S3:E17 Christmas in July And Calculating for Less Stress

 Well, we are back with another new episode of The Boys Podcast, and this week it's a little bit of a change. It's just Stuart and I. Dwayne, for some reason, thought that it was the perfect time to go take a vacation. So while he's probably burning on a beach, Stuart and I are here, along with the rest of our team, getting ready for Christmas in July. So today we're talking about what we bought and how we don't remember or have a clue what we bought when we were there in January and so now somehow we're making magic out of what's come in halfway through the year. And I'm also telling you about a few tools that I've built that are on our website to help you this holiday season get a little bit more stress-less so you can enjoy more time with those that you love.

Try our new Holy Trinity Christmas Tree Calculator here!

Check out our Garland Calculator on our Long Needle Pine Garland here!

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Transcript

0:00

Well, we are back with another new episode of The Boys Podcast, and this week it's a little bit of a change. It's just Stuart and I. Dwayne, for some reason, thought that it was the perfect time to go take a vacation. So while he's probably burning on a beach, Stuart and I are here, along with the rest of our team, getting ready for Christmas in July. So today we're talking about what we bought and how we don't remember or have a clue what we bought when we were there in January and so now somehow we're making magic out of what's come in halfway through the year. And I'm also telling you about a few tools that I've built that are on our website to help you this holiday season get a little bit more stress-less so you can enjoy more time with those that you love. Let's get to it

jeremy 1:48

Good morning. How are you?

Dwayne 1:51

Uh, pretty good. How are you?

jeremy 1:53

I'm good. So there's just two of us today because Dwayne decided to go on vacation

Dwayne 2:00

that bitch is on a beach

jeremy 2:01

The bitch is on a beach and he's- the bitch is on a beach a week before or right before we start our Christmas in July sale, which I... Who the hell approved this?

Dwayne 2:11

Let's remind the listeners also that he took a week off for his daughter's wedding, and then was back for about three days, and then took off again. So I can probably speak for Jeremy as well. In the words of the late, great Chelsea of Pearl, "My pussy tired."

jeremy 2:32

Oh, for those who don't know who Chelsea was, she was a legendary drag queen here in Lexington. She won all kinds of, I don't know, national awards, and she was just amazing, so... And she was beautiful.

Dwayne 2:41

She,

jeremy 2:41

her up.

Dwayne 2:42

beautiful.

jeremy 2:43

So we quickly mentioned, um, Christmas because somehow we are at what we have is Christmas in July. And you know, first I wanna complain because when we started, we've done Christmas in July as long as I can remember. So I don't know if you all did it before I started working with you, but I know that in 2004 we did Christmas in July. At that time, not that many people did anything for it. Like, it was just, like, I think it was just us.

Dwayne 3:07

No.

jeremy 3:08

I mean, I'm not gonna say we were the only ones on the planet, 'cause I know that there were others involved, but,

Dwayne 3:13

locally we were

jeremy 3:14

yeah,

Dwayne 3:15

few.

jeremy 3:16

one of the few.

Dwayne 3:17

and we needed to make some money.

jeremy 3:22

And so people were always like, "Oh, that's insane." And then, uh, they're like, "You do what?" And we're like, "Yeah, people love to come in and see it. But, um, but now it seems like every big company under the sun is doing some kind of version of it, and I think it's bastardizing it. And so now I'm upset because they jumped on our coattails, and now they're just making ours feel, like, not as special.

Dwayne 3:43

Oh, we should do Christmas in May

jeremy 3:45

There we, there we go. Nailed the Christmas survey. Well, so if, um, you've never been to our storefront, what we do for a week in July is we turn the entire store over... Well, not the entire store, most of the store,, over to Christmas. So we're talking Christmas trees come out, Christmas trees get decorated, garlands go up, wreaths are decorated. Like, it is a full-out Santa extravaganza, 'cause that bitch is at the beach. Meanwhile, we're in here slaving away in,

Dwayne 4:13

Right

jeremy 4:15

98-degree weather covered in glitter, which is not what any of us want, but it's just what happens. And then after that week of a sale, 'cause everything in the store goes 20% off, so if you're not local, everything online will also be 20% off. All the Christmas comes down.

