The permanent showrooms: where you find out how low on the totem you really are

In addition to the vendors who set up tent for the three day trade show event, there are hundreds of other rep groups in a building so secret you have to be blindfolded and then shuttled there so you can't reveal it's location to outsiders. These reps are always in this building. You can visit whenever you like, provided you are willing to give up your first born should you accidentally leak any confidential information.

My second day was spent only partly in the convention center. I had to write a couple of orders before heading off to the permanent showrooms. I realized, much too late, that I should have planned to give myself three whole days in Seattle. I also should have visited the showrooms first. The wisdom of which you shall shortly see for yourself.

In McMinnville, a small town of thirty thousand people, it is very important to not carry the same merchandise as the other stores. It isn't good for the customers, and it isn't good for the business owners. As the newest store down town I am on the bottom most rung of the store hierarchy. Oh, you didn't realize there was such a thing? Oh yes. There really is. As a newer store I must be sure to check out what all the other stores are carrying, and not carry those lines. Some reps will protect store owners by refusing to sell a line to two stores in the same town, but this is not always the case. If I want to be respected, I must protect my own interests as well as those of the others around me.

So, in the first showroom I visited there were about seven different lines of goods that seemed perfect for my store. Here's the protocol: I tell the rep I'm interested in these lines, I tell her/him where my store is located and ask them to check to see if anyone has already ordered them in my town. I'm telling you all this because it had a serious effect on my day in the showrooms.

There are two stores in town that I am in direct competition with. One is a well established, much loved store called La Bella Casa. The other one is three doors down from me called "Tutta Bella". Did you already guess they are owned by the same person? These two stores have a distinctly different feel to them than mine. They are the kind of stores you go into if you are a rich American wanting to buy the rustic Tuscan fantasy. The kind of store you send your decorator to. The general price point is higher than mine is. The aesthetic is much more earthy, rich, and the kind of store that every Marin County girlfriend my dad has ever had would all shop at frequently. They wouldn't be shopping at my store buying copies of "Subversive Cross stitch"

In spite of all of the differences between my store and La Bella Casa, there are many cross overs in our style. As I found out to my utter discouragement. Of all of the lines I was interested in at the first showroom I visited, at least five of them were already being ordered by my competition. So the next showroom I found that wasn't filled with giant "lifelike" Santa dolls got me all excited, I found some really cool umbrellas...but guess who had already come through yesterday to write orders for that company? Uh huh, you guessed it. I could spend several paragraphs telling you all about every show room I went into that had anything cool in it, but why bother? It was the same story over and over again.

I started getting pissed off. I have some complicated feelings about this whole issue. They aren't all super mature either. I started wondering why the owner of La Bella Casa has never bothered to come see what I'm selling. I've shown her that courtesy. Not all reps are scrupulous, as I mentioned, yet she is completely unconcerned that she might order something I'm already carrying. There is an arrogance in not coming to my store even once. Almost all the other store owners in town have checked my store out. Yet the only store I'm in real competition with is La Bella Casa (and her other store Tutta Bella) and she couldn't be bothered to drop in one single time in seven months of my store being here in town.

Being dismissed by your competition is certainly an insult, but it's also a weakness on their part. One that I will certainly exploit should our store last long enough to do it. I learned a lot from following in the footsteps of another store, being thwarted, being pushed to the bottom-most rung on the show room ladder. It forces you to think hard about what makes you different, what your strengths are, and to make use of that knowledge or fail. I have a much clearer picture of my own store's strengths now:

• Our price point is friendlier in general than our competition.

• Our goods are more practical.

• Our store has an edgy aspect to it missing from the other stores: we offer some truly different merchandise for everyone who's grown tired of the rustic Tuscan fantasy.

• We produce some of our own goods which prevents our competition from carrying it, ever.

That last one is our biggest strength. Considering just how much junk is out there, how hard it was for me to find cool stuff, the fact that we design some of our own merchandise is a huge advantage. If we can find people to produce it for us before we run out of capital to pay them, we will have an edge that our competitor's will not have. If I can place those goods in the hands of a competent rep, other people can buy our merchandise for their stores too while we remain the exclusive sellers in our own territory.

I really have worked hard to get to know the other store owners in town, to give them the respect I believe they deserve. In turn, I have to say that so many of them have been incredibly supportive and have appreciated the efforts I've made to not step on their toes. It's gratifying to have good relationships with the other store owners in town. It makes being a part of the down town commerce fun and I've found several people with whom I really enjoy socializing with.

I was pretty bent out of shape by the time I got to the last showroom before I completely collapsed under the weight of the pulp I had gathered. I was feeling the urge to fight dirty, I wanted to complain loud, to scream out my war cry. Luckily I didn't have the energy to muster up my wicked call to arms because I had the fortune to meet a really cool rep who completely understood my chagrin at being always a step behind someone else. She showed me two lines that La Bella Casa didn't place orders for, plus she had a huge wall of millinery flowers. A gorgeous enormous collection of the most beautiful silk and velvet flowers I have ever seen. It was balm on my sore self.

I could sit around resenting being dismissed by someone who should probably be paying closer attention to what is happening over here at Dustpan Alley, but I don't have time to foster such bad feelings. I have a lot of groundwork to cover, a lot of ordering to do, and a lot of things to arrange so that everyone can see Dustpan Alley standing out from the crowd. I don't have time to worry about whether or not our competition sees us coming.

We're almost there.


Next up: train notes.