Green Your Store, Your Home, and Your Friends This Earth Day

As Earth Day approaches, the issue of green takes center stage. How eco-friendly is your store? We’ve provided a few ideas for retailers in the past, including ways to save money by going green for Earth day, a list of books for your shelves that are spiritually green, and ideas to celebrate Earth Day at your store.

But this year, I propose something different. Instead of simply adopting green practices, why not encourage our co-workers, our friends, and our families to adopt some green practices as well? Below are a few green ideas that are earth-friendly (and often budget-friendly) that you can implement at your store and in your home, and make easy and fun suggestions for family and friends.

 1. Change your lightbulbs. CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lights) pack a punch in terms of energy savings. And now is a wise time to start switching over; with regular bulbs being phased out in the next couple of years, they will become unavailable, and many retailers are offering low prices (as low as $1 a bulb in some cases, like Excel energy has done in our area) to entice consumers to make the switch. Also, since a CFL can save you up to $50 in energy costs over its lifetime,  you could be looking at a savings of $1,500 or more (over the next year or two) when you switch all of your bulbs to CFLs.

2. Hand out seed packets. What a fun way to spread some green! Make "gift baskets" for customers, friends, or kids that include seed packets, handouts and stuffers with green living tips, or other items (a small portion of potting soil, perhaps?). Starting a few flowers on the deck or some herbs indoors will bring out the gardener in everyone--adults and children alike.

3. Hand out stuffers with tips for living green. Many people feel overwhelmed by the idea of "living green;" a handout that includes quick and easy tips can be a great way for them to feel more comfortable with the idea. These can be included with your seed packets (see number 2 above) in a fun and creative gift basket or other package. We have a stuffer with Natural Homemade Skin Care Remedies on our downloads page that could be included as well.

4. Encourage customers to bring their own re-usable bags. Encourage customers to bring their own re-usable bags (saving on plastic and paper) by offering a discount to those that do. You can also encourage friends and children to use re-usable cloth bags by giving them as gifts. Many stores, from Amazon to Ebay to Etsy, have a vast collection of styles and patterns; some sites will even let you customize your own design, making them a perfect gift for anyone.

5.  Ride your bike to work--and encourage your co-workers and friends to do the same. Bicycling can be great fun, as well as good exercise. It's also a great way to save on gas costs and automobile emissions harmful to the earth. Bike together to work with co-workers that live near you, or set up a challenge to see who can bike to work the most days in one month. For more ideas on how to take up bicycling as a primary mode of transportation, read our article, "Bicycle Commuting and the No-Car Life."

6. Save on printer paper. Set your printers (both at work and at home) to print everything as double-sided. This has the potential to cut the amount of paper you use in half, reducing not only your carbon footprint for paper (including trees used and carbon emissions released during the creation process) but also could therefore cut your printing paper budget in half. Have a document that is one-sided, or papers you are about to recycle? Staple them together, un-printed back side up, so that it makes a great note pad for jotting things down at work or an art pad at home on which kids can draw and sketch.

What are some other fun and innovative ideas on green living?

March Issue of the New Moon Is Out--Check Your Mailbox!

For those of you who currently subscribe to our email newsletter for booksellers, The Moon, you may have noticed a few changes.

We've streamlined the look, included new features, and christened it with a new moniker: The New Moon. As with this blog, our goal is to really connect with you, our selling partners, each month and offer support, guidance, and resources with the aim of helping you grow and thrive in this ever-changing market.

Our March issue of the New Moon was mailed this morning. This issue includes:
-Celebrating Earth Day At Your Store -Shelftalkers (The Essential Guide to Natural Skin Care, Navigating the Out-Of-Body Experience, Tarot Spreads, and Table Tipping for Beginners)
-April New Releases
-And Much More!

If you did not receive a copy in your email inbox, you can also view it here: The New Moon, March 2012 Issue.

You can also visit our website to subscribe to The New Moon, ensuring that it reaches you each month (please note that you will need to log in/register to be able to join our mailing list).

Celebrating Earth Day at Your Store

Dear Booksellers,

It’s almost here—that special time for honoring the Earth’s rich bounty.

Earth Day officially takes place April 22, although many schools, businesses, and communities celebrate all week long. We invited Clea Danann, author of Sacred Land, to talk about how to bring the spirit of Earth Day to your store.

Bring Earth Day Alive
Clea Danaan

In today’s world of gadgets, customers expect hands-on experiences. Invite interaction with these magical, dynamic Earth Day displays.