Dwayne 4:30

well, and that one you get a little extra time on the

jeremy 4:33

Yeah

Dwayne 4:34

20% off like through midnight on Sunday,

jeremy 4:36

On that Sunday night, yeah. Yeah, so it's going into Monday.

Dwayne 4:39

now 'cause I just made it up.

jeremy 4:40

Yeah, no, it always is. It, it always runs a little bit further than that. But yeah, for in the store, if you wanna come, you have to get here by four o'clock on that Satur- that last Saturday, or you're just gonna have to buy online so you can get it there too. But, but after the event's over, it gets packed up and goes away.

Dwayne 4:56

Yeah.

jeremy 4:57

And I think that's the part that always blows people's mind. Mm-hmm. Well, now hold on

Dwayne 5:01

in on like Tuesday, "Where did that one tree go? You don't have any trees." It's like, "No, baby, they put away."

jeremy 5:09

Well, I want to, when we say we do all this work, the ladies out front and our entire team, everybody does so much work. So I can- we are- there is no way that I can let just the three of us take how much credit it takes to get this done. I mean, it was,

Dwayne 5:23

Uh-uh

jeremy 5:23

just imag- you know how much, how hard it is to get your house ready for Christmas at, at your own house, and how many trees you do. And then here we've got an entire store we gotta flip. Um, so yeah. So then it goes away, and then people are like, "Well, isn't it gonna look a lot... It's gonna look exactly like it when it comes back out, you know, for Christmas?" We're like, "No," 'cause then we'll have gotten in a lot more stuff, and then everything looks d- 'cause it's completely different looks and styles and stuff.

Dwayne 5:47

And

jeremy 5:47

But

Dwayne 5:48

out of some stuff we're not getting back,

jeremy 5:50

Yes. Uh, it never fails. We have something that people walk in the door, and then for some reason we just didn't catch onto it early enough, and the people, it blows out within 25 minutes of, the, the store being open. And then Dwayne's in the corner screaming, "We need more, we need more, we need more."

Dwayne 6:03

Right.

jeremy 6:04

And panic. Mm-hmm. So, but, um, so yeah. So if you are local, please make sure to come and see us. If not, check it out online. This is a small taste of what's coming for Christmas. A small little first interpretation. But, you know, just with what we've got done out there on the floor so far, I'm k- I'm excited. I th- I like, I like some of the stuff out there.

Dwayne 6:24

It's

jeremy 6:24

I don't know.

Dwayne 6:25

good

jeremy 6:25

That little woodland tree, did you see the woodland tree over there yesterday?

Dwayne 6:28

Yeah. Yeah. It, it d- it does. It'll look good. Um, and part of the, I guess not hiccup, but part of the, churning the butter, I guess, to make the floor is, you know, some of this stuff, of this Christmas stuff we get in as early as May, and it's priced, and then it goes back in the box. And then we get stuff in June, and then we get stuff in July, and you're like, "Oh, gonna go together now?"

jeremy 6:53

Yeah

Dwayne 6:54

'cause sometimes we just forget,

jeremy 6:55

Mm-hmm.

Dwayne 6:56

guy packs it in a different spot or whatever, which is, again, fine. That's what we have to do. it really is kind of a surprise to us as we're pulling it out again

jeremy 7:05

Mm-hmm

Dwayne 7:06

we, uh, I think at market we had concepts in our head,

jeremy 7:09

Mm-hmm. I don't remember any of them.

Dwayne 7:10

No, I don't either. But, um, then it gets reinterpreted again. And then

jeremy 7:18

Yes

Dwayne 7:19

it gets reinterpreted again because then

jeremy 7:21

Uh-huh.

Dwayne 7:21

be here and

jeremy 7:22

Yeah.

Dwayne 7:22

in.

jeremy 7:23

Mm-hmm

Dwayne 7:24

you just said, it gets reinterpreted again in

jeremy 7:26

Mm-hmm.

