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OVER THE
COUNTER
BY DAVID ROBERTSON OF JP POZZI, ELGIN AND BUCKIE.
2023 will be upon us by the time you read this and if Nostradamus’ predictions ring true then we are going to be faced by a number of challenges. He predicted a great war, a great fire and economic disaster! Some would argue that two out of the three have already happened and they don’t look like they are easing anytime soon. Lots of happiness and fun to look forward to then! If only we could predict the future, we would all no doubt change things dramatically.
New Beginnings... Nostradamus’ infamous book Les Prophéties was first published in 1555, long before we had the keyboard warriors and social media doctors, but if you read into his broad claims you could find hints to Hitler’s Reign of Terror, the 9/11 terrorist attack and many other horrific events that have been tentpoles in our recent past. He even predicted a desperate politician may try to save his career by entering a jungle, but no one believed him about that!
So, should we all stay in, lock the doors and not come out? The problem with that is we did that during Covid and life was pretty dull. Indie retailers and card publishers have never really laid down and admitted defeat. We are a resilient lot who work on the assumption there is always another birthday, wedding, baby or bar mitzvah. 2023 should be the year that business and life returns to normal. In 2019 we first 30
PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
Right: Is the answer to what indies should do in 2023 in Les Prophéties?! Below: French astrologer Nostradamus had quite a knack for predictions.
heard about an illness in China and then in the months and years to follow no-one could have predicted what would happen. Not even Nostradamus. Covid seems to have put the last two years on fast forward and I am tired of fighting to get fair treatment for retail businesses. Sadly, we are not sexy. We are not a spaceport or a free port or indeed any kind of port. We don’t tick the boxes for tourism and we don’t make a major enough ripples in our community to warrant access to lots of the pots of money available. Here in Scotland we are waiting on announcements around business rates (which are back in full), tourism tax and many other policies that continue to make it hard for people to trade. Every High Street from Aberdeen to Zouch seems to be in need of saving. Lots of money is promised, lots of ideas are put forward and there is lots of initial enthusiasm but as the work gets harder and the time pressures get more onerous it ends up as the same band of people fighting to try and improve for all. I am one of that band - with less time than ever but, somehow I can’t just walk away. I love retail. I love my business and ultimately, I must love the pressure because doing something else would, definitely be easier.
So, what’s my business focus for Jan 2023 and beyond? What do I want to achieve in the year ahead and just exactly where I am going to start? Without doubt my biggest weakness in my business is that I overbuy stock and I also find it hard to say “no” to certain reps and agents with whom I have dealt, over many, many years. I need to use January as a chance to purge myself of lots of stock. This has meant for the first time in business I have not committed to pre-sell or new product. I want to wait and look at it fresh over the course of January. I also really want to look at the mix of cards in our control and again consider what changes are needed. Adding in new publishers, changing the mix and generally tweaking things is good not only for sales, but for the soul. There are so many good publishers out there it is time that I looked beyond my tried and tested ones a bit more. The