These ideas can be adapted to your store and your interests and time. Have time for a big Earth Day celebration? Go all out, offering classes and transforming your whole store into a magical garden (I can just see it!). Or if it suits you better to be subtle and quick, just tuck a few of these ideas into the corners as they fit.


Craft an Indoor Garden

Set up a well-lit corner of your store with an indoor garden. Buy inexpensive planter boxes or pots from a local garden shop, fill with potting soil, and plant pansies, herbs, or lettuces. You may want to protect the floor with plastic sheeting or oilcloth.

Keep the soil moist, and pick off any browning flowers or leaves to keep the display fresh. Decorate your planters with crystals, glass balls (put them at the back out of reach of little hands), or figurines of fairies or animals. Next to the garden, put up a chalkboard or bulletin board with I Spy questions: Can you find the blue frog? The pink fairy? The toadstool?

Simply adding a few potted plants to a book display would also work well as an indoor garden.

For your Earth Day celebration, invite customers to plant a seed. Fill a large, accessible planter with fresh soil. Next to the planter, provide a dish of radish, marigold or chia seeds, purchased in bulk. Customers can plant a seed, offering a prayer for the Earth as they press it into the soil. Instead of one big planter, you might offer little pots made out of newspaper. (Here are instruction and a video for making newspaper pots.) You could also re-purpose yogurt cups or buy tiny peat pots in bulk.


Invite the Fairies

Fairies are guardians of the land; every Earth Day celebration should include a few fairies. If you have planter boxes in front of your store, encourage fairies to visit. Plant pansies, violets, or miniature roses—all favorites of the fair folk.

Wind chimes and sun catchers also draw curious Little People. Tiny furniture crafted by hand or from a garden catalog also encourages them to take up residence. For a unique and lighthearted workshop, offer an Earth Day class on making fairy furniture or fairy gardens.

To make a fairy garden, fill a re-used plastic container with soil. Plant grass seed or Johnny jump up flowers. Add a fairy figure, little frogs, and crystals. Fairy garden kits can also be purchased from toy and craft stores and would make another fun craft class. Or just make your own for the front counter or near a display of books on fairies.


Start a Worm Bin

Worm bins turn newspaper and leftover lunch scraps into garden fertilizer. Unlike regular compost, you can keep a worm bin in an apartment or store, tucked onto a shelf or under a table. They are also easy to make. (Here are instructions for making your own worm bin.)

Include a worm bin in your Earth Day book display. Use the vermicompost in your store garden or planters, or offer it to customers who appreciate the immense benefits of compost. You could also offer a class on making worm bins.


Heal the Waters

An interactive display that takes up very little space can help heal the planet’s water. Fill a glass jar with water and set it on the front counter where everyone will see it. With a little sign, invite people to send “love and gratitude” into the water, seeing that healing intention spread to the planet’s water. People can hold or touch the jar, sending positive intention to the planet.

***

Clea Danaan (Colorado) has been gardening organically for over fifteen years. She is the author of Sacred Land and Voices of the Earth. Her articles on gardening and environmental activism have appeared in Sage Woman and Organic Family. Visit her website.


Clea Danaan on her favorite bookstore:
“I love Elliott Bay Books in Seattle for the creaky floors and old wooden beams.”


Let us know how you’re planning to celebrate Earth Day this year!

Small Business Strategies in Our Changing Economy

Rhonda Abrams recently wrote a post for USA TODAY 's Money section, detailing the plight of the small business--and how the independent bookstore is the "poster child of the endangered retailer." In her post she highlights Kepler's in Menlo Park, CA, and what the store is doing to adapt to the changing times, in addition to providing some survival tips for small businesses.

Briefly, those tips include:
1. Diversifying the revenue stream.
2. Adding membership programs.
3. Creating new relationships with vendors.

Read the full post here.

Books to Inspire Us All This Earth Day

Earth Day is fast approaching. Each year, the month of April is a time when I'm reminded of the things I am doing to help our Mother Earth (recycling, reusing, actively reducing my carbon footprint by carpooling) as well as a time when I search out new ways to contribute to the effort (such as composting, becoming a "localvore," or making my own cleaning supplies).

I love that Llewellyn has so many books to inspire my green living aspirations; from cultivating a reverence for the Earth and all her inhabitants to creating my own skin care products, I can always find something new each year to try.

