We had some time over last weekend to take a walk through, Apple Barrel Antiques. They are located in Bremen, GA. There is a little bit of everything there. If you have never been to this store it is located right off the exit on I20 between Anniston, AL and Douglasville, GA. Here are some pics I grabbed of things that caught my eye. Enjoy!

We were had a great time at The Nest. They had their Christmas open house this weekend. If you ever find yourself in West GA you should make time to visit. They are in an old bedspread factory. I love the industrial style with exposed brick and hardwood floors. They are a quaint little shop that offers home decor, vintage and antiques, candles, jewelry, soaps and more. 

They are located at 506 Maple Street in Carrollton. Click here to check out their Facebook page. 

 



                                                              Click here for the Youtube video. 

We know most of you are busy preparing for Christmas. The last thing you need is another to-do list. So we are going to keep our list short and sweet. This blog post is for shop owners. But even if you are a dealer please feel free to share this with a shop owner. We wanted to share three easy ways to get some extra holiday traffic. Remember this is just traffic and the customers might not be spending at first. But fingers crossed they just might. If your store makes a good impression on them they will remember you and shop at a later date or even better they will tell their friends about you. 

1. Toy Donation Center

There are different toy drives you can do or participate in this time of year. If you are not sure how to start one, just call your local fire and police departments. They can point you in the right direction. The U.S. Marine Corps offers Toys for Tots. You can sign up online to be a participating drop off center or click here. The deadline is Dec 16th. There are more details on their website. Yougivegoods is a website you can partner with as well. Just make sure to promote, promote, promote. If you have a reader board sign outside, make sure to state you are a toy dropoff center with the details. Make sure you put a poster in the window. You can create something using a poster board and don't forget to share on all your social media platforms. 


2. Christmas Themed Photo Wall
The above photo is one I used in a blog post last year. Click here to read that blog post. Photo credit goes to Two Sister's Treasures

A lot of antique stores and boutiques have a designated area within the store just for Christmas photos. This is usually a cozy fireplace/ Christmas tree scene. If you are a larger store you probably already have enough inventory to stage your area. You could pull items from your various booths (with dealer's permission of course) to create a space. 

Don't forget to take a pic of your photo wall and share it on all your social media accounts. You need to get the word out as quickly as possible so people can start coming in and getting photos. Also, you will want to create a sign with a special hashtag so customers know how to tag your store in their photos. Once they start sharing their photos of your beautiful wall or space their friends will see it and want to come in for photos too. 

If you don't have a mantle you could also create a winter scene with a window. Hang up a curtain over a windowpane and maybe paint some snow on the window. I'm sure you have some talented dealers at your store maybe you could take a vote to come up with the perfect theme. 





3. Letters to Santa

Last but not least Letters to Santa. This has been popular for years. Lots of stores (not just antique stores) are getting in on the action for this one. Children love to write letters to Santa. So why not provide a mailbox for them. This way Mom or Dad have to make a special trip to your store. You can also have some blank letters available for little Jonny and Suzy. I have created one for you to print out and have ready. While this is pretty late in the game for this year, you could always have these for next year.

I have had lots of booths over the years. Some have been in little boutique style shops while others have been in large antique malls. In the five years that we have been running Booth Crush, I have shared very few photos of my booth/s. Many of you have asked why. The reason for that is we never wanted to cause any confusion with my booth and Booth Crush. We always felt like readers would get frustrated seeing a constant barrage of booth photos and we would lose reader retention. So we decided to keep them separate.

A couple of weeks ago, when I shared the blog post about the faux garden fence, I said I would share a full photo of my booth. So today I wanted to share the makeover photos. This is from my old booth at Queen of Hearts Antiques and Interiors.  I have always loved the Queen of Hearts. They have three locations and it is hard to pick a  favorite location because they each hold their own charm. I enjoyed my time there as a dealer. I was at the Marietta location and they have a great team there. They have guys on staff to help with loading, unloading and hanging things up in your booth. This was a huge perk. I miss all the gang. I would take another booth there in heartbeat, but I'm now living 70 miles away.

I still remember the day I got the call telling me a booth would soon be available. I was thrilled. There is always a long waitlist for dealers. I started out with a small booth because it was the only one available. I believe I had a 7x9 booth, but my old lady brain can't remember exactly. I was right in the middle of the store so I felt it was a good start. During this time I was trying to juggle home life, taking care of my uncle in the nursing home, two elderly parents with non-stop doctor appointments, my booth, sourcing, painting and my little dog that had suddenly fallen ill and would require daily meds and weekly to bi-weekly vet trips the rest of his life.

As I was approaching my one year anniversary with the Queen things seemed to be calming down for me. My booth was doing great and I felt I was ready to take on a bigger space. Unfortunately, the next one that was available wasn't much bigger but it was a longer booth. The one I was currently in had more depth. My new one was a 9x12, (I believe) but I loved the build-out and the work that had been done on it. I was fortunate to be in a place that allowed build-outs. If you have been a dealer for any length of time you know not all stores allow this.

I apologize for the grainy photos. My cell phone game was lacking shall we say. As you can see from the photos below this booth wasn't my style so it would need a makeover. I knew I had to lighten, brighten and freshen this space up. I had a vision and thankfully it wasn't going to take very much effort to change the look.

1. Make sure all of your items have price tags.  I know we are all busy and there are times when we are in a hurry and forget to price something. Tags may also get torn off during the shuffle of moving things around. When you stop by your booth plan to spend a few extra minutes scanning over inventory.