I am up late tonight. I am working on quote sheets, samples and presentation materials.

It is getting late in the selling cycle to get our products on shelf for this coming 4th quarter. By now, most retailers have made their decisions on what they will carry for the the holiday seasons. In a few weeks, we will actually begin shipping for the Fall retail selling season.

But this week, we received a request to meet with someone who had seen our puzzles in other retailers. They liked what they saw and they want to see if we fit into their puzzle set.

This is very exciting. And very rushed. The retailer thought they had made all their decisions. But seeing our Spring line in stores has made them curious. The funny part is we have been trying to meet with them for months.

Being the new guy on the block, we will jump at any opportunity. So I am up late putting together a presentation for them. I have been in their stores a lot this winter and I was back today to make sure I had not missed anything. I can tell from visiting the store so many times what sells well and what does not. When you go look at the puzzle aisle of a retailer every week for months, you can see what is new on the shelf and what is gathering dust. I will use this investigation to make recommendations.

But first I am taking a break to write a blog post. I am going to try and write one blog post a week from now until the end of the year. It did not seem so hard when I decided to commit to writing more frequently. But now that week three is dawning, I am feeling a little pressure to keep up. I do have a back up plan if I can not think of anything to write. I might just post pictures of cute babies I see. Other blogs do this and it is very effective. Everyone likes to look at cute babies.

My next post might be about the puzzle our family put together this weekend. It was one of our Colorluxe 500 piece puzzles on sale at Target right now ($3.99 for a limited time!). It was really fun and I am not just saying that. The colors were great. I rarely tell you to go buy one of our puzzles, but you really should check out our Colorluxe puzzles at Target. I am so proud of them.

Keep on puzzling!

JP