Of the many (and yes, there are many!) Llewellyn books on green topics below is a partial list of the ones that, in my humble opinion, should inhabit any green-lover's bookshelf:

To Cultivate Your Relationship with Our Mother Earth:

 Voices of the Earth, by Clea Danaan
Awaken your psychic powers, talk to nature, and hear her reply. Nature intuitive Clea Danaan gives lessons in building psychic awareness and communicating with plants, trees, and nature spirits. This rewarding connection with nature offers healing, renewal, knowledge of your life purpose, and a spiritual oasis in a chaotic world. (2008 Independent Publisher Book Award for "Most Likely to Save the Planet" Bronze Medal Winner)

 Flower and Tree Magic, by Richard Webster
Flowers and trees have long been celebrated as sacred and powerful. By learning to read the special messages they hold, plants can help us navigate our life path and reconnect with nature. In this comprehensive guide, bestselling author Richard Webster uncovers the hidden properties of every major type of tree, herb, and flower that we encounter in our daily lives. From protection and healing to divination and worship, this book shows you how to apply ancient spiritual practices from many cultures to modern life.










To Help You Enact Green Changes in Your Community:

Sacred Land: Intuitive Gardening for Personal, Political, and Environmental Change, by Clean Danaan

In this positive and practical handbook, Danaan shows how organic gardening can germinate environmental awareness and political change while feeding your spirit. You'll learn how to plan and plant your garden, create compost, save seeds, conserve and transmute water, connect with garden goddesses, and incorporate planetary energy in your garden.

Sacred Land explores the benefits of native plants, organic food and agriculture, buying locally, and eating seasonally. It suggests simple yet effective ways of spreading the message of ecology and sustainability to your community. You'll discover how to get along with ants, bats, bees, butterflies, fairies, frogs, gnomes, worms, and other creatures who share our gardens. This one-of-a-kind gardening guidebook also includes inspiring stories of women activists, farmers, artists, and healers who are making a difference in the world. 

 Pagan Visions for a Sustainable Future, edited by Ly de Angeles
Representing diverse arenas of Paganism, eleven established activists, authors and academics passionately debate the critical issues facing modern Pagans. These provocative discussions--exploring feminism, magickal ecology, ancient Egyptian ethics, political activism, globalization, the power of truth, sacred communities, and environmental spirituality--challenge readers to reconsider what it means to be Pagan in the twenty-first century.









To Help You Discover Your Magical, Green Thumb:

The Real Witches' Garden, by Kate West

Enrich your Craft and tap into an age-old source of a Witch's power—the garden.
Kate West, acclaimed Witch and top-selling author in the U.K., can help you transform a garden of any size into a sacred space for healing, working magic, honoring the gods, and celebrating the Wheel of the Year. Incorporate the five elements or magical shapes into your garden. Work plant spells. Grow a window box of medicinal herbs. Honor your gods and goddesses with specific plants. Use Moon energy to help your garden thrive. Also included are spells and rituals for deterring pests, healing sickly plants, influencing weather, and consecrating your magical space.

Garden Witchery: Magick from the Ground Up, by Ellen Dugan

How does your magickal garden grow?... With violets, rosemary, and yarrow to attract faeries; an apple tree for love and health; and a circle of stones in some tucked-away corner? Whether you live in a cottage in the woods, a home in the suburbs, or a city apartment with a small balcony, a powerful and enchanted realm awaits you. Discover the secret language and magickal properties of the trees and flowers, herbs and plants found growing around you, and learn how to create your own witch's garden.
Written with down-to-earth humor by a master gardener who is also a practicing witch, this creative and encouraging guide will inspire gardeners of all ages and experience levels. It includes a journal section that makes it easy to keep track of your progress, practical gardening advice, personal stories, and garden witchery lore and magick.




To Help You Discover Natural and Homeopathic Remedies:

The Essential Guide to Natural Skin Care, by Hélène Berton

Treat yourself—your face, hands, hair, and lips—to vitamin-rich, toxin-free nourishment from nature. The Essential Guide to Natural Skin Care maps the wondrous qualities and uses of botanicals used in homemade beauty products, making it easy to customize your own lotions, creams, milks, body butters, face masks, lip balms, ointments, toners, and more.

Choose from a wide variety of eco-friendly vegetable oils and butters, infused and essential oils, aromatic hydrosols, and emulsifiers. Discover the beneficial beauty and healing properties of each, as well as their practical traits, such as shelf life and absorption. You’ll find ingredients that soften, tone, and hydrate skin and hair; tighten pores; fade scars; stave off wrinkles; prevent and heal acne; promote hair growth; treat dandruff; fight infection and fungus; and repel insects. This portable, compact DIY reference also includes practical advice and basic recipes that can be easily modified to your unique skin type, needs, and tastes.

