Adventures in Trade Showing

We have the New York International Gift Market this week. It means another week in which I had to essentially give up my weekend and spend my days in a flourescent lighted building smiling and selling the hell out of our products. But with each one I learn something new and this one has been an education in itself. I never realized before that people want specificity in their lives as much as they do. We carry a wide variety of books on gardening, cooking, interior design, babies, weddings and animals, but for many stores that's just not enough. I actually had a woman in there yesterday wanting to know if we did Baby Journals for adopted babies. Um, no. Because I thought the whole point was that your adopted baby was supposed to be your child.

Then I had a man ask if we did books on Virginia. Um, no again. Because who else would we sell them to besides gift stores and tourist stops IN VIRGINIA? Why are people so demanding? Why isn't what we offer good enough for ecletic tastes. As I carefully explained to both, those are specialized niches and we can't profit on doing things in that area. I imagine if adoption were more popular than it currently is we would do something along those lines, but, judging from all the pregnant people I see, I know that there are many more people who are choosing to give birth to their own herd rather than take on someone else's child. I imagine if Virginia were a super popular place we would do something on Virginia. But, as it stands, it's just another American state, and personally, about the same as Maryland or NOrth Carolina or Arkansas (except it's not land-locked).

I don't know what that says about us as a society. We want things that directly affect us. We don't want to have to make the connection ourselves. We want to scream out what we're about. I wonder if this is a result of all the therapy that's piled upon us day in and day out with so many TV shows and people who are so open about their own help that they can't "help" but share it with anyone and everyone. One woman was in our booth for over an hour AFTER she placed her order, discussing her fertility issues with us. Do I appear to be someone who knows a lot about that or wants to hear about your struggles with dealing with a husband's low sperm count? People become obsessed with their own lives to the point it becomes normal to openly discuss them with other people. A lot of time we're complete strangers and more than that we don't want to hear about it.

Another reason the man in Times Square subway station makes a killing. For $2 you can just talk at him about whatever you want. I would love to know the stories he's heard from people struggling with everything from bills to impotency. I would love to know how he just tunes everything out to avoid listening to what others have going on in their lives. I like that idea that he's made a living out of it. Who says homeless people don't do anything, right? Maybe I should adjust myself to do the same thing, to tune out anything tha't snot related to what we are selling and what other people are in, if no other reason than to avoid having it all come together in one big blob.