Doing FB & Ebay for the store is more involving than I expected---not all the time, but there are moments. Last night someone messaged on FB asking where they could get help with medical bills.
I forwarded the question to my boss.
I don't know anything about that side--they do help financially in certain circumstances--or can give referrals to the right place to GET financial help...
We really could use a social media policy! I've learned a lot, doing our FB & ebay for 2 months now---I may write one up, even if only for myself.
Selling the Saints
A funny thing I've noticed:
posts about the man himself, Vincent, and His Friends get very few "likes".
I'm experimenting.
Aug 11 was St. Clare's Feast Day, and I put up a still from the romanticized 1972 biopic of Francis & Clare, Brother Sun, Sister Moon; (the link being, Vincent was taught as a boy by Franciscans)––
and then a mock-up movie poster (from vinformation.com) for St. Louise de Marillac's birthday, on Aug 12
–– Louise was to Vincent as Clare was to Francis.
They each got about 4 likes, compared to an average of about 14.
Too Catholic? Not Catholic enough? Too pop-culture? I don't know.
I knock myself out with some of these because I LIKE THEM, but my most successful post was a quick snap of a lurid raspberry-pink velvet couch--the sort you'd see in a movie brothel. I was surprised how much love and attention it got.
I do post a lot of fun or interesting objects on the store's FB.
Yesterday I tried a little Mystery Quiz, using that silver-plate tea caddy I'd posted here.
A customer knew the answer right away, and several others commented. So, "Mystery Item" may become a regular feature.
Here's the thing:
I love researching the history, so I will continue to sprinkle in posts about that.
Sold Stuff
Meanwhile, four of the fourteen items I listed on ebay last Thursday sold within 48 hours--each for around $30––including the silver tea caddy, to a collector.
And a Fisher Price tea tray & set (1982):
And a pair of Sacred Hearts (stamped 1954 on back)--nice prints, but maybe someone just wanted the creamy oval frames?
And my favorite object--that folding oak box for sewing attachments... [also already posted here]. I'd thought about buying it myself... so I was glad to see it go because I don't need one more thing, even a wonderful thing.
I do wish someone at work was interested in this stuff–– or the history of things in general––so I could chat about it, and have help with it too. But in fact, I'm always pulling cool old stuff out of the garbage barrels.
Some customers are hunting for vintage, of course, for themselves or to resell––one resaler in particular is fun to talk with. That's a good thing.
We need to recruit some volunteers who want to work with stuff.
Sigh.
Of course we have no volunteer recruitment.
As I'm always saying, the FREEDOM I get from working at a place with no big-picture plan is paid for by the LIMITATIONS of working in a place with no big-picture plan.
It's like we're always putting out little fires and rarely taking the time to back up and say, How might we change the conditions that give rise to these fires? Some of this is simply because we are (the store is) POOR and OVERWORKED.
Being in constant crisis mode is a hallmark of Poverty. All your resources go to the current crisis, and you never get ahead.
I see some of this at the store--though not in every aspect:
our food redistribution program, for instance, is only 3 years old, so there is forward movement:
Flying by the seat of your pants can take you places!
I love my job and the place, and I'll take the freedom, but sometimes... could we employ just a little more foresight?
I forwarded the question to my boss.
I don't know anything about that side--they do help financially in certain circumstances--or can give referrals to the right place to GET financial help...
We really could use a social media policy! I've learned a lot, doing our FB & ebay for 2 months now---I may write one up, even if only for myself.
Selling the Saints
A funny thing I've noticed:
posts about the man himself, Vincent, and His Friends get very few "likes".
I'm experimenting.
Aug 11 was St. Clare's Feast Day, and I put up a still from the romanticized 1972 biopic of Francis & Clare, Brother Sun, Sister Moon; (the link being, Vincent was taught as a boy by Franciscans)––
and then a mock-up movie poster (from vinformation.com) for St. Louise de Marillac's birthday, on Aug 12
–– Louise was to Vincent as Clare was to Francis.
They each got about 4 likes, compared to an average of about 14.
I knock myself out with some of these because I LIKE THEM, but my most successful post was a quick snap of a lurid raspberry-pink velvet couch--the sort you'd see in a movie brothel. I was surprised how much love and attention it got.
I do post a lot of fun or interesting objects on the store's FB.
Yesterday I tried a little Mystery Quiz, using that silver-plate tea caddy I'd posted here.
A customer knew the answer right away, and several others commented. So, "Mystery Item" may become a regular feature.
Here's the thing:
I love researching the history, so I will continue to sprinkle in posts about that.
Sold Stuff
Meanwhile, four of the fourteen items I listed on ebay last Thursday sold within 48 hours--each for around $30––including the silver tea caddy, to a collector.
And a Fisher Price tea tray & set (1982):
And my favorite object--that folding oak box for sewing attachments... [also already posted here]. I'd thought about buying it myself... so I was glad to see it go because I don't need one more thing, even a wonderful thing.
I do wish someone at work was interested in this stuff–– or the history of things in general––so I could chat about it, and have help with it too. But in fact, I'm always pulling cool old stuff out of the garbage barrels.
Some customers are hunting for vintage, of course, for themselves or to resell––one resaler in particular is fun to talk with. That's a good thing.
We need to recruit some volunteers who want to work with stuff.
Sigh.
Of course we have no volunteer recruitment.
As I'm always saying, the FREEDOM I get from working at a place with no big-picture plan is paid for by the LIMITATIONS of working in a place with no big-picture plan.
It's like we're always putting out little fires and rarely taking the time to back up and say, How might we change the conditions that give rise to these fires? Some of this is simply because we are (the store is) POOR and OVERWORKED.
Being in constant crisis mode is a hallmark of Poverty. All your resources go to the current crisis, and you never get ahead.
I see some of this at the store--though not in every aspect:
our food redistribution program, for instance, is only 3 years old, so there is forward movement:
Flying by the seat of your pants can take you places!
I love my job and the place, and I'll take the freedom, but sometimes... could we employ just a little more foresight?
Your dilemma is so true for so many places I've worked. Often wished there could have been a brainstorming meeting once a month to just throw ideas against the wall. So frustrating but alas a job and one does what one can do in the space of time given and paid for. Doing the same thing over and over is just insanity IMHO. Foresight.......... yes. Maybe notes on church bulletin boards would help with recruitment of volunteers. We have a store in town called The Cottage run by a local church and those church ladies rock! Totally run by volunteers. They wash and launder clothes and put out other things from estates left to the church no longer wanted by family and friends. The don't handle furniture just small stuff. I haunt regularly! Head down moving along :)
ReplyDeleteAaargh---yes, a brainstorming meeting would be great---there are a lot of ignorant individuals but I know we would generate a lot of COLLECTIVE wisdom at my workplace.
ReplyDeleteThe Cottage sounds fun! I don't care about furniture--just the small stuff--that's my side of things.
Our store was started by Church Ladies, and for a long time they were the engine---the trouble now is they are dying off. A lead volunteer has some dementia---
the other day she priced a single-use plastic container that had held a ready-to-eat salad--with its original label on.
(29¢––I just quietly threw it away.)
Good idea about recruiting volunteer signs, but our problem is there's no one to DO it--make the signs, put them up, handle the contacts---and no training program in place AT ALL, if volunteers show up.
They just get thrown in, which works for some, but not for tender flowers.
I did well when I volunteered there because I'd already volunteered at a thrift store for years.
I am going to trust that the store will abide.
After all, I showed up! Others will too, hopefully, or at some point the management will HAVE to deal with it.
I'm going to hang out with the books and the small stuff!
Bravo!!
ReplyDelete