The Wild & Weedy Apothecary, by Doreen Shababy

Just outside your doorstep or kitchen window, hidden beneath a tall pine tree or twining through porch latticework, a wild and weedy apothecary waits to be discovered. Herbalist Doreen Shababy shares her deep, abiding love for the earth and its gifts in this collection of herbal wisdom that represents a lifetime of work in the forest, field, and kitchen. This herbalism guidebook is jam-packed with dozens of tasty recipes and natural remedies, including Glorious Garlic and Artichoke Dip, Sunny Oatmeal Crepes, Candied Catnip Leaves, Lavender Lemonade, Roseberry Tea, Garlic Tonic, Parsnip Hair Conditioner, and Dream Charms made with Mugwort.

Incense Retailing Secrets by Carl F. Neal

Dear Booksellers,

As many of you know, incense is more than just nice-smelling smoke. It can be used to deepen meditation, cleanse bad energy, and drive away unwanted spirits. A powerful tool in ritual and self-change, it makes sense that many metaphysical shops carry this aromatic product. 

Do customers ever ask questions about the incense you carry? This insightful article from Carl F. Neal, author of Incense and Incense Magick (a March 2012 release), explains some not-widely-known details about charcoal incense. 



Incense Retailing Secrets: Charcoal
By Carl F. Neal

As incense customers become more sophisticated in their purchasing habits, it’s important for retailers to be prepared for questions. Many customers have an increasing interest in not only the materials in their incense, but also its point of origin, harvesting methods, and more. Unless your business specializes in selling incense or aromatics you may be unable to answer some of those questions, but you can definitely address many of your customers’ concerns. 

Two Kinds of Incense Charcoal

Charcoal is a commonly purchased incense product and one that presents a growing concern from consumers. Incense charcoal can generally be broken into two categories: those without saltpeter (potassium or sodium nitrate) and those that do include this ingredient. This is a concern to many customers because saltpeter gives off a bad odor, which can affect the smell of herbs, resins, or other types of incense. More importantly, the saltpeter is an oxidizer that increases the amount of heat produced by the charcoal. When charcoal burns hot, it will destroy the incense placed on it much faster.

Why Use Saltpeter?

So why include saltpeter in any charcoal? The saltpeter can make it easier to light this type of charcoal and keep it burning regardless of the quality of the wood that is used. There is a perception among some consumers that saltpeter is mandatory for charcoal to light easily.

Benefits of Low-Scent Charcoal

Incense Magick
by Carl F. Neal

The other category of charcoal (most often bamboo charcoal, but not always) generally offers a product that produces little or no scent of its own. Properly stored low-scent charcoal is just as easy to light as “self-lighting” varieties, but it is difficult for retailers to know how charcoal was stored before they receive it. This type of charcoal is often sold in smaller sized bricks than its self-lighting counterparts, but ironically low-scent charcoal bricks will generally burn longer. Low-scent charcoal can actually cost the same or less than self-lighting on a brick-for-brick basis.

Don’t forget to mention the lack of scent. That’s a strong selling point.

Incense Lighting Tips

Here are some tips for lighting charcoal that does not contain saltpeter:

• Light charcoal over a candle flame rather than attempting to use a butane lighter.
• Use metal tongs to hold the charcoal so you don’t scorch fingers.
• Allow the charcoal to sit after lighting until the entire brick is covered with a layer of fine ash.

Distinguishing Low-Scent Charcoal from Types Containing Saltpeter

So which types do you sell? If any of your charcoal is labeled “self-lighting” or if it sparks and sputters when initially lit, then this charcoal includes saltpeter. This type of charcoal is often sold in rolls of round charcoal bricks wrapped in foil or plastic. Many brands of this style come from India. Ounce-for-ounce, it is usually less expensive than other types of charcoal.

Low-scent charcoal generally comes from Japanese and Chinese suppliers. The bricks can be square, rectangular, or even (usually in the formal style for the “kodo ceremony”) cylindrical in form. Some brands are covered in paper to prevent charcoal dust from transferring to the user’s fingers. I am unaware of any low-scent charcoal that is sold in rolls, but there may be some brands out there that are. Low-scent charcoal is available from a number of wholesale suppliers in the USA and Europe.

Incense Displays

In just a few inches of display area, you can illustrate how each type of charcoal is best used and a comparison between the two. These types of displays have historically made dramatic improvements in the sales of charcoal, censers/burners, and incense.

Knowing your products and having ready answers for your customers will improve your sales and build confidence in your customer base. Educating your staff will allow everyone to provide consistent advice and guidance.

