Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Actually that shirt does not look good on you….

Last week I had a man with bright red hair come into my store and tried on quite a few Hawaiian shirts. He was going on a first date with a new girl and they were going to a luau down in Pacific Beach. As he tried on shirt after shirt ,he kept asking my opinion about which ones looked the best on him. After trying several shirts he picked our Red Panel Hawaiian shirt and it is really bright red with beautiful yellow plumeria's on a vertical panel design.

The problem was this bright red shirt combined with his carrot red hair just didn’t go together. Here at the Wