Message from the Chair

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– you don’t know what you’ve got until it is gone. As we re-connect in new ways we are doing what we can to support what is important and to ensure what we crave is still there when we brave this pandemic storm.

Re-invent

At ASTRA, we have always looked at ways to improve as have all our members. The difference now is we have to totally re-invent how we all do business and how best ASTRA can help our members. Retailers have stepped up to offer new services as never before – curbside pick-up, local same-day deliveries, upping their online presence and re-inventing how to demo products and emphasizing to their communities how important it is to shop local to keep them in business. Manufacturers are working with their reps to provide digital offerings for the retailers, lowering minimum orders, providing up-to-date, in-stock inventory lists and listening closely to what retailers are needing to get them through. Sales reps have scheduled zoom meetings to present products, upped their communications to keep their retailers current on specials and shipping dates, worked through ways to safely manage their summer gift shows so buyers would feel safe attending and masking up to make in-person calls as those become possible. Things are changing daily and our industry will continue to re-invent how we work with one another as we face each new twist that comes our way.

If we work together, learn from each other and look for what connects us as people, then perhaps 2020 can be more than a year full of negatives. We will become so much better for what we have gone through. Yes, let’s make lemonade, enjoy a half-full glass and look at the opportunities that lie ahead.

The 2020 Holiday Season:

Time for the Hype Train!

This holiday season, we are driving the hype train! Our customers are looking for us to bring the joy and magic of the Amy Saldanha holidays. We may be exhausted, overwhelmed and quietly freaking out, but we will give our customers the most magical season of their lives -- because we all deserve it this year!

Our mindsets, and those of our staff, have never been more important. At kiddywampus, we have two modes of being -- the “struggle bus” and the “hype train.” If an employee is on the “struggle bus,” we immediately work to reframe so they can get back on the “hype train” (usually involving short term solution like chocolate, caffeine and more sustained solutions like a conversation about why they are where they are and how we can help). This holiday season, it is time to make that hype train energy marketfacing! Customers are looking for that energy, joy and sense of fun...and they will find it walking through our front doors. Choo, choo!

Our customers have never needed us to inject energy like they do now. Earlier this year we helped our customers tackle distance learning, “shelter in place” and social distancing. Now it is time to help them celebrate with their families! Walking into our stores will be a burst of joy and energy – from the overall vibe when they walk in the door, the expert recommendations from well-informed and engaged staff, complimentary wrapping and all the service they’re used to…our customers will feel our holiday hype like never before. Choo, choo!

We will make that happen by continuing to be human pretzels (perhaps even peppermint and chocolate covered ones). What ASTRA members did this year is downright inspiring. We continue to flex and innovate at breakneck speed. As we moved from in-store shopping to online, added shopping by appointment, shopping via FaceTime, shopping via social media, curbside pickup and delivery. We did – and continue to – flex and innovate and accommodate to be with our customers where they are, when they want us, with the products they want and need. Choo, choo!

Have we ever been closer to our customers? “Customer centricity” may be the bobble-head strategy mass retail talks about – but we live it. When our customers wanted puzzles, we found them. Nostalgic items for “staycation” summer? Got’em. Tools for distance learning? We sourced them. Cozy gifts to show our loved ones we care? Yep, we have those too. Choo, choo!

This year has shown us that we can reinvent, recreate, reimagine and bend in all directions. And we didn’t pull it off alone – even if we were socially distanced! Our ecosystem has never been more important. ASTRA is about personal relationships – across all membership categories. Those personal relationships are critical as we navigate inventory shortages rather than being triggered by them. Those relationships allow us to find ways to work around shipping delays and supply chain issues. We understand rather than rage when warehouses struggle to ship while social distancing. We know what it takes to operate in 2020, so we work with the manufacturer calling from the warehouse floor, talking over the forklifts, asking for a credit card because he needs the cash flow now. We do everything we can to support the sales reps whose numbers are down but are still in there every single day with us.

We are ASTRA. We are in this together. It matters. And it shows.