What a heck of a month it has been. It was a mighty whirlwind to cross the finish line for the end of our regular market season. As much as we adore our market family, the option of sleeping in past three A.M. for the first time in twenty weeks gives me goosebumps. Market mornings must begin so early for the simple fact that the goats need to be milked before we leave. The milker of said goats then needs to shower. No soul would want to sniff a bar from a guy who smells like a goat. Then we get on the road. In-person shows are a struggle for two introverts. I never know if it is pushy or helpful. Am I forcing people to smile back? Tina is the better of the two of us at icebreakers. She is always quick to make a kind remark and genuine comments to put a smile on someone's face. I tried. I froze. The first thing that came to my mind was less than appropriate. Just because you can squeeze into child-size yoga pants doesn't mean you should. If a guy that wears bibs every damn place he goes sees a wardrobe issue, it is real. My only outgoing trait is prize bars for people with funny shirts—Trophy Husband. I feel you. We are on the same ship, friend. All jokes aside, we are going to miss our little market family. It just gives us a weekend to sleep in a bit.
A big part of our market family is the other vendors. I never gave any mind to the fact that there were multiple coworkers in every other job I had. I had the opportunity to ask their opinion on the company, the industry, and what the plans for the Christmas party were. Now, the two of us know our little bubble. We know what works for us and what doesn't. Our vendor friends bring us a wealth of information. Thanks to our friend Tricia, aka Market Wife, aka BFF, we ventured out of our comfort zone to the great state of OH. Tricia has been in the live show business for over twenty years and is a force of nature when setting up displays and packing up. Hearing what shows are good and which are not is always helpful. It makes us feel better when there is a down week, and someone knows why. We would have never known if there was a big event somewhere else and the crowd was smaller.
One unfortunate fact that every one of our vendor friends has shared with us is that this has been a down year. I wish we could disagree. There is no shortage of theories/reasons. It is an election year, which is the most frequently given excuse. I hate change, and sales being down is a change that makes me quite uncomfortable. My hate of change is not compartmentalized to our small business. I hate furniture being rearranged. In the past, I hated switching company trucks. A free truck to drive, brand new, not my payment. No thanks. I can get another two hundred thousand on this one. I understand how sickening it is to think about change or uncertainty. One out of four years is indeed an election year. Everyone should be used to the routine by now. It took me twenty years to get accustomed to the couch moving every other month. The other theory is the price of everything. It is a sad day when you can walk out of a grocery store with a hundred dollars worth in one bag. I hate to date myself, but I can remember my parents' disgust when gasoline hit a dollar when I was a kid. Aside from corn and bulk milk, prices have been going up for as long as I can remember. It seems like every once in a while, everyone, us included, hits that we are cutting back; week-old bologna is more than I used to pay for prime rib moment. I have been told occasionally that I may be on the frugal side. Depending on my wife's mood, my level of frugality goes from being a penny pincher to a tight ass. When the McDouble was taken off the dollar menu, I was ready to go off-grid and forage.
One fact I will share. Not a tooting of any horn I own; our year wasn't awful. We didn't walk into the record store with a sledgehammer. But when one part was a bit off, something else was better than the year before. Another fact is that we aren't business geniuses. If we ever thought about the fact that sending full-sized bars as gifts makes the need to reorder happen less frequently, uses more material, and adds to shipping costs, we would not do what we do if we were business geniuses. However, our thought process is, who wants to go to a house trick or treating that gives out mini candy bars? We want you to get something good to try and enjoy or pass on to someone who might. We aren't marketing gurus or social media people. I am in charge of social media for the most part. My qualifications include putting my flip phone through the washer, needing a smartphone, having a fourth-grade level spelling ability, and mostly being slightly humorous.
Again, how humorous I am depends upon my wife's mood. Sometimes, I am Robin Williams, who my wife adores. Most other times, I am Andrew Dice Clay. By the way, my wife detests Andrew Dice Clay. We are awful at predicting what the future demand will be. When Tina first started making soap, my prediction was that the unscented soap would be the most popular. It was not. When the lockdown happened, our first thought was a baby boom. Our baby bars are going to be impossible to keep in stock. It turns out no one wanted to be anywhere around a hospital to deliver the said baby. In fairness to us, we didn't have Netflix at the time and didn't understand the entertainment value it had. There are now options on how to entertain yourself at home.
Our shortfalls are what they are. We are not ashamed or embarrassed by them; it is just a simple fact that we lack specific helpful skills. By the grace of God, we have been blessed with good people. I honestly have no idea how that has come to be. Mel, who was my little league coach when I was ten, uses our products. She has religiously posted her soap of the month picture every single month for years. Last month, she asked if she could make a video of whatever variety was October-friendly. Mel did a fantastic clip about Pumpkin Sandalwood and helped spread the word to her friends. There isn't a shipment that goes to Missouri, and we aren't checking our phones to see what Martha says about it. (By the way, we are pretty sure God-fearing-peace-loving Martha is ready to throw down if our soap is ever questioned).
Thanks to Martha telling her friend Vicki about us, we kicked around farmer's markets in Florida over the winter; after all, Vicki is there. We did a fundraiser for a preschool our friend Gretchen works at. She let us know about a local high-school band in need of doing a fundraiser. Tina's childhood neighbors drive two hours to see us in Ohio, and Ed walks with a cane. Robbie makes it to almost every market in Ligioner to say hello and is sure to text if she isn't coming so we don't worry about her. Anne has bought our product for every employee she has; my goodness, she has a few. We have had our soaps used for baby and bridal shower favors because our people want their people to enjoy them.
Now we ship to Boo and her family. Cassidy has become a force of nature for every group she is in that has done one of our fundraisers. Scott and Joann make it to the market to see us and casually mention that Joann is getting her knees done and that Scott had to return early from their vacation hike because his knees would give out. There are more folks than I am capable of typing who have gone out of their way to support us and help us along the way. Carol and Judy, we know you have more on your plate than we can wrap our minds around. Every time we see you, we appreciate the effort it took on your part to get there. Peter for never missing a post about his order arriving while working two jobs. I always thought the saying, we couldn't do it without you, was cheesy. I was correct. It is an awful slogan. Could we do it without you? I mean, without one or two, maybe? Would we want to? No. I don't know how we have gotten our little soap family pieced together, but that has made all the difference.
Some days I feel like that damn little optimistic train would ask if we could take it down a notch when we start talking about our little group. I believe more in our genuine little group than a million-dollar marketing agency. If you have time, please help us spread the word about our little gathering here at the farm on October 19th from 9-1. If you can make it, we would love to see you. If you can't, we still appreciate you. Like our soap family, our little family of vendors are some of the best folks you will ever have the pleasure of meeting. Until next month, stay safe and wash on.