Dwayne 7:27

So yeah, it's always evolving. So

jeremy 7:30

That's

Dwayne 7:31

something new to look at

jeremy 7:33

the, the, the purgatory of retail, that it never stops. Uh,

Dwayne 7:38

Yeah

jeremy 7:39

do... You know, you've heard me talk about my husband's family's fireworks stand that we do. Well, not all of the family has been,, employed in the retail industry before, so they do not understand that you just don't set it once and it's done. Like, it con- constantly changes, so it's always exhausting. But, but I'm really excited about that. But I wanted to tell you about a couple things that I don't think you know about that, I've built, and it's to help people with Christmas I know, I know, it sounds weird. Um, but w- you know, we get asked, a, a lot of times we get asked the same questions over and over. And so our whole mission is to try to help and, and, you know, p- be there for whatever you need. But listen, I l- I love, I love everybody that we have, but I can't be there for every Anna Sue, and Millie Lee, and, Rebecca Leeann 24 hours a day trying to help, you know, give, give them all the answers. So, I mean, you know I've been taking this big class thing. Uh, but I've learned how to build some things, and so I've built a couple things that are now on the website to help people plan for their Christmas. You know, we on- list- it, there's no nudes involved

Dwayne 8:44

are we gonna have to teach Dwayne?

jeremy 8:46

No, he didn't have to nothing.

Dwayne 8:48

Oh, thank God. Okay

jeremy 8:50

Can you imagine trying to teach him to do anything, especially with technology?

Dwayne 8:53

Well, 27 years later, we just got him to look at email. So, and

jeremy 8:58

Of which,

Dwayne 8:58

a password.

jeremy 8:59

uh, w- and listen, this is the truth part. He used to have a company email as far as like what you and I have, and then it kept getting hacked so many times because he'd click on shit that he didn't need to click on. I said, "No more. I ain't doing this no more." So then he ha- he has his own, I think it's like a Yahoo.

Dwayne 9:15

No problem.

jeremy 9:16

That's for him to his business take care of, 'cause unfortunately I'm the IT person, so I gotta deal with this. But no, we, uh... Listen, all this was built to be easy, and even if he had to do it, he could. But no, we're gonna have to teach him how to do this

Dwayne 9:30

like something on the register? Is it something on

jeremy 9:33

No.

Dwayne 9:33

What

jeremy 9:33

Well, it's something that's... Okay, so it's on the website, and so, okay, so here in the store, it's actually loaded on the phone. So if anybody comes into the storefront and they need help, the girls up front can grab the phone, and then the little app is right in it. But, if you're online and you go to the products, you can actually see it there. And so the first one I did was, a garland calculator because it never fails. Somebody comes in and they're like, "I have no idea how many things of garland I need." And again, it's, it's fine if they come into the store because we can figure it out with them. But if they're online, and we sell a lot of it online, it's, you know, it's, it's hard for them to know. So in the calculator, they can put the, like the handrail length, pull the, put the, pull... Well, Lord, words at 10:40 on a Fri-Friday. They put the, the handrail length in. They put in, if they have any newel posts where they want the length to go, and then they can pick how far they want the garland to swag, and there's like little images where they can see to do it, and it will calculate how many strands of garlands that they need

Dwayne 10:38

That's cool

jeremy 10:40

I, I, well, I'm not... I mean, listen, I was very proud of myself. It, it, it tells you all of it. It puts it all in there, and it just makes it easy. And the better part, I mean, this is online, that they can just add it straight to the cart,

Dwayne 10:50

Will it

jeremy 10:50

you know

Dwayne 10:51

to tie it to their banister so they don't call us?

jeremy 10:54

No. No. You know what? That's not on there, but that is something else that I can do to have automated to go, to go to help them out with. But,

Dwayne 11:01

that's

jeremy 11:02

already used it

Dwayne 11:03

so that's on your online store?

jeremy 11:06

That's on, that's on housefloral.com.

Dwayne 11:08

Store.

jeremy 11:09

When you go to any of the garlands, when you go to any of the garlands that are on our website, and you pull it up and you scroll down, it's gonna have how many garlands do I need? And so the calculator can do stairwells, uh, or a stair ra-way, rails? What- whatever those are called. It can do your stairs.

Dwayne 11:25

Yeah

jeremy 11:26

it can do, your mantel. It'll figure it out for your mantel. It'll show you how different swag. And it will also do your columns. So that's a, a little bit more complicated.

Dwayne 11:39

like when people wrap

jeremy 11:40

Yeah, wrap it around the column. Mm-hmm.

