Remembering The First Wholesale Order
I was telling a story to a fellow I met this past weekend at a festival where Old Road Brand had a booth. He is the owner of a couple of ACE HARDWARE stores in my area, and I was telling him that I am selling Old Road Brand hats to several ACE stores around the country. It hadn’t occurred to me at that moment, but today is the four year anniversary of my very first wholesale store order, to the Ace Hardware store in Laramie Wyoming.
In September 2021, I was in Orlando at the Ace Hardware show, which was the first held post covid pandemic. Florida was of course open for business. At the time I was working for company that had a booth at the show. I had always thought that hardware stores, many of which serve as a general store in small towns, had the potential to be a good place for Old Road Brand. But I was not entirely sure. In the arc of brand development, I was continuing to “test the waters” to be sure that the people actually liked the hats and concept. Early on, I labeled each hat with a sticker with the logo and the words “First 500 Production”.
This was my way of monitoring how many I sold. Back then I thought, “wouldn’t it be great if I could sell that many hats”? I figured if the concept could not sell 500 units, it would still easy to unwind this project without losing much. It is funny to look back on this now.
I decided that I would bring some hats to the Ace Convention, to show buyers on the “down low”, primarily for feedback. My show booth was not completely filled with product, so I took a 2 foot section on a table, behind displays, to have them out and to see if anyone even noticed them. Always the Boy Scout, I made few color brochures and printed up some order forms, to always “Be Prepared”.
First Brochure - Made for Ace Hardware Show 2021
The table presentation was nothing fancy. I even used some cardboard and unused displays to create a two tiered look. Since the hats were of various colors, it was not hard to find and catch attention.
Inner voice wondering... Is anyone going to like these?
Lo and behold, a buyer named Stacy from Wyoming was in the booth. She saw the Wyoming hat that was on the table, asked questions about minimums. Thinking I’d better not shoot too high on minimums, I sheepishly offered “would six work”? Stacy wrote the first order for 24 units in two different color ways. I am forever grateful for this first wholesale order. In fact, the Ace Hardware Store in Laramie went on to reorder the Wyoming hats five times over the course of several years. And by the way… I did come back from that Ace Hardware Show with orders from two other Ace stores.
Getting the First Wholesale Order Ready
Serendipity
While at the show in Orlando. I happened to walk past the Hyatt Regency (Formerly the Peabody) on International Drive. I was reminded that about 12 years previously, I had picked up a good friend of mine by the name of Mike Han near the entry of the hotel. Mike was an entrepreneur and a supplier to a company where I worked. Mike often said… “What would you do if you knew you could not fail”. Mike died in January 2011. The irony was not lost on me that I happened to walk right by that location, on the same day I wrote my first wholesale order. Fast forward four years… indeed Mike, “What would you do if you knew you could not fail”.
“What would you do if you knew you could not fail”
