People often ask us who our favorite merchant or what our favorite product is. Well, just like you won’t get a straight answer from most parents, we really do love our vendors and their products. Some products are not appealing to some of our team- too spicy, don’t eat or drink that for one reason or another, not able to use (sorry, no beards in my family!) or some other individual instance. But, we have friends and family try them out. We lead focus groups. All of our team members check on the quality and appeal. We check out trends and popular products that may be close to the ones we are considering. Through all of this, we are able to give you hidden gems that you may not find without a team looking for you.
Then there are the merchants. Oh boy! When we are vetting a company, we talk to the owner. The entire team meets with them to answer their questions and ask plenty of our own. Often, we have met them at their shop or a trade show. On a couple of rare occasions, we have talked to a vendor and when the team gets together we decide they are not really based in mutuality. Though they may have a good product, we pass on them because we want the best experience for our customers.
Almost all of the time, the merchants are amazing!! Seriously, who wouldn’t love to work with a team who believes in and wants to introduce others to a product you have created? If we ever have questions, our “Little Fish” are there to talk. One of our favorite things is calling a store or business line, having the owner answer and be just as happy to hear it is us as we are to talk to them. If you call any one of companies we have worked with, they know us all by name. We also keep in touch with many of them whose time with us expired. We keep them all for a limited time so we can find other awesome items to bring to our customers. That doesn’t mean we can’t keep telling friends about them, commenting on facebook posts, checking in with them and occasionally, popping in to their store if we are in town. If we don’t love the company and what they stand for AND think they sell something special, we won’t bring it to you. That’s why we can safely say, “We found it. You need it!”