Dwayne 11:43

Oh.

jeremy 11:44

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Dwayne 11:45

is that on our app too?

jeremy 11:47

So it's in the app., But then if somebody comes in the store, like, I'm not, I'm not gonna tell them like, "Okay, get out your phone and go to the web-" Like, the... So we have it on, our cellphone up front that the girls can pull, and then they just stand there and you tell, you just tell them like, "Oh, okay." They put it in and boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. Done

Dwayne 12:02

It's kinda cool.

jeremy 12:03

Listen, technology

Dwayne 12:06

Listen, if, y- know he's hinted at this in a couple other podcasts, Jeremy has been deep diving into the AI world,

jeremy 12:12

Mm-hmm.

Dwayne 12:12

uh, learning a whole lot of things and taking these classes and

jeremy 12:16

Mm-hmm.

Dwayne 12:17

at the computer and

jeremy 12:18

Mm-hmm. That's my favorite part

Dwayne 12:21

He has put some AI into my office routine that at first I did not want to do, but now I'm like, "Oh, this is actually really easy."

jeremy 12:28

Mm-hmm.

Dwayne 12:29

um, I think this is just another step for us to build a water source out back to generate our own AI stuff.

jeremy 12:41

Well, you know, I told y'all from the get-go when I started looking into all this ex- the, the artificial intelligence stuff that, like, I was not... When, when we did, like, the, the podcast that was on it, like, my whole thing was I don't wanna put myself in a Barbie box. I don't want to make myself into a cartoon. I don't want to... Like, there's a cost involved to nature, to the world, to people, but you can use it to, help you and help the business, and then so you can focus your energy on things that can make a difference elsewhere. Listen, I didn't, I... When we originally did the... Yeah, with people, exactly. And, I think when we did the AI podcast, I actually discussed, like, something that I took that it took me, I don't remember how many minutes, uh, whereas it would take me days. I did something the other day, honest to God, it would've taken me two weeks, and I did it in 30 seconds

Dwayne 13:30

Wow

jeremy 13:31

Yeah, it's, uh, look, it's, it's crazy. But so I'm, I'm trying to be responsible and I'm trying to do it in a good way, but I'm using this to help people, in, in whatever s- little simple way. So when it comes to Chri- Christmas, they're not worried about trying to do their to-do list. They can actually hang out with the people they like, if they do like anybody.

Dwayne 13:49

M- mm-hmm. Well, and that i- I mean, that's a good way to start it too, just because, with the garland, because I can't tell you how many people during an open house say, "How many garlands do I

jeremy 14:01

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm

Dwayne 14:02

X?" And it's like, oh. I'm like, "Okay, do you have a picture?" So, then you have to

jeremy 14:06

Mm-hmm

Dwayne 14:06

calculate what this is, 'cause you know how far the railing's apart and how many steps and blah, blah,

jeremy 14:11

Mm-hmm.

Dwayne 14:11

for somebody to just be like, "Oh, look, it says you need 12." And then what if they don't want all 12? What if they just wanna try some? Like, like is there a memory for that on that app, or

jeremy 14:24

So, well, they can just go back in. No, it doesn't store it. It doesn't store it, but actually I need to look. I can't remember... Here's the problem. I've built so many at this moment that I have-- I haven't even told you about the one that I made yesterday afternoon. I made it in two hours. The girls, the floral department, and Sabrina are going to shit because it's going...

Dwayne 14:45

that one?

jeremy 14:46

So

Dwayne 14:47

surprise. I can tell by the look on his face on his camera that that is a surprise

jeremy 14:51

Uh, well, it's not so right. So one of the, um, one of the struggles when the ladies make, their arrangements is, uh, or when any of us make the arrangements, is that, you know, when you do it, you've gotta keep all your tags and then add them all up, and then sometimes you screw up, you hit the wrong digit or, you know, who knows whatever on the calculator. And then because there's a s- there's a separation from the back to the front, they then have to scan the tags to take it out of the inventory up front. Okay? So Sabrina's got her little cut. Well, yesterday, I thought there has to be something I can do to make that better. Well, yesterday I created an app that I've called Stem Scan. And so when the ladies finish making their arrangement, they lay out their tags barcode up, they take a picture of it in the app, it finds it all, tells them how much the arrangement is, and then they can delete it out of inventory immediately. It does it all in one step.