Smells like a great approach to me!

***

Carl F. Neal is the author of Incense and his new book Incense Magick will be released this March. He has been a student of incense since 1977. In 1995, he became a professional incense maker and has avidly researched incense ever since. He has been lucky enough to learn from a variety of incense makers from North and South America, Asia, and Europe.

Carl leads incense workshops and discussions across the country and loves teaching about incense at all sorts of community events. Visit his website. 

Boost Your Frequency, Boost Your Business

Dear Booksellers,

Ever have one of those perfect days at work? Your staff is smiling and laughing. Your customers are happy and talkative. Your store is filled with good vibes and great potential. Nothing can go wrong. And do you happen to notice more business on these rare occasions?

Good moods are definitely contagious. Consider how a sunny outlook can infuse your store with positive energy that will infect everyone. So how can you lift a dark atmosphere or a foul mood that could threaten sales? Try raising your spiritual frequency.

I’ve invited Melissa Alvarez, the author of 365 Ways to Raise Your Frequency, to discuss how to boost your personal vibrations at work. Consider trying one of these simple, quick exercises to zap negativity, attract abundance, and maintain your store’s positive energy.

365 Ways to Raise Your Frequency
by Melissa Alvarez

Raising Frequency on the Job
By Melissa Alvarez

Now that the holiday rush is over and returns have been dealt with, life for retail employees is returning to normal. Having worked in retail management for fifteen years, from big department stores to small specialty shops, I can understand.

This is an excellent time to use frequency-raising exercises in the workplace. Not only can you raise your own personal frequency, but your increased vibration can have a positive effect on your customers and sales.

You can even increase frequency as a group. If every employee in the store works on raising their energy, customers will feel this positive energy when they walk in the door. They’ll love coming to your store and may tell others what good energy it has. Word of mouth advertising is always the best compliment, isn’t it?


Connecting with your Customers

Raising your frequency at work offers a fuller and richer connection to your customers. Try this frequency-raising exercise before you start your shift.

Imagine you are a customer. See yourself walking through the front door and looking around. What do you see? Is there anyone there to greet you? What is everyone doing? Now imagine yourself walking through the aisles and an employee comes over to ask if you need help. What kind of energy do you sense? Is the employee’s frequency high or low? How does he/she make you feel?

By putting yourself in your customer’s shoes, you can alter the way your own frequency radiates. You can purposefully raise it by using creative visualization. Look at your energy and push aside any negativity and fill that space with positively charged, highly vibrating energy. This raises your frequency and will have a positive effect on your customers.


Selling More Merchandise

If you’ve connected to your customers through raising your frequency and creating a positive experience for them, then they may be more willing to purchase additional suggestions you make on other products.

Displays filled with positive energy also sell more merchandise. As you make the display, use creative visualization to imagine your energy vibrating at a higher rate, filling you with positivity. Now let the positive energy of your increased frequency flow into the display. Give it the intention that it will be pleasing to the eye and will draw customers to it. When you are finished, step back and watch customer reactions.


Quick Frequency Raising Exercises

Anytime you feel like your energy is taking a nosedive, you can raise your frequency. Try any of these quick and easy exercises:

Find Messages in Books
Working in a bookstore is a fantastic place to be if your frequency goes on the fritz. Take a moment to center yourself then walk around to you come to a shelf and book you feel drawn to. Open the book to a random page. Quite often you will read a frequency-boosting message.

Pay Attention to Your Breathing
With just a few focused breaths you can relieve stress and increase your frequency. Breathe deeply, inhale, and feel your energy rise. Release negativity as you exhale.

Change the Music
Music can immediately raise everyone’s frequency. Tone and tempo can liven up the energy throughout the store.

Quick Meditation to Alter Your Mood
Take a couple of minutes to clear your mind and connect to your center of balance. Purposefully imagine your energy moving faster, increasing your frequency, and giving you a sense of calm peace and joy.

Exercise/Yoga in the Break Room
On a break? Stretch and loosen up your muscles before returning to the sales floor. The movement will rev up your frequency.

***

Melissa Alvarez is an internationally known spiritual coach and an award-winning author. She conducts workshops teaching others to connect with their psychic abilities and spirituality, and has performed psychic readings for nearly twenty years. Visit her website.

Melissa Alvarez on her favorite bookstore:
“I enjoy visiting Books-A-Million in Jupiter, Florida. The employees are always happy and radiate positivity.”




Do you do anything special to boost staff morale or brighten the atmosphere of your shop? Please share.