Our focus at Buying Wild has always been to offer quality product at a competitive price along with most importantly - a friendly, welcoming, open, honest, professional service, which is second to none.
We are, and have always been happy to serve...YOU…the customer.
Being a bricks and mortar business means that we are obviously located upon a high street and although it is our intention to expand our business by establishing an on line presence, we intend to try and retain our bricks and mortar presence. We are very much committed to the high street, as we believe it to be integral not to just the local economy, but to the actual lifeblood of the community.
That said, we do also have to be realistic and think 'survival', times are very tough for off line business, and so we shall commit to bricks and mortar as long as it is practically viable, realistic and beneficial for the business to do so.
If you would like to ask any questions then please feel free to contact us on 01244 816848 , or alternatively you may email us via the contact box at the foot of this page. We shall be checking our emails on a regular basis, and would be more than happy to receive your critical feedback regarding our site, along with any order of purchase.
Buying Wild...what does it mean?
When Buying Wild was established back in 1987, the problem of what to call our business was one of the first things we obviously wanted to address.
We did not want to follow the unimaginative route of calling the store - Greetings, The Card Shop, Paper Kisses, etc., etc. There is nothing wrong with these names, they are after-all tried and tested, but they are tired, plus they just did not fit with our intended image or ethos. We were looking to stock non traditional card stock, gifts, etc., and so we obviously wanted to stand out.
We also wanted to be the masters of our store...clue, - keep reading!
Whilst deciding/deliberating on a name to use we proceeded to make appointments with the many companies that we were looking to stock. This is where it all happened.
Our first meeting was with a very helpful representative with a now (sadly) defunct greetings card company.
He proceeded to explain the buying/ordering process that is used within the industry. Although there are variants,there are two basic options.
The first option is stock control, this is a method whereby the retailer orders stock from the company using re-order tickets, these tickets are delivered within the packs of cards purchased, and relate to the stock control system that the company has created for the store. This is an ordered plan/layout of all captions along with coding etc. This method although efficient, does mean that the store does not have full control over what stock is received, and displayed in the racks. It is normal for supplying companies who have created the stock control to demand the major share of retail footage available, leaving approximately 30% of available space for the retailer to decide on their choice of card stock.
The second option; our preferred method, and therefore the option we decided upon implementing - was simple and straight forward, it was to order from the rep when he called. He would arrive with his samples on 4 -6 week cycle and would make an appointment to go through the designs...no mean feat when there could be a few hundred designs to wade through. This is where stock control won out over buying wild..it saved time for the retailer, but as mentioned control /choice was sacrificed.
At the time however our opinion was that this was the better method, as it gave full control over what was bought..we could tailor our stock to our customers, and not be predominately tied in to one supplier...who did not know our customer.
The name of this preferred method?.....yes, you've guessed it....Buying Wild!
The word 'Buying Wild' just rung a bell, it seemed to be the answer to our dilemma of what to name the business. It was a fresh name to greeting card retailing on the high street, hopefully memorable, and would also create interest. In fact customers do actually ask what it means. The other benefit was that we also sending out a message via our signage out to passing reps that we were truly independent, and so don't call in if you are only carrying stock control.
'Buying Wild' is still our preferred method of securing stock, however, the industry has changed enormously over the years and so we do now also purchase via stock control..it's a combination that works for us as we get the best of both worlds, therefore meaning that the customer also benefits...this after all is what we are about!