the window dressing injustice

Each Tuesday morning we have our Papier d’Amour staff meeting, aimed at ensuring that we maintain the best customer service and a great product range for all of you shoppers out there. Amongst all the inspiring and positive topics that we cover, the girls also report on any customer complaints that may have been received. I don’t often find it necessary to justify myself to customers, but when someone complained last week that we had put our Mother’s Day window in too early, I simply could NOT hold my tongue.

As a small retailer in Double Bay, Sydney, we pride ourselves on our original and creative approach to retail. So when I go about my responsibilities as a store owner, I don’t just do things on a whim. Monthly purchasing budgets are carefully set and adhered to and staffing is based on customer traffic and store targets, calculated from previous years’ sales.

Also, I set a window dressing schedule for the year, taking all these factors into account with the timing of seasonal occasions. And because I often do the window myself, it is based on when I can actually get the time to physically do it (we also run a graphic design studio out the back of the store, creating unique invitations, where the workload is often unpredictable. And to top it all off, I have a family to consider that includes a husband (yes, an extremely helpful one), two busy teenagers and a very active 9 year old.

So this year Easter ended on 5th April and Mothers Day is on the 9th May, which is 5 weeks apart. Replacing the Easter window with an interim arrangement would mean having to change it 2 to 3 weeks later and as a time-poor small retailer, this is just not economically viable. More importantly, many customers purchase items such as personal stationery for their mothers, so we are constantly trying to educate them of the need to get organised early to avoid disappointment. I know we live in a very instantaneous world however we are not a one hour photolab.

It is very annoying when the large department stores put in Easter displays in January as soon as Christmas is over – I do get that. But no one seems to complain when a sale window goes in. No one says “It’s too early for a sale window”.

Anyway, my point is that I would love to have the time to change the window every two to three weeks or the financial freedom to pay someone to do it for me. The reality is, I don’t. And if we did turn over the windows in such a short timeframe, some of our customers would never see some of our creative displays that hopefully inspire them.

So, on Easter Monday, while many of you (I am not saying all of you) were relaxing and enjoying the holiday, I enlisted the services of my sister Samantha and together we created this Mother’s Day masterpiece.

Sometimes you do have to give yourself a rap!

So I would love to hear your comments – is it too early? Comments from shoppers and retailers would be VERY interesting…