getting harder to reconcile being a shop owner hoping to sell my art with the idea that all the consumerism gets me down. It is conflicting messages.

I was all prepared to do a Cyber Monday sale too but I think I am going to cancel my plans right now. People either find my shop and like one of my photographs or they don't. I don't see how sitting here all day hoping for sales is getting me anywhere. My own eyes have glazed over with all the promoting going on -- even though I'm only being exposed to the handmade movement -- it's a LOT!
Beautifully said! Our customers come to us, not for the cheapest, most outrageous deals but, for the quality, the story and one of a kind vision we bring to our work. No discount could honor the amount of time, effort or pieces of ourselves that we put into our work. I CAN compete with major retailers by offering something they will never have! My vision, my voice.
totally agree on all of the above. no black friday in my shop either. but....i participated in an art festival over the weekend, and it was refreshing to hear people say that they were ditching the mall, and finding all of the gifts they needed there. that's the sort of b-friday (i'm sort of offended by the name!) that i can get in on.
julie, i'm really thankful for this post. i stayed away from shops and the internet the whole holiday weekend so i almost missed this post! sometimes it's difficult for me to resolve the way i lead my own life, which is to cut out as much superfluous consumption as possible and to really consider everything i buy for a long time before committing with the fact that i sell "stuff"!! i'm still trying to figure it out ...
This post is really great Julie! I'm so glad you posted it!! You are really right... [although i'm another culprit] but i completely agree with you.

Much successes!!
-jenipher

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