Hopefully this will allay some of the confusion that has happened this afternoon. We just sent a Newsletter to our mailing list which weve copied and pasted below (the destination of the GoFundMe link was manually added at the end). Were sorry that the word of this got out before we could make an official announcement ourselves. ********************************************************** Little Padded Seats rocky path It can hardly have escaped the attention of anyone whos come into the store this summer: our inventory has been dwindling and is precipitously low. Moving Little Padded Seats from Valley Junction into Valley West Mall did wonders for our exposure to mainstream consumers and allowed us to introduce some of our crunchy alternatives - cloth diapers, babywearing, breast feeding, natural amber teething necklaces, and our totally radical menstrual solutions - to a much broader audience. Our sales increased significantly with this move, but, unfortunately, our expenses increased even more. Weve been doing our best to absorb the incremental losses, but 2014 has proved exceedingly rough and that has led us down the path to where we are now. Were at a crossroads for the business, we face a couple of options for the future: Close the store, Relocate the store somewhere where we will (hopefully) have lower expenses, or Re-focus the store on our core. Weve done some soul searching and seriously considered each of these paths. We also did some brainstorming with the amazing ladies that grace us with their aid and assistance in running Little Padded Seats. We come to the decision to follow option THREE! What is our core? We want to focus on the product categories mentioned above - cloth diapers, ergonomically correct and supportive baby carriers, breast feeding support, teething products, potty training aids, and of course, those totally radical menstrual solutions. We want to focus on products to support moms pregnancy and the first two to three years of babys life. We want our products to be environmentally conscious, re-usable, thoughtful, made in a non-exploitive manner, alternative and economical. We will also include a higher proportion of locally made and especially made in USA items. To do this we will need to discontinue carrying a substantial number of non-core products. So, in the very near future be on the lookout for a massive sale announcement. Dont be alarmed when you see it, we arent planning on shutting our doors, we just need to empty the shelves to allow us to re-fill them with the core products that Little Padded Seats is about. Aside from snatching up bargains at our upcoming sale, what can you do to help us? Im glad you asked... Word of mouth has always been our best marketing tool. Tell your friends about us. Thell your neighbors, co-workers, fellow parishioners, too. While youre at it, tell that stranger who noticed your cloth diapered baby was rocking an amber necklace while you were babywearing him about us. Even though weve been located in Valley West Mall for a year and a half were constantly hearing people walk in and say I never knew you guys even existed. Co-ops. Theres nothing wrong with participating in a co-op, weve done it on occasion. However, if there is a local source for the same product for maybe a dollar or two more, consider what benefit that local source provides to you and what impact your purchase will make one way or the other before you make your decision. We know that its not you doing it, but weve noticed an increased incidence of what in the retail business is known as showrooming. Showrooming is when a customer comes in to a store to use the sales staff to get educated about a product and to help them make their decision of whether and which product they want to buy; but they then walk out of the store and buy the product elsewhere. Weve experienced this with increasing frequency about diapers and baby carriers, both which can require substantial education. Weve even had people come back in after doing this and ask us for help with their products that theyve purchased elsewhere. We dont turn them away - we help them. Even after all that. We want more babies in cloth diapers and being worn in an ergonomic and supporting fashion. However, this not only deprives us of sales but it also ties up our time and saps our spirit. Lastly, and were not sure how to feel about this, but our employees have set up a GoFundMe page for Little Padded Seats. All proceeds generated this way will go solely to operating expenses such as wages, rent, insurance, and the like. After all is said and done we believe that Little Padded Seats is more than just a business. We believe that we are a resource for the community. And we hope you believe so, too.
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 03:44:13 +0000
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