Sidewalk Sale

On Saturday, August 13th, Old Town Alexandria Businesses participated in the Second Annual Sidewalk Sale.  If you ever want to guarantee rain, schedule a sidewalk sale.  But more on that in a moment.

I will start out by saying that I LOVE the "H Rack" that I purchased in Richmond last Monday.  On Friday evening, not long before it was time to close, I started assembling it.  All of the pieces and parts were there and everything fit together with little effort.  With the help of my trusty allen wrench, it was assembled in no time flat!  It also stood up to the many (and sometimes strong) breezes on Saturday.  And, when not loaded with clothing, it was still light enough for me to move in and out by myself.  Finally, it was easy to disassemble it on Sunday evening (for storage).

It was such a busy week, with lots of new Fall arrivals coming in and preparing the remaining spring/summer items for the Sidewalk Sale.  As I've gotten to know my customers, I've been able to tell when they really like an item but wish it was at a different price.  Or, they like other items and have to limit themselves to a budget.  As I started the markdowns for the Sidewalk Sale, I contacted customers if an item they loved was going to be included on the sale.  Many of them came in to purchase those items!  I was happy to have the sale and they were happy to get the item they wanted.  A win for everyone!

In addition to getting the "H Rack", I had also purchased sets of those round size dividers (XS - L and 2 - 12).   When I merchandise the store, I put items together by style and color and have the sizes in order.  But to have the sale items like that wouldn't work.  It needed to be easy for people to see what was available in their size.  Having those size dividers was so helpful!

Saturday morning arrived with partly cloudy skies and the threat of thunderstorms.  My hope was that it would wait until after 6 pm to storm.  No such luck.  Not long after I put the clothes out at 10, it started to rain.  As I was rushing to get the clothes inside before they got wet, I fell down.  I can happily report that no clothing got wet or dirty but my legs took a beating.  I think I'll be wearing long pants this week!

Once that shower passed, I dried off the rack and the size dividers and put the clothes out again.  All was well until around 12:30, when the bottom dropped out again.  Clothes back inside.  Wait for torrential rains to stop.  Repeat process.  One more hard rain came at around 4:30 and I just left the clothes inside from that point on.  I definitely got my exercise!

The day was a success sales-wise and probably would have been even better had the weather been more cooperative.  The Irish Festival was taking place in the park behind my landlord's building and that also brought a number of people into Zoe's area.  All in all (despite my leg wounds) a good day.