Away in body, but always thinking...

I haven't made a post in a few days, as we've gone away for a little R&R before our company kicks into full gear. But since my last post, we've got some exciting news!!! First, we've got a real store! We've signed a contract with our landlord in First Markham, and it's a fantastic location which draws lots of foot traffic. We've got the people who comes in to eat and pickup at the foot court, and the store fronts on 3 sides, so we got lots of great spaces which surely will attract their attention!


Now that we got a place, our project's got into full gear. We're currently working with our fabulous designer - Sonia - who's working on a design for our store. From what I've seen so far, it's gonna be fantastic. We've got lots of boxes - over 70 of them - which faces directly into traffic, so we know they're going to be in high demand. But unlike other existing micro-mall stores, we are going to be much more than just renting boxes... here are some of the
concepts:


1) Showstopper items: even with a great location, as a new startup we've got to work hard to draw traffic. So what I'm thinking is putting up a deal that's so good that anyone - and I mean EVERYONE - will notice and come into the store to check it out. We've got a few ideas, so stay tuned to see what we will do...


2) TV advertising: we've seen lots of these in malls, supermarkets and other high-profile places, and surely they capture eyeballs. But we don't see too many ads on them, mostly filler ads by the media companies themselves to get business to put advertising on them. Kind of ironic, isn't it? Well the thing is, people don't like to buy things when they don't know the price, and when
they don't show it... we suspect it's uber-expensive so we don't even bother to call them. So we're going to turn this 180-degrees: we'll make the prices crystal clear, and it's going to be well worth the price... bet you're asking WHAT IS THE PRICE? We're still working on that, but when it's ready we'll let everyone know.


3) Open box concept: most of the micro-malls so far have 100% of the boxes under lock and key. It's good for security, but people are used to be able to try things out before they buy, and quite frequently they don't bother to ask the shopkeeper to open. So in GEM, there will be a part of the store which will give this concept a try, and we'll be gauging responses from both sellers and buyers...


Well my laptop battery's dying, so I better post it now before it goes into hibernate... adios from Italy!