Dwayne 15:50

me?

jeremy 15:51

No. It's, there's actually two steps. They have to click the next one to say, "Yes, I'm done," and then it'll take it out. But it'll take it out s- it'll take it out square. Sabrina doesn't know yet, and I wanted to make sure I could get it to work yesterday before I told anybody about it, but, uh, it, it's working.

Dwayne 16:05

Whoa. So their phone is connected Square. Well, it is anyway for clocking in and clocking out, after they build something, it'll take it out

jeremy 16:21

And it tells them how much to process. And they can put it... I mean, listen, it

Dwayne 16:25

That one we are gonna teach Dwayne

jeremy 16:27

You...

Dwayne 16:28

because he is the worst

jeremy 16:31

All they've gotta do is take a picture. Take a picture and then, you know, uh, it'll, it, it literally does the rest.

Dwayne 16:36

everything.

jeremy 16:37

I know.

Dwayne 16:39

Just tell him not to text us the picture after he takes the picture.

jeremy 16:42

it, well, it doesn't save the picture. It doesn't save the picture. Well, and there's another layer to this that I'll talk to you separately about what I c- think, I think I can do from there to maybe make some other things simple too. But, so yeah, so you don't even know about that one. The other one that I did that's gonna help people a lot for Christmas, and so we're mentioning this with Christmas in July, is you know we talk about our Holy Trinity, which is the long needle pine, the cedar, and magnolia, and those are like our, our go- our three go-to stems that we use so much, like in all of our trees. Like, that's what we start with, right? That's always what we start with. So before we've done bundles online, so if somebody was looking, they could just look and see, well, this is what we suggest for a seven-and-a-half-foot tree, this is what we suggest for a nine-foot tree, and they could just buy it. It was more difficult in the store because it's so busy out there. Then people come in and they're like, "Well, how many do I need? How many do I need? How many do... Well, my tree's really big," and it only sits on, it sits on the wall, so you only see half of it, or it sits in a corner and you only see like, you know, really half of it still, and all those things. Well then, I mean, you know how many times you've been asked, "How many do they need?"

Dwayne 17:41

Right.

jeremy 17:41

Right? So I built a calculator that's both online and on, on the, the phone out front that will tell them, they put in their height, the how full the tree is, and then how full they want it,

Dwayne 17:55

Like if it's, like if it's skinny, medium, or

jeremy 17:59

exactly. Skinny, yeah, uh-huh, mm-hmm. And then if they want to approach it in, like, a l- I don't wanna say less is more, but l- l- the medium or the full is, like, our normal, and then the extra is, like, over the top. Okay? So this is just the holy trinity. It's just the three. Like, ma- like, just, like, like, poof. Like, you blowing, like, blowing out their cheeks and stuff. Um, that's the, that's the, the overdone. Um, but our full or our medium, whatever it's called on there, uh, the middle one, that's our, our... how we normally do it. Um, and it will give them the quantities that they need. Now, online, you can have it emailed to you, so you have that. Or, so you don't lose it, or in the store, we can then text it to them or email it to them, and if they decide that day they wanna take some, if they just wanna get... Like, if they come during the Christmas in July event and they wanna save the 20% off, and they wanna buy, let's say they need 16 of something and they buy 10. Well, the lady can put, the ladies can put it in there. It changes on there. It says, "You bought 10 on the date. You still need six." And it will email the card to them in their email, and they can just save it to their phone, so they can go back to it anytime

Dwayne 19:13

So So that will know their cart that they purchased six But their tree really required 12, and they'll get those home, and then they'll come back and say, "Oh, I need to get these more," 'cause they want more.

jeremy 19:30

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, they, they still have it to go back to.

Dwayne 19:33

should've bought it then."

jeremy 19:35

No, hopefully we have plenty. Hopefully, Lord, I hope we have, uh, that we can help them get through the first part anyway. But yeah, no, so th- these are just like, you know, silly little things that are like, "Oh, I think this is gonna help." And then there's another one that just already went up yesterday that's online. It's on almost... now this one we won't have out front, but this is just like trying to figure out how can I use our knowledge. We've been in this forever. We, like, we know how much it's gonna take. Not everybody has that knowledge, right? Not everybody has that, that filing cabinet of information, how many think, you think you're gonna need. Our number one question when we're asked, "How many of these stems do I need f- to fill a vase, to fill this vase? I'm just gonna mass this one out." Like, that's always what we're at, especially online.

