History and Stories

I was meeting with a new radio sales rep the other day and I was telling her of Fantasy Gifts history not only in advertising but in general, I like the folks we work with to really understand who we are and how we run Fantasy Gifts so that it is easier for them to come up with promotion that don’t conflict with who we are. When I start with a new rep in TV or radio the first thing I say is no stereotypical porn music in the background and if images are used that they don’t look like 1-800 ads.  Local morning and afternoon shows can be raunchy and risqué but if I even barely get sexy in an ad folks go nuts. That is why I don’t bother with direct mail or email because all it takes is one grumpy uptight person and folks in management freak out. I have said many times you can use sex to sell anything except sex in America at least.  I do the voice overs myself because I want the customers to hear my voice not a paid actor and I use to do the TV ad too because showing that we do not have horns or wear corsets and thigh high boots as a work uniform, what members of my family may do in private is their own business, I remember my brother’s friends meeting over at the house before my brother got back from school he was driving home for summer break and his buddies asked my Dad if he wanted to hear stories and my Dad said no, there were still things his parents didn’t know about his life and he certainly didn’t need to know about his sons. That same attitude goes for our business we don’t keep records of what you buy we keep it as simple as possible if you are over 18 and have a means to pay it is yours. 

 Another thing we talked about is how difficult it is to run this business in 2013, it was easier to get leases 30 years ago then it is now, many cites have very unconstitutional ordinances or zoning but who has a zillion dollars to fight them.  We have fought many battles and won with the cities we are in and almost everyone in our family has been arrested. I used to get really mad at the narrow mindedness and outright lying that was done by officials in trying to close us down but after a while I realized even though they are misguided somebody loves them it just isn’t going to be me.  When we open one of first stores I was still in college and my Dad told a story about city officials actually knocking on walls trying to find the secret room, they just didn’t understand that what they saw was all there was, one person kept opening a closing a door as if a different room would magically appear and lest you think that was a long time ago it happen more recently too, we got a phone call saying a city inspector was looking for another secret room and was simply confused that it didn’t exist and kept wondering what was behind the wall and the answer was the neighbors space. I think my most fun old timey story was at one of the first places I helped open after college I was working at the store when I saw a bunch of sour faced people get out of cars and proceed to picket the store, this was perfect not even a half hour later folks started streaming into the store, they hadn’t seen it for two months that we had been open but the protesters were like a big ass neon sign pointing to our door. One gentleman who came in in full riding leathers off a gorgeous Harley didn’t have his wallet with him but he asked if could have a bag to walk out with, I crumpled a bag up and stuffed it into another bag and out he walked, he came back later with his wife a bunch of friends and his wallet, I love bikers! They continued to spread the word for weeks and weeks we had a steady stream of folks into the store still do to this day.

Word of mouth is extremely important, while I may do plenty of advertising in print, radio and
TV and currently all the social networking sites , the fact that you tell your friends that we are a good place to go shopping  is what convinces other folks to go in. I want to thank you all for your loyalty over the past 34 years,  we know we are not the only place and we value you as customers and use your suggestions has guides to what to carry, there is so much out there we are going to be expanding the online store so we can get you the products you want and still focus on the core items in our stores. We have great relationships with our vendors so if you don’t see it I bet you we can get it for you.

Once again Thank you , we couldn’t do it without you.