A Trade Magazine for New Age Retailers
 

Alignment, Realignment, and Adaptability: The Crystal Garden

Are you focused on the original version of your store? Are you open to the evolution of The Crystal Garden? Do you have patience and the tools to adapt? What is the ultimate fate of my sacred business?

These are all questions I had to contemplate. This moment in time is a pivotal point in allowing for the ultimate realignment. It is an opportunity for the human race to overcome individual challenges that have created negative experiences that we were living or experiencing prior to this pandemic. A doorway has opened to give you permission to make the changes necessary to return to love, kindness, compassion, tolerance, acceptance, and a stronger foothold on our spiritual paths and personal awareness.

 

The Big Decision

With these thoughts in mind, I have made a decision that is a fairly big shift for The Crystal Garden. Effective March 16, we no longer allow customers inside our showrooms. No customers in the building at all. Other than the original staff that went into this lockdown together, only delivery personnel have entered the building. I thought this would last a month or two.

Here we are in July and since those first weeks, I realized that my business will remain virtual and online indefinitely. We are located in Palm Beach County, Florida and the cases have gotten worse. My life and the lives of my staff are too valuable to even consider allowing customers to enter the building. I also don’t want to put my staff in a situation where they may have to argue with customers about masks and distancing rules.

Essentially, the store has been turned into a ‘warehouse” and merchandising has gone out the window a little bit in favor of creating an efficient order-processing setup. We’ve ramped up our efforts to put the entire store onto our website. This will take time to accomplish but each day more of the inventory is making it onto thecrystalgarden.com.

 

Wholesale Division

We are continuing to expand the Wholesale Division ~ The Crystal Garden Brand Aromatherapy. Stores around the world are our Retail Partners. We are blessed to have Whole Foods Market in Florida among our wholesale customers. They carry Smudge in Spray, Sage and Cedar Spray, Palo Santo Spray, Eucalyptus Mist, Lavender Mist, and all 12 signs of the Astrology Collection. Our Retail Partners are starting to open up. Virtual INATS was definitely a plus! Thank goodness for all our retail partners.

With a bit of innovation, diligence, and virtual reality, the business is building. The PPP loan has been a blessing as it allows me the time needed to reinvent my business without having to worry about making enough to make payroll.

 

Virtual Reality

Part of the realignment is that my staff and I are personal shoppers which include texting: photos and videos of merchandise. Some of the teams like to Facetime/What’s App with customers so they can still have an opportunity to view items in our showrooms that are not on our website.

As an author of many books and decks, I still gift Free Events including meditations and workshops weekly using Zoom and Facebook to support personal and spiritual development and to uplift. I’ve been offering free Zoom events to my fellow retailers for their customers. Contact me if you want me to offer something free to your customers.

 

The Big Picture

To sum it up, The Crystal Garden (since 1988) will continue to be a source for Conscious Living Gifts, Books, Aromatherapy, and Gemstones. We will do this through:

 

  • eCommerce (online at com)
  • Phone orders
  • Shop The Crystal Garden from Home on Thursdays at 6 pm ET on Facebook LIVE
  • An expansion of The Crystal Garden Brand Wholesale Aromatherapy Division with Retail Partners Worldwide.
  • All cashless. Zelle, Credit Cards, and electronic payments only. All sales are final during this Global Pandemic.

 

 

 

Margaret Ann Lembo
Author: Margaret Ann Lembo

Margaret Ann Lembo is the author of Chakra Awakening; The Essential Guide to Crystals, Minerals and Stones; Crystal Intentions Oracle; The Essential Guide to Aromatherapy and Vibrational Healing; and Animal Totems and the Gemstone Kingdom. Find out more at thecrystalgarden.com and her website.

Website: https://www.margaretannlembo.com

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