Dwayne 20:16

Yeah

jeremy 20:17

'Cause you know you don't have it in front of you, you can't see it, like those kinds of things. So I built a calculator that's on probably 90% of products that we have online that can go into a vessel, um, that you tell it the size of the mouth of your container and how full you want it, and it'll tell you. And we- th- they've already been using it left and right-

Dwayne 20:34

so it knows how big that stem is,

jeremy 20:37

Mm-hmm.

Dwayne 20:38

stem they choose or flower they choose or whatever

jeremy 20:40

Yeah. It'll tell you the size of the vase that it works best in as far as easily right out of the box. Just gotta fluff it and put it in the vase I mean

Dwayne 20:51

one to say, "I'm sorry, that face is too small. You need a new one." Hmm.

jeremy 20:57

Uh, but this has been really interesting to see, like, um

Dwayne 21:02

So you've, you've tried this online recently, are online shoppers receptive

jeremy 21:10

Yeah, we, uh, uh, it, it went up, uh, the ni- night before last, and people were using it yesterday. Actually, Ch- there's somebody called in. Christina was helping them on the phone, and she used it with them on the phone. And actually, while we're sitting here on the, the podcast, Christina just texted me. She's like: "Oh my God, everybody's talking about the calculator."

Dwayne 21:33

Well, good. Good.

jeremy 21:35

So,

Dwayne 21:36

cool

jeremy 21:36

well, yeah, so it's just ways of trying to help because, I mean, life is stressful enough. So we're all about trying to, like, do joy and trying to, um, you know, make life a little easier and a little prettier and a little more joyful. So anything we can do to help along the way.

Dwayne 21:51

Well, and what a lot of people may not know about Jeremy is that he, he doesn't want to say this, but he is our computer nerd. So that's

jeremy 21:59

Mm-hmm.

Dwayne 21:59

I think he has spearheaded a lot of this on,

jeremy 22:02

Mm-hmm.

Dwayne 22:02

he has the mind that can figure this out and has the patience for it. I have patience for many things, but computer is not one of them. Um, like I can block out my eight-year-old child like no problem.

jeremy 22:18

Hmm. See, I don't have that talent

Dwayne 22:21

if I can't get my checks to print out of QuickBooks, I throw the damn computer across the room. So

jeremy 22:29

Yeah. Well, you know, I've always been, when I started with you, I mean, I've always been the youngest of the three, and so when we...

Dwayne 22:36

oh. Yes. As I'm sitting here drinking my Geritol shake, 'cause I just got done working out

jeremy 22:43

Well, uh, as I'm sitting in the office with a caftan on because I'm freezing to death.

Dwayne 22:48

What?

jeremy 22:51

People, a lot... Listen, when you come to the store and it's 9,000 degrees outside, if you get hot, know that we're freezing in the office. It's so cold back here. It just doesn't get cold up front. I'm sorry

Dwayne 23:01

Well, I know a- and it is because we have multi-generational ladies that work up front that are all on different heating and cooling sensors.

jeremy 23:14

Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Pre-perimenop- perimenopause, perimenopause, postmenopausal.

Dwayne 23:20

Post-menopausal, in menopause. That's, you know,

jeremy 23:23

It's, it's everything. It's, it's... Listen, and then, you know, it, it, it's fine. But no, I was-- I've always been the one to, like, have to, like... I mean, Dwayne didn't know anything about Excel, which blows my mind because he... Finance was his alleged... Of course, I guess they didn't use it in co- I don't know. I, I have no idea.

Dwayne 23:41

They didn't have Excel when he was in college. They didn't. That's why he's so good in his head with numbers, but

jeremy 23:50

that's why his brain doesn't work so much anymore. He just forgets stuff,

Dwayne 23:54

Yeah. It's

jeremy 23:55

and he makes it up. He- One of the girls up front was showing up to him. She goes, "He says this is exactly how you showed me to do this. He says this is how he's always done it." I was like, "No." And the only reason why I know

Dwayne 24:03

Uh-uh.

jeremy 24:05

that is because that's not how you taught me 20-something years ago. So whatever. Ay, yay, yay. Well, um, we've got... Let's see. We're still getting ribbon in. We're getting more pallets of stuff in today. So we're recording this the Thursday the w- of the week before the weeks of Christmas in July. So Christmas in July starts on Tw- what is it?

