THE INDEPENDENT
OPINION
Diary of a toy shop Amanda Alexander, owner of Giddy Goat Toys in Didsbury, Manchester, starts her countdown to Christmas thinking about storage space
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s if 2021 hasn’t been enough of a challenge, all the talk now is of stock shortages due to the issue with shipping containers and a shortage of HGV drivers - and, just for fun, fuel caused due to said shortage of HGV drivers. There are advantages and disadvantages to being a small retailer in these crazy times. On the positive side, I’m not limited to having to ask permission from a parent company, purchasing manager or area manager about what products I can buy, or when or how much I can spend. So, I’ve thrown caution to the wind and gone on a wild spending spree and spent THREE times as much this September as in any previous Septembers. The downside of course is that as a small retailer, my storage space is really limited - particularly post-pandemic, I’m now selling online in a way that I wasn’t pre-March 2020. So, I’ve had to section off part of my main storeroom to become a packing area. And as our eldest son sailed off to Glasgow University in September, his bedroom has now become a toy storage room. It would be lovely if he wants to come home for Reading Week in November, but he will have to share his bedroom with a lot of LEGO and Playmobil! Not only have I been buying for now, but I’ve been putting in forward orders. The interesting thing I’ve learned about this process is that suppliers manage it differently. The questions I’ve been asking my reps are ‘who is your biggest customer?’ and ‘if I forward order stock now to be delivered at
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There are advantages and disadvantages to being a small retailer in these crazy times
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NOVEMBER 2021
the start of November, and Amazon (which is pretty much always the biggest customer - but collectively independents are often the second) then swings in with a late order which includes items I’ve requested, will you pull from my allocation to fulfil their request?’. Their responses vary - so independent retailers take note and ask these questions. Some will pressure you to make forward orders because it makes their life easier, but don’t be fooled into thinking that stock is held for you. However, other suppliers state that if you forward order, your virtual towel stays on the stock and it’s yours - even allowing you to amend it up or down as you need. Of course I understand the commercial reasoning behind this, although in truth the efficiency of suppliers’ IT systems also plays a part here, with some simply not having the function to reserve or allocate items from the warehouse to specific retailers in advance. But I do feel more suppliers should be upfront about this and more retailers should be made aware of it. It’s amazing how many customers are blissfully unaware of the predicted shortages, but there are certainly a number that have already started Christmas shopping. In the third week of September there was a definite uptick in trade. It was almost like parents had got their kids back to school, had a couple of weeks off parenting to clean their houses (or sit around drinking gin and praying for no further school closures), and then got to it and started forward planning. So in that respect, I think massively upping
my stock in September was a good plan. There are still a few suppliers I need to speak to and that’s next week’s job - but lots of reps have been over for visits and it’s been lovely catching up with people again, many of whom I’ve known for years. I ummed and aahed about going to Autumn Fair or the AIS show but in the end, I couldn’t be fettled with the hideousness of the M6 or the cost of last-minute train travel and figured I would only spend half the day yakking instead of productively ordering, and that time is of the essence at this point in the year. I have, however, already booked my hotel room ready for the Toy Fair in January as I feel faffing around chatting and looking at new lines in January is justified. In other news, I was right chuffed (that’s northern for very pleased) to find out that Giddy Goat Toys had been selected to be one of the 2021 Small Biz 100 businesses. This is part of American Express’ Small Business Saturday campaign, which encourages consumers to shop local. Small Business Saturday is the first Saturday of December and in the 100 days leading up to it, a different business is championed each day. Our ‘day’ is Thursday 2 December which is great, being just before Christmas. Plus, it gives us a chance to do lots of PR about it! So, here’s to a happy, healthy, and busy Q4 everyone. Good luck, especially to all my fellow indie retailers who I know will be putting in lots of extra hours over the next few weeks. And five gold stars to those suppliers that help support us through their network of helpful reps and helpful ordering systems.
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