Business SMART:

Two Retailers Win the CHA SMART Store!
 

By: Dennis A. Conforto
A-Z Media Group

If you weren’t at the CHA Winter Show you missed one of the most fun events you could ever imagine. We all know how famous the industry is for doing giveaways within show booths. We have all seen what happens when people go crazy over winning $50 or $500 worth of product. Sometimes, by the almost over-the-top reactions, you would have thought that someone won a whole store or something.

But like last year, when the winner’s names were announced they didn’t yell or scream. They instead were literally in a state of shock; washed in overwhelming emotions. When they were handed the mike to speak they could barely get a peep out.


Jill Golke and Cristy Harstad

 And so was the case this year as the winner and runners-up were announced for the CHA SMART Store 2. The winner this year was The Scrapbook Station whose owners are Jill Golke and Cristy Harstad a mother/daughter team from Fergus Falls, Minnesota.

So filled with emotion that they could hardly speak, last year’s winner John and Camille Akin of Ever After in Carlsbad, California commented, “Don’t worry, it’s hard to think of anything to say at a time like this.”

The crowd cheered, the winners wept, and all was as it should be. Everyone wishing it was them but happy for the one lucky retailer who won it all. You would think that would be the end of the story wouldn’t you. But its not - there is more to the story!

In addition to the winner, several alternates were selected. With a prize as big as the CHA SMART Store, it can be too much and too overwhelming for one winner to handle it all. And that was the case with The Scrapbook Station whose store is in a small market, in a town of less than 15,000 people, and whose store square footage is in line with the market size.
The first alternate was Atlanta Scrapbook Connection, whose owner is Marylea Boatwright- Quinn from Atlanta, Georgia. She of course is in a big market and in a big town with a store size that fits that market.

To make this all happen we needed to use the Wisdom of Solomon who when confronted by two women who said the same baby was their own suggested the baby be cut in half. The real mother reasonably argued with the judgment and of course as history recalls, the woman whose was not the mother agreed to cut the baby in half. It was then that Solomon knew who the real mother was and the problem was solved.
 

Lucky for us our baby was the SMART Store and the two women Jill and Marylea were both real retailers. Jill took the inventory and the POS which fit her needs perfectly and Marylea took the store fixtures which fit her needs perfectly. And know we know the Wisdom of Solomon works even today.

What I really, really like about this story is this. A few days earlier Marylea was part of a training session. In that training session we show a DVD called “The Secret.” It’s a powerful 90-minute mind bending motivational presentation on the law of attraction. If you haven’t seen it, you ought to. You can buy it online by visiting: www.thesecret.tv.


Marylea Boatwright-Quinn
After the session we asked people what they wanted to attract in their lives. For some, the answer to our questions was more business, for other more profits and still others wanted to attract more customers. In the whole room only Marylea was specific. She said, “I see myself on stage winning The SMART Store.”

Was it fate? I don’t think so. The funny thing is that she made it on stage as the first runner-up. Last year she was the fourth runner-up. What are the chances of that? About one in a million, I would say. Have you ever heard of the alternate of any prize really come out winning anything? I never have.

Life is funny that way, the one who hoped they would win and did and the one who knew she would win did also. Don’t you just love a story with a happy double ending? I know I do.

Last year when John and Camille won it was just as amazing. They had just signed a lease that morning to move into a new, larger location. That night they won the perfect store to fit in the perfect space. Now that kind of luck could only happen in Vegas - which is right where it did happen.