Friday, April 7, 2017
When One Door Closes
We all hear the phrase, “When one door closes, another one opens” right?
It’s true. It just takes time and patience and faith to let it happen.
Recently I had an unpleasant experience with someone representing the interests of the Gifford House at Capitol Reef National Park. It was in my business plan to get my knitted alpaca products in there to sell, and when I was approached January 2016 to do so, I was elated.
During the cold months, my hats sold well (over 30) and then in the hot, hot months, nothing really sold. I expected that. Unknown to me, my hats were stacked in a corner behind the cowboy hats and didn’t display them well at all, in my humble opinion. The displaying was not up to me.
October 2016 was the last contact I had with any of the ladies there. They said they closed at the end of October and didn’t want to add any more inventory at that time.
During the winter months, I worked hard on my carding, spinning and knitting. Almost wore my right wrist out.
Early March 2017, I called and left a message for someone to call me back. Five days (a weekend plus) later I received a call back from M (not my M). When I asked if I could bring some hats over, she said that they “had decided not to sell my hats because … they took up too much space for the value they got back.”
OUCH. CRAP. DANG.
No notice, no phone call from them BEFORE I worked my guts out to be ready for them.
No apologies, really.
I mentioned that it was ok, that I had other options, and M (not my M) wished me luck.I held my tongue.
M (my M) and I took 37 beautiful hats of a great creative variety to the Burr Trail Outpost in Boulder, Utah the following weekend. My hats and yarns had been successful sales for them the past year, and they were thrilled to have such a variety this year.
Now what? I needed another venue.
As of yesterday, I think another door has opened.
Stay tuned!