Highlights of a crazy day in retail.

It was the Saturday before Christmas, and the day after the first big snow fall of the season. Our Australian Boot Company store on Queen West was full of holiday shoppers, and people realizing that they really do need boots this winter. A family of six was in, the Dad and one son were trying on Blundstone boots, the Mom was looking for Icebreaker socks, and was insisting that another son, who I’d guess was about 11 years old go try on boots. I offer to help him, and we walk over to the wall of boots. He stops at the Women’s UGG boots, and I say, “These are actually Women’s boots”, the Blundstone’s are just down there”, pointing to the Blundstone boot section. He says, “Actually, I want to get a pair of these for my mom.” So, we conspired for a way to make it look like we were shopping for him, but really getting UGG boots for his mom. I went back into the stockroom, explained what we were doing to Matt who was helping the Mom. He encouraged the Mom to try on the UGG boots that she’d been looking at earlier, so we could confirm the size. While the son that I am helping tries on Blundstone boots, Dianne is still helping the Dad with his boots, as well as several other customers. At the same time Pritee is helping a woman, who let us know that at Thanksgiving, she happened to look over and count fifteen pair of Blundstone boots piled up by the entranceway, her three grandkids, her sons, her daughters, sons-in-laws, daughters-in-laws, and elderly father, all of them wore Blundstone boots to Thanksgiving.

Meanwhile, I sneak a pair of UGG boots for the mom behind the cashdesk, so when the Dad came to pay for his boots, we could just sneak them into a bag. I don’t know whether the Mom was onto our sneaky ways, but the son left with a big grin on his face, feeling like he’d got his mom exactly what she wanted, without her even knowing.

I love the connection we make with our customers. I like the stories they share with us, and letting us be co-conspirators in their their gift giving plans.