It’s time for me to own that, and whatever comes with it. Good or bad.
I see the stage and all the set pieces as a new problem to solve. I stand in the wings. I go backstage. I move down to the seats where the audience will sit and analyze it from that perspective. A seed of an idea forms.
I find Richie. “Instead of a canoe, what if we did a rowboat?” I pitch. “It’ll give us the width we need, and we can add wheels underneath each corner. That way we can roll it forward from backstage, which gives us more room to work with, and the leads can sit side by side instead of facing each other.”
Richie considers this. “Fucking finally. Where’s that brain of yours been? That’s great. It’ll be safer for them, too.”
“Oh, and I may have a solution for the moon,” I tell him.
Before our second rehearsal of the day, I huddle up with everyone who’s had a hand in getting this show to where it is now. The rest of the afternoon will be dedicated to figuring out what’s not working, to making progress, to making opening night the best it can be with what we have.
We take it from the top and try again.
Chapter 26
HAZEL
Halloween hasn’t even happened yet, and you have Christmas candy out?” Gloria asks, hugging a jar of gingerbread people gummies. “Of all the people to play that game, Emma, I didn’t think it’d be you.”
Emma snorts as she sets a box on the counter. “The making-money game? Because I’m very much here to play that. That’s literally how this store keeps its lights on. Here’s the rest of the white-chocolate snowballs, Hazel.”
“Snowballs? This is all too soon, darling, but hey, inventory management is above my pay grade.” Gloria slices the box open and scoops a few of the chocolates into her bowl. We each try one. “Okay, those are delightful! I take it back. Give me all the holiday candy!”
“The chocolate turkeys are over there if you want something more relevant.” Emma nods to the corner where she’s also stocked maple candies. “And I can’t take credit. It was Hazel’s idea.”
Chocolate melts on my tongue as I wipe down the checkout screen. “Having the holiday candy out doesn’t put off the customers,” I say. “When you put out St. Patrick’s Day inventory at Valentine’s Day, there was a huge bump in heart candy and chocolate sales.”
“I accidentally ordered them too early,” Emma says, grimacing. “Figured we might as well try to move it.”
“Oh yeah, I remember that,” Gloria says. “I thought you were confused about which month it was.”
“What it does is put the more immediate holiday front and center and make people want to enjoy it more,” I explain. “Trends across the industry also indicate that people are trying to stretch out the collective holidays for as long as possible. Have you heard of Summerween?”
“Summerwhatnow?” Gloria asks.
“A lot of people now celebrate Halloween in the summer,” I explain. “We should definitely order more of those”—I point to the jar of candy bones—“in July.”
“You’ve really been paying attention when ringing up customers,” Emma says.
I spin my laptop around. “Actually, it’s all in the data.”
Emma focuses on my screen. “Is that… did you make a presentation?”
“It’s still rough. I analyzed the point-of-sale data and created a few reports.” I go to the next slide. “I hope that’s okay. I have some ideas.”
“Go on,” Emma says, removing a notepad from the counter’s shelf. She and Gloria lean in.
I bring up the next slide. “Have you ever considered a loyalty program?” I ask. “You have a lot of repeat customers. They come by every two weeks, usually between five and seven. A punch card or rewards app is a great way to give back to those customers. Maybe when they get all ten stamped, they get a free mixed bag of candy. It’d be a good way to promote new-to-them inventory.”
Emma writes this down.
On the next slide, I have my graphs and numbers neatly arranged so it’s easy to understand the story I’m trying to tell. “In the week before big holidays—Lunar New Year, Valentine’s Day, Fourth ofJuly, New Year’s—you have customers buying hundreds of dollars’ worth of candy.”
“People love to drop by to stock up on candy for their parties,” Emma says.
“Have you considered putting together themed candy boxes or charcuterie boards for parties?” I ask.
“Candy charcuterie?” Gloria asks, intrigued.
