MOTHER OF PEARL FRAMES AND JEWLERY BOX

CLOSEUP - WITH SEED BEADS ON LINEN!

Just got in the wrong merchandise - it happens from time to time where the warehouse pickers pick the wrong boxes... I ordered mother of pearl button picture frames with small square buttons to match a collection in the store, and got mother of pearl picture frames - just with large dangling oval drops. They are pretty, like jewelry - and actually something I wouldn't have ordered myself - so I'll keep them! They sell for only $18... In the square button collection besides frames, I have gorgeous sheer tab top gauze curtains that are embellished with mother of pearl buttons from the tops to the bottom - so so so pretty... and small jewelry boxes with a lift out tray. I love the shimmer of mother of pearl shells!

Shop Local - the 3/50 Project

Saving our economy one dollar at a time!


The 3/50 project shows how simple it is for each of us to do our part to restart our stalled economy. The creator of the 3/50 Project Cinda Baxter says that “….you realize slamming the breaks on all spending stalls economic recovery. It’s just that simple.” And it is! Simple. We each have the power to make a difference that will help change the world. I do it. I started awhile ago. After I opened my gift shop, I bought all my Christmas gifts ALL of them in the neighboring gift shops. I felt silly giving gifts from my own store that first year for some reason... Shopping locally was convenient - I did not having to fight the big box crowds, and circling parking lots, or stand in line. I dealt with the owner more often than not.

Even if you don't know what to buy, or from where you can still help in Sayville. Our local Greater Sayville Chamber of Commerce sells Chamber Gift Certificates that can be spent in any local chamber member's business! It's brilliant! For example, You can buy five $10 gift certificates, and your gift recipient can spend $50 in town in as many as five different shops and maybe get to know a great new shop she didn't realize was there. Chamber businesses get reimbursed by the Chamber for the spent certificates.

Now when I need a gift that maybe I don't have at the Seafarer Gift Shop (like gifts for all the birthday parties my kids go to), I walk out the door and up the street to a neighboring merchant and buy locally.

To Find a Box.

Our first website product inquiry! I was very excited to get the call! - Yay! We've been found on the internet. Of course, it was about our second most tricky items to ship, the rocking dory. (The viewing scope being of course the most difficult). We state on the website that this item has not been setup for shipping yet, so it will take some work.

A peek into the more mundane things I do: As a retailer I've found most vendors bubble and bulk box merchandise rather than individually carton everything to save money. That leaves the shop owner to figure out how to gift wrap or ship many varied sizes and shapes. In a small store you just can't afford the room or expense to buy and stock every possible size. I've spent the weekend trying to find the best, cheapest way to ship this hand crafted rocking dory... Not easy... At 40", it is oversized and won't fit in any of the boxes I've got here. My local wood crafter doesn't box them - too expensive. Most box companies don't carry anything close to this size so I don't have easy access to a supply. Then I found one company, boxes cost about $14-$20 each (for 4-10 boxes) that is crazy, but it is not a popular size and I don't want to have buy 150! Forget it anyway, they charge nearly $90 to ship just 4 flattened empty cartons to me! Good heavens.

So I scoop up the dory and cart it up the street to our local UPS pack & ship store, since they advertise that they can ship anything. But at a big price I come to find - well over $150! Who would buy a $195 boat that costs over $150 to ship? I can't tell this potential customer that. Sigh.... then I remembered the reproduction fire truck pedal car my DH got my son for Christmas - the box is still in the basement!! Mine!

Now we're down to $86 to pack and ship myself. Can I get it lower? The box is great, but larger than I actually need. So I poke around in the back room in search of heavy duty shorter boxes that I can cobble together with lots of tape. Found one! That is not my ideal way of course, but this box expense thing is not something I want to pass onto any customer, and the local wood crafter makes most of the money on this particular item. So now we're down to about $59 to ship a semi-disassembled boat in free boxes that I received with one of my own shipments and cobbled together. And the story continues... I am still working on getting this box shipped even cheaper... I am determined! This customer may not want the dory, but someone else will and I'd like to get it figured out and reasonable.