Sunday, December 14, 2008

Lee in the snow in Astoria - some December online merchant musings

Here's Lee out in the snow in Astoria in front of The Animal Store leaving for the Area Properties Christmas Party. I took a bunch of time off yesterday and did some things, so I opted to stay inside where it's warm and work my tail off. This is the couple of weeks when online retailers go crazy filling orders, trying to get more orders when they slow down, or worrying when things break down, run out, etc. It keeps a person busy. Yesterday I did take time off and our orders slowed down, so today I'm working. Even making a blog post like this one can help link things together and boost our gift shop's findability online. Lee was busy all morning playing Santa by helping to fill orders.

Yesterday I went to Laurel's baby shower (photos to come in another blog post), to the pool to shower and relax in the hot tub (NO photos to come, no no no :), had dinner out with Jane and Tom, and watched a movie on our wonderful new hi def TV which replaced the ancient little one that had to be pulled right up to the foot of the bed so we could see it. Yeah! We saw Les Miserables with Liam Neeson, Geofrrey Rush, Uma Thurman and Claire Danes. We really enjoyed it, but now Lee wants to see a version with the original Dickens ending. I read the book in Jr. High or High School, but Lee didn't. We filled a lot of orders, too, but when I stop blogging and posting things online, the orders slow down. Every year there is some new thing to make December interesting!

2 comments:

Susan Bearman said...

I'm curious about the Animal Store in Astoria. We own a pet shop in Lincolnwood, IL called The Animal Store. Our blog can be found at here and here is a link to our website. Thanks.

tapirgal said...

Hi 2KoP,

Well, for us "The Animal Store" is our local brick and mortar name here in Astoria for our animal-themed toy and gift shop, which has been on the Internet since about 1997. It got a little complicated. We're legally the Tapir Preservation Fund (www.tapirback.com/tapirgal), a nonprofit for the conservation of living tapirs, both in zoos and in the wild. We raise and send funds into the field for different projects being carried out by various scientists and conservationists.

Our online store expanded to include many types of (mostly) wild animal toys and gifts. You can see it here: http://www.tapirback.com/tapirgal/gifts/friends/. When we finally opened our store front in March 2007, we thought our name would essentially be meaningless and hard to remember for most local people because there are no tapirs here to relate it to, it just happens to be where our office is. So, we got a DBA as "The Animal Store" for the store front :) Most of our business is online, but people do come here when they want stuffed or plastic animals . . . and we've also had the occasional request for dog food and cat collars. I wish I could refer them to you, but there is a pet store down the street, and that's where we send them!

I actually ran across your web site some time ago. I was surprised there weren't more places with this name, because it seemed like a natural. Your site is very attractive (VERY!). And I see on your blog that you're giving good advice about pet safety. That's great. I love animals, but have not had any real ones for a number of years now. I used to have a lot. Thanks for dropping by. It was nice to meet you!

By the way, we have a blog for the Tapir Fund and one for the Gift Shop. The one you found today is yet another blog - my personal blog. This all keeps me pretty busy, to which I'm sure you can relate!

~ Sheryl