Join us in kicking off the Christmas season with our annual open house! Register for door prizes, sample some of our delicious gourmet foods, and take advantage of our special open house discount. We can't wait to see you!
View Post
When I was a kid, my mom instilled in me a lesson to always get paid for my work. When I went to mow a lawn or do my newspaper route, she’d remind me, “Be sure you get paid.” As an adult, these flashbacks are vivid like a scene from Citizen Kane—just swap out the Rosebud sled with my newspaper delivery bike. Today, this lesson still resonates when running Bridge. When calling a store that hasn’t paid its Bridge bill, I’m confident in asking ...
Read More
The Annual Shadyside Sidewalk Sale continues through Sunday, July 31. Glassworks and Cheeks are offering the best deals of the year, most sale items are 50% off! Many of the other retail stores on Walnut St. are also participating.
Glassworks also has all Juliska acrylic in stock on sale - 25% off, through Sunday. Pictured are Juliska's Le Panier glasses in the first image and Isabella glasses and pitcher in the second image. Stop in, peruse, and say hello! Click here to shop for ...
Read More
Stop at Glassworks and Cheeks during the Annual Shadyside Sidewalk Sale, taking place Wednesday, July 27th - Sunday, July 31st from 10 am to 5 pm each day. Come to Walnut Street and it's side streets for the best deals of the season. Glassworks and Cheeks offer the best deals of the year!
The Sale features a variety of your favorite small business shops and boutiques from the Shadyside community. Many local businesses will participate, and most retailers offer their best prices of the year, up ...
Read More
Retail Dive reports on Amazon's lazy claims that it cares about stopping counterfeits. Counterfeiters on Amazon may steal a brand's product design, name, and product pictures. When a brand reports this to Amazon, Amazon often does: nothing.
This is an issue for American brands. For example:
A brands creates a product. The brand pays for research and development.
Brand may pay to have it made in America.
Brand takes professional pictures of the finished product.
Today is an annual celebration held on May 5, which commemorates the anniversary of Mexico's victory over the French Empire at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. Happy Cinco De Mayo!
View Post
Businesses like Walmart, Disney, and Discovery are bundling services and adding the “+” suffix to denote them (e.g. Disney+, Discovery+, W+, etc.). In a recent article in RetailDive, we learn that Walmart is giving its customers free, six-month trial Spotify accounts. I think W+ bundling services is smart. Last week, I compared running a gym to offering software. I spoke about bundling services with things that people like to increase their usage, such as work ...
Read More
Last February e-commerce company Shopify Inc. replaced the “Ottawa, Canada” dateline that began its press releases and earnings reports with a strange new one: “Internet, Everywhere.” The geographical shift came at the insistence of Shopify’s founder and chief executive officer, Tobi Lütke, who tends to view such matters through the prism of cold, hard logic. In May 2020, only a few months into the pandemic, he’d made the early, seemingly rash decision to...
Read More
Glassworks and Cheeks offer some of the best deals of the year at the Shadyside Sidewalk Sale on Wednesday, July 28th to Sunday, August 1st.The event is to be held along Walnut St. during normal business hours.
Local businesses will participate and retailers will offer sales of up to 70% off! Savvy shoppers have flocked to the sale for more than 30 years. FREE 2 hour parking on residential streets just off of ...
Read More
I enjoyed today’s WSJ article about stores teaming up to take on Amazon. Since Bridge has collectivized 800 indie shops to push back against Amazon, we can relate to efforts to help stores team up and boost their communities.
The article mentions Shopify and its popularity among indie shops. Shopify, along with BigComerce, Big Cartel, Wix, and Magento, are platforms that have helped indies to grow online independent of Amazon.
While we appreciate any platform that helps indies...
Read More
Business leader Scott Galloway said this past week on his podcast Pivot that "complexity is a tax on the poor." I'd expand on that and posit that: complexity is a tax on indie businesses.
What if indie businesses could reduce the complexity and costs of running an online business? I believe we can. Bridge is reducing the costs of running an online business for more than a thousand businesses.
How do we reduce the 'tax'? Bridge often helps a retailer set up an online store ...
Read More
Each month, on average 99.3% of retailers retain their Bridge Store service. A high retention rate shows that retailers are happy with Bridge’s software and customer service. This high customer loyalty says that Bridge is providing great value for members.
A monthly retention rate of 99.3% equates to approximately an annual retention rate of 92%.
While we’re hiring, some of our customers are still struggling within the retail environment. One client, Cathy Hulgan Designs, is closing because the new landlord wanted to double the rent and asked for a long-term lease. Cathy was a big proponent of ours. I am saddened by her store's closing. I’ll miss her.
I’ll note that her situation did bring to mind the merit of offering digital services and Bridge’s business model. Unlike a rental retail space in a strip mall, ...
Read More
Online advertising is great for brands. It's bad for: indie stores.
Why? Before the Internet, there were few ways for brands to cut out stores. They may have an annual warehouse sale, but that was about it. Today, a customer visits a retailer website and looks at brand X. Or it visits brand X's site to do some research. The issue for indie stores: thanks to online advertising, now I'm being marketed to across the web. I'm reading news on the New York Post website and being encouraged to...
Read More
This week, Amazon launched its online pharmacy targeting the 3.8 billion prescriptions filled in the U.S. each year. Shares of major pharmacy chains dropped about 10% on the news. Amazon honed this weapon in its Seattle lab and is eagerly unleashing it on retail chains and mom-and-pop pharmacies.
Something struck me while reading this news: Does Amazon remind you of Covid-19? The similarities:
Amazons kills many businesses in industries it touches. Pharmacies are now worried
Join Cheeks At The Boutique Warehouse Sale, March 6-7!
Cheeks is participating in the Third Annual Warehouse Sale this Friday (9am-5pm) and Saturday (9am-3pm). The affair takes place at 6401 Penn Avenue in East Liberty, the Trader Joes shopping plaza, in the building next to Staples. 7 diverse Boutiques will offer major discounts on past seasons of clothing, shoes, lingerie, fine home goods, and wellness products. PieBird will also be on hand offering delicious pies.
Organizers are ...
Read More
February 8, 2020
February 8, 2020
To Our Valued Customers,
The Store Will Be Closed From February 9th -13th 2020
For Our Annual Holiday, We Will Resume Regular Business Hours February 14th 2020
Sorry For Any Inconvenience.
Thank You In Advance For Understanding!
We are very pleased to announce that our 2019 Annual Christmas Editions from Villeroy & Boch are now offered 7 Days a week in our Gift Store --- at 1503 Main Street, Suite 1, Peckville, PA 18452 (570-489-4060) --- Monday thru Saturday: 10am - 5:30pm --- Sunday: 12Noon - 5:00pm --- Evenings: We are available for Bridal Registry Appointments and Special Events ... so please call ahead ... and note that appointments are not required during regular business hours.
View Post