Appropriate Product???

My partner and I were talking last night about the state of the industry. Nothing new for us. As retailers, we always feel the need to be up on the latest happenings. As we talked about the store and the changes we were planning, we had to admit that things had changed drastically over the last few years. So much so that we honestly believed a lot of the change in customer sales was more to blame on lack of appropriate products than on the economy (or pretty much any other reason we'd be arguing about for the last few months). Appropriate product -- it sounds so strange, I know. But the truth it, my customer base is not what I'd consider abnormal. In fact, I think they're pretty darn normal. Yet I find it increasingly difficult to find product out there that will please them or meet their needs.

Over the last couple of years, the product selection, despite being from countless manufacturers, has pretty much been the same bland offering. And worse, it all looks the same. Basic Grey looks like Cosmo Cricket and Cosmo Cricket looks like Crate Paper; KI Memories looks like Dude Designs and Dude Designs looks like . . . I'll spare you the details as I really could go on ad nauseum, but it's really sickening to think that my customers basic needs -- photo meet paper -- can't be met even though I have well over two hundred different manufacturers to choose from.

Want to know the biggest sellers in my store? Karen Foster Designs, Creative Imaginations and Masterpiece Studios. Why? Because if there's a need, i.e. slumber party, baby's first haircut, or a specific sport, one of the three (if not all of them) have something to offer. Throw a bit of K & Company and EK Success and you have a wonderland for the scrap-with-themed paper and embellishments scrapbooker. And while most people on 2peas and Scrapsmack insist that they prefer patterned paper such as Chatterbox and Basic Grey and even some of the more eclectic offering such as Dreamstreet and Bampop, they really don't make much of a dent in my daily totals. In fact, in comparison, I find that I sell 5 times more Karen Foster than I do Basic Grey. And I sell 8 times more EK Success embellishments than I do embellishments from Heidi Swapp, Maya Road, Chatterbox, American Crafts, Bazzill and 7 Gypsies combined!

Then why are so many companies insisting on spending thousands of dollars to attend a show and promote product that fits the needs of only a handful of their market? And most importantly, why do they insist on cranking out 48 to over 200 skus (items) of said product when they could easily release half that amount and devote at least some of it to the tried-and-true themed market.

As a retailer, I have to say, my disappointment level has grown with each trade show and the Summer CHA was really the last straw for me. I have a hard enough time getting people to purchase these days -- with the withering economy and ever-tightening scrapbook budgets, not to mention people using their burgeoning stash -- without having to worry about not having enough quality product to choose from. My store has to maintain a certain level of inventory but I refuse to stock it with butt-ugly product, or worse, product that will grow stale on the shelves, not move and have to be clearanced at 60% to 70% off.

So tell me, what kind of scrapbooker are you and what kind of product would you like to see? Are all the sneak peeks really revving your motor? Are you even looking forward to the next trade show (Memory Trends) or are you just reverting back to your scrapbook stash because it looks a hell of a lot better than the current offering on the market??? Inquiring minds want to know.