Thicker skin and shopping local
I keep meaning to write more as I have a lot of thoughts and feeling on owning a small business. I am not a podcaster, I prefer to write. I also don’t like making reels because they are not long enough to get into what I really want to chat about and people usually aren’t on social media for anything beyond a few seconds or lines of text anyways. There is a little voice in my head that says “who cares, no one gives a hoot about what you have to say so why are you wanting to waste your time” but then there is a louder voice that says “poo on that, do what you want”. By putting my musings over here on my blog you can either read them or not, I won’t be blasting your news feed with my slightly annoying voice or volumes of verbiage.
This is where the Thicker Skin comes in to play. I need it, I need to toughen up say what I want because I feel like I constantly need to explain myself to everyone. Things people say often hurt my feelings because I am surprisingly sensitive for as ornery as I can be. Writing here is exposing myself and opening myself up to criticism. But ruminating on my thoughts constantly is not healthy alternative and I need an outlet to let them out. Even if I sound whiny, which I don’t mean to be and I own up to my whininess when I am indeed being whiny. That’s another thing, someone a long time ago criticized my blogging basically saying I sounded whiny and needed to be more postive. This someone meant nothing to me but it hit me so hard and it was the beginning of the end of a decade of consistent writing. It affected me so negatively that I deleted those decades of musings. Poof. Listening to Anna Holtzman’s Free Visibility Workshop (that I heard about on Margo Tantau’s Windowsill Chats) made me realize that it was indeed time to write again. So here I am.
Not sure where to start with this so maybe I’ll start with the comment that has me feeling the need to explain why I sell what I sell and what shopping local means to me. I was ringing up someone and they picked up a cheese spreader and says “this is made in China isn’t it” with a frown. I explained that yes it was and that unfornutaely most cheese spreaders I find are from China. I don’t even get into the fact that if someone has made the handle that the blade probably still came from overseas.
I feel like sometimes people think when they are supporting local businesses they think that everything in said locally owned business needs to BE local. I hear it all the time. Is this aaalll local? Do YOU make all this? Well golly day no, there is not nearly enough time in the day to do the few hobbies I have after making the cheese spreads LOL. And no, not everything in here is local, although I probably have more made in America items than the average gift shop. Toot toot, I like to toot my horn on that one.
Why do I not have MORE local:
I have a nice selection items from other vendors at the farmers markets I attend. I can’t carry everything that is at the market because one of these markets is half a mile from the shop and we also want you to come there. I have found a great resource for other Virginia made dry goods that I am stoked to offer folks so I am trying to keep the food stuffs regional.
Lots of local producers, of say pottery, cannot make enough inventory to fulfill their booths at events and do wholesale. Most times pop up events are their side hustle so they are not throwing pottery 8 hours a day.
Most local creatives don’t buy their supplies in enough bulk to offer wholesale pricing. If they think they can sell wholesale they’ll often say something like “I’ll sell this to you for $12. I sell it at shows for $15 but you sell it for what ever you want”. Well, actually no I can’t because then I look like a gouger because you are doing events at X,Y, and Z selling for $15 and anything I do over that makes me look like a gouger. Believe me when I tell you that a customers WILL call me this. Barb and I, at The Creative Wedge, would often ask people why they thought we could get so much more money for an item but they were unwilling to charge that themselves. You are leaving money on the table if you think we can get $24 but you are only charging $15.
Let’s talk about popups shall we. Popups have grown in popularity over the years. As someone who does not do these types of events I’ll save my rant on the under regulations of them for another day. I’ll just tell you that I am inspected by two departments within VDACS as well as the FDA. I have a business license, special event licenses and insurance for everything I do. Ok, a lil’ rant there so you aren’t wondering why I would be a curmudgeon about your favorite brewery hosting a vendor event. But my point is events are EVERY. WHERE. Every weekend at breweries, day spas, parking lots, churches, you name it there is likely a pop up there this month. I chatted with a friend last week who said she was doing 30, THIRTY, events between now and Christmas. Although this friend is in my shop as her events are from here to Richmond and her product is a consumable (sells faster), my point is IF there was a cheese spreader maker who was doing 30 some events around town why do I want to sell it when they are every where already. How does that set me apart, make my shop unique? It doesn’t.
Shopping local is more than buying locally produced items. It is shopping at a locally owned businesses. A business owned by your friends and neighbors not a mega corporation. Not everything in Life Is Gouda is locally produced but I AM a local, born and raised my entire life at the Virginia Beach oceanfront. I pay taxes, give back to community and try and support friends the best I can. Thank you to all of you who have shopped locally and helped me over the last 13 years to live my best life. I’m guessing this is as good a place as any to end today’s musings. If you read this far, YOU ROCK. Have a great day.