Dwayne 24:28

It's Friday

jeremy 24:29

Jesus, oh my God. Okay.

Dwayne 24:31

one week before Christmas open house

jeremy 24:33

Yeah, we're recording this a week before it starts, but this is gonna come out. Y'all are gonna get to hear it on Wednesday before Christmas in July. So we still have pallets of st- Well, if, if you listen to it when it comes out, you'll get to hear it on Wednesday the, before, uh, that Friday of Christmas in July. Um, we have more pallets of stuff coming in. There's so much. I'm just, I'll, I, I... First of all, I don't know h-how we're in July, and now we're almost to August

Dwayne 25:00

Yeah, I know. I

jeremy 25:02

And, and we already have Fallout on the floor, and people are already ordering Fallout online

Dwayne 25:07

people bought fall all day yesterday. So, um, I just got confirmation that, um, Ribbon shipped, so that

jeremy 25:16

Oh

Dwayne 25:17

either today or Monday.

jeremy 25:19

Oh, that's amazing

Dwayne 25:20

some more Kurt, some Kurt Adler, which is, you know, fun ornament type

jeremy 25:23

Yeah, yeah, yeah

Dwayne 25:24

stuff. We do have some more, um, John Mark coming, 'cause Sarah me that we have some back order that she's gonna ship

jeremy 25:31

Good,

Dwayne 25:32

we'll try to

jeremy 25:32

good

Dwayne 25:34

Um, and also I put in another call that we should probably the, during open house get two pallets of Raz.

jeremy 25:44

Oh, wow.

Dwayne 25:46

yeah

jeremy 25:47

Lord, I, I, listen, you know, when I was young, which was so long ago, and I'm sure you heard the same thing. Everybody tells you how quick time goes as you get older.

Dwayne 25:57

Yeah.

jeremy 25:58

Like, and they're like, "Oh, it just gets quicker." I'm like, "How's it get quicker? I just put my Christmas away and it's getting back up."

Dwayne 26:04

Yeah.

jeremy 26:06

I, I don't, I don't,

Dwayne 26:07

Mm-hmm

jeremy 26:07

it, it's... I think what, uh, exasperates it is that we live in a constant state of living in multiple seasons as far as, like, in the retail world as well. Um, and so it's, we celebrate them all. I made a joke on social media last week that I had had hot dogs on the 4th of July. Actually, I think I might've mentioned it on the podcast last week. Uh, uh, I did not have hot dogs, but I wanted them. But we'd celebrated the 4th. I'd watched multiple Christmas movies, and we had started, uh, having fall stuff pop up in the store, and I was like, "Yep, we living it all, all the time. All the time."

Dwayne 26:40

Mm-hmm

jeremy 26:41

but I kinda like it.

Dwayne 26:43

You know, you said that this is the first year I didn't have hot dogs or hamburger on 4th of July. Now that I think about it

jeremy 26:51

That's, that's unfortunate

Dwayne 26:53

I mean, that was three weeks ago and I just now remembered that, but we did not have one. I want one. Hmm. Oh, well.

jeremy 27:01

I want one too, so we both need to make this happen this weekend.

Dwayne 27:04

I know. I know. So July 24th was our first day.

jeremy 27:08

Yes.

Dwayne 27:09

now, right?

jeremy 27:10

First day, yeah, 20% off. It goes through August the 1st in the store. So it goes Friday through the following Saturday of the next week.

