I saw this Instagram post from official Mark Levine and thought, “How much are the Amazon lobbyists paying our officials?” NYC continually over taxes our indie businesses and fines them—but we’ll build six marinas for Amazon? (Mark said three marinas, but it’s actually six marinas.) The main culprits behind this: Mayor Adams and the Economic Development Corporation (EDC). Amazon is one of the richest companies in the world. Jeff Bezos, the founder,...
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Work With the Nation's Leading Brands and Indie Shops to Support Main Street
Shop Local is a fast-growing e-commerce and gift registry platform providing services to leading independent retailers and premium brands. Based in New York, NY, Shop Local is seeking candidates to support the existing software and build out new services that will change the retail industry.
Shop Local has an opening for an entry level web developer to update the existing code base and write new applications. We are...
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While drinking Athletic, a non-alcoholic (fake!) beer, I noticed that its box proclaims that it gives back 2% to local trails. I love walking trails, and I thought: the next time I venture to have a sober night, I’ll pick up another box of Athletic. (Thanks, Athletic, for giving out $2.5m in trail grants.) Warby Parker gives a pair of eyeglasses for each pair bought (they've given 10m pairs!), while Bombas does this for socks. Bookshop.org gives a percent back to small ...
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Bridge has something that every store needs, but doesn’t really want: product data. We get stores to trust us that they need our product data for 64,000 products from 109 brands. They really don’t want the data—they want the sales from it. The data itself is worthless, but the sales from it are invaluable. Do you know who also has this issue? Funeral directors. Last week's Wall Street Journal shares that mortuaries are leveraging bonsai trees, setting up bouncy castles, ...
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Today’s Gen Z gift registrants want to do everything online, often on their iPhone 14. They want to start a registry, add products, remove products, edit quantities, and view purchases. They don't want to call the store to do this.
In the adoption of digital tools, another trend is also at play: female shoppers are busier than before. Today, more women graduate from college than men. Women are increasingly doctors, CEOs, and world leaders. (Italy just welcomed its ...
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In the early 2000s, the board game Cranium became a hit. The game combined elements of Scrabble and Pictionary with the goal of helping more people enjoy playing a game. Richard Tait, who created Cranium and sold it to Hasbro in 2008 for $77.5m, passed away in July. Like Mr. Tait, I had been a paperboy, but he went beyond what I ever offered: he came up with a new service that sold breakfast sandwiches along his newspaper route. He increased profits and made customers happier. ...
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An East Village Artist’s Death Prompts a Reflection on the State of Indie Retailers Today
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While thumbing through the Times, I noticed a smiling young woman’s picture in the obituaries. In the black and white photograph, she's standing on a fire escape with a historic building and a bridge in the distance. I was initially attracted to Ronni Solbert’s 1959 picture, yet I was even more drawn in by what I noticed next to her photo: a children&...
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Do you love a great deal on a t-shirt or TV? Sure, we all do. Yet, sometimes when we shop, the lower the price we pay, the less we pay: people. People that make the goods (factory workers) and people that sell the goods (aka indie store owners) are the victims in the discount-pricing rush.
Today’s Times shares that making a bathing suit in Sir Lanka costs about $4 per unit while in Portugal it may cost $16. In NYC, the minimum wage is $15/hour—making production in NYC ...
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This past weekend on the way to Florida to visit my brothers, I read about Squarespace’s advertising history. (Read the article: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/13/business/how-did-squarespace-know-podcasts-would-get-this-big.html). In 2009, Anthony Casalena, the founder of Squarespace, paid $20,000 to advertise on a tech podcast. While that was a lot for a small, young company (Casalena had started his business just six years earlier in a dorm room in 2003), Casalena said the ...
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Material Possessions, a gift shop in Illinois, needed a quick solution to boost its online presence. With Amazon and Covid-19 nipping at indie stores' heels, stores need to quickly boost their online offering.
In just 24 hours, Material Possessions opened a Bridge account and is currently offering 15,000+ products for sale. The retailer can sell these products directly from its Bridge Store--or it can export the products and import them into its parent website (https://...
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We LOVE our neighborhood babies who come for licks and kisses! Thank you Kathleen and Marianna for sharing your precious one with us. He brought a smile to all of our faces ~ especially Ivy’s!
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August 29, 2019
August 29, 2019
Amazon and Chinese companies have teamed up to bypass Main Street and ship goods directly to doorsteps. This is hurting American manufacturing as well as local city governments. To accomplish this, they're misleading Americans by putting out press releases that cherry-pick statistics.
Follow these 3 steps to see the issue at hand:
1. In an Amazon press release last week, Amazon claimed:
"Independent third-party sellers – primarily small and medium-sized businesses – ...
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August 25, 2019
August 25, 2019
Fine Gift, Home Decor, and Wedding Registry
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July 18, 2019
July 18, 2019
Do you offer college students a gift registry? Allison Zisko encourages you to in this month’s HFN. The average college room decorating bill is $942, just shy of what the average wedding registry produces in sales. Ms. Zisko shares that Amazon is making big inroads and investments in the college market. What are you doing to keep pace?
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May 17, 2019
May 17, 2019
Well said, there is not a day goes by that I do not get a call and give to a local charity, school fundraiser, church event and more.... operating a local business, we collect and pay taxes that support our local community. Who will repair the roads and pay the local government expenses, police support and all the things we need to make our community better.
Support your local community - keep your money circulating in Baton Rouge, so our local government can continue to provide the needs that ...
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November 3, 2018
November 3, 2018
This early morning Christmas delivery is on it’s way to Martinsville Virginia! It will be smooth sailing for these Costa Nova packages. So Happy my parents like roads trips and adventures!
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October 11, 2018
October 11, 2018
Have we lost our way? A recent HFN magazine article by Allison Zisko shares how tariffs may raise the price of low cost goods from China. Question: what happened to our industry asking for things to be made in America? We haven’t just slid a little—the article states that 56% of furniture comes from China. Is anyone making anything anywhere in America anymore? And, why is this question relevant? I work daily to get consumers to shop local. Lives depend on it. Family owned businesses depend on it...
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May 1, 2018
May 1, 2018
Southern Roads Pottery has some great neutral items that are perfect to add to your current pottery collection!
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April 6, 2018
April 6, 2018
All roads lead to Brown's for BIOLYTE! Helps nausea, dehydration, overindulgence, and gives energy boost.
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