How do you know what the right stuff is? That is often a challenge and can be similar to throwing darts at a target while blindfolded. It's something I never became completely proficient with. That's ok, neither has anybody else in the doll business, as far as I can tell.
However, if you only get in stuff that you personally like, as a store owner that is a big mistake. You're assuming that everyone else likes what you like, and that's just not true. I did stock stuff I didn't personally like. I just had to respect that my customers had different taste than I, and found something positive to say about those things anyway.
Another mistake: not paying attention to what sells out regularly, and what doesn't. Eventually you end up with a lot of stuff sitting around that nobody wants, including you. A local doll store now out of business really excelled at this. Instead of getting one or two of something, the owner would get multiples, then have the leftovers sitting around for years, literally. Even though we tried to be careful, we even had stuff sitting around at the end that nobody wanted.
And another mistake we made: not getting in the stuff that (seemingly) everybody wants. When Beanie Babies first became big hits, we didn't immediately jump on the bandwagon and stock them. In some ways, I wish we had. While they were a gigantic pain in the rear to deal with for a couple different reasons, they also brought in a fair amount of money when we did get around to selling them. We lost business because we didn't carry them from day one or even day two. Still, better late than never, in this case. Fortunately we saw the writing on the wall when their popularity decreased and didn't continue to order massive quantities of them after their heyday had passed.
A mistake I see a lot of retailers making: either carrying merchandise that is far from their stated purpose/target market or carrying so much different merchandise that the customer gets overwhelmed. Remember the Cherished Teddies and Mary's Moo-Moos figurines? When we tried carrying them, they didn't sell well. Nobody came into our store expecting to find them. The more we tried to sell merchandise not related to dolls or plush animals, the worse it sold. There's a local store that is absolutely beautiful visually. I meander through it a couple times a year just to see all the pretty displays. But I never buy anything there because I can't figure out what it is the owner is trying to sell. It's like the owner couldn't decide what to sell, so he or she threw in some of just about everything. There's home decor to expensive dolls to greeting cards to edible treats to pretty lingerie and other fashions for women...the list goes on and on, including stuff for men. I never know what they will have in stock, so I don't go there looking for anything I actually need to buy. I honestly do not know how they stay in business. I'm only glad I'm not the one worrying about it.