Dwayne 27:20

mm-hmm.

jeremy 27:20

And then online it'll go through that Sunday

Dwayne 27:23

yeah. Okay

jeremy 27:25

And then I, I'm gonna go ahead and do a shout-out, 'cause these people may come back and listen to it. I have no idea. We're doing a... We're part of this virtual Christmas in July event that is happening, I think the 25th, 26th, 27th, something like that. I'm not really sure. Um, so if any of you f- Uh, it's... I told y'all about it, but

Dwayne 27:45

So-

jeremy 27:46

else,

Dwayne 27:46

else back there.

jeremy 27:48

something else going on. Uh, it, it, we, we

Dwayne 27:51

but my desk is literally seven feet away from Jeremy's. So it's like, I should probably be more aware as to what he's doing, but honestly I don't pay attention all goddamn day. I got my other, I got, uh, my own stuff to do

jeremy 28:04

We, uh, got connected with, uh, Laura at Mom Envy, which is a, a blog, and she does a lot of printables and things like that. And she's doing this first ever, uh, Christmas in July craft fair. Now listen, you know, crafts, there's no judgment. Craft is not our, uh, how we do things, I guess, like that's not our mindset. But I appreciate the DIY, the, appreciate the people wanting to do it and be creative and do the things themselves. So we... This feels very natural for us. So, uh, Kim and I recorded like a 18, 19-minute video that Kim, uh, worked so hard on and edited. Um, and we taught them what the Holy Trinity was, um, because really, you know, we talk about it all the time that that's the one thing that, uh, well, it's how we start 99.9% of the trees that we do. Um, it can make a tree that's besheveled, sat on, missing branches, half lit, duct taped together, squirrel lived in, sad little tree that we've all had in the basement or up in the attic. It can turn it into something a lot more, um, lusciousness, right? And, um, that you can put that with your macaroni kids ornaments, and it, it steps everything up, right? It, it makes it feel a little more magical. And so we did a video that, uh, introduced them to what that was. We showed them how to put it in the tree. Um, and then also sh- uh, taught them the rule of two or three when it comes to ribbon, which if you've not heard it on here, we have, there's a blog. I'll put it down in the show notes. Um, ribbons can be really intimidating for a lot of people, and, um, 'cause, you know, we see it. People come in here, and they'll stand in the ribbon aisles,

Dwayne 29:48

Mm-hmm.

jeremy 29:48

just look at it. And you can... They sweatin'. Sweat's rolling down their, uh, forehead. Their mustaches are getting a little wet. Like, they just don't know what to do

Dwayne 29:57

They

jeremy 29:57

'cause

Dwayne 29:58

picking out them ugly shoes they got on.

jeremy 30:02

Um, so it, it's our go-to suggestion. If you limit it to two or three colors, two or three patterns, and two or three textures and widths, um, you will... You'll have a winning combination every time. And so we showed a, a real cute, uh, combo in it, and then I made bows, and I showed how we the bows on the tree. Um, all those kind of things. And they got, Granny's peanut butter fudge recipe. That was a little giveaway.

Dwayne 30:29

cool

jeremy 30:29

So if any of you have watched the video and then came to listen to this podcast, welcome. Welcome to the hot ass mess. Yeah.

Dwayne 30:36

yeah.

jeremy 30:37

Yeah. And I told them in the video I was...

Dwayne 30:38

want

jeremy 30:39

Yeah. Yes. And I told them in the video that I said, "Full disclosure, that I have two business partners, Stuart and Dwayne, and your all's pictures are in there." And I said, the truth. I said, uh, that we, when we're all together, it can be a little much. And

Dwayne 30:55

can be

jeremy 30:55

I said it, but when I say that Kim found the perfect video to put at that moment,

Dwayne 31:02

Oh,

jeremy 31:02

I'll have to show it to you. It's so funny.

Dwayne 31:04

Oh,

jeremy 31:05

like, "Yep.

Dwayne 31:06

to

jeremy 31:06

Yep, this was it. Yes, was it. This was a good representation of what it's like with us." So, well, if you're new here, if you've, been with us from the get-go, thank you for being here. We will be back next week with another new podcast. Dwayne should be back. I don't know if we'll be here, but so somebody'll be here. We'll be here, hopefully.

Dwayne 31:23

Do one next week? Uh, I guess, yeah,

jeremy 31:25

you know what? We're gonna try. We're gonna try. Maybe if we do it, even tape it earlier in the week or something. We'll do, we'll figure it out. We've heard from the people, they like to listen to us. So, but we will be back. thanks for listening. We'll see y'all next week.

Dwayne 31:37

Great.

jeremy 31:37

Bye.

Dwayne 31:37

you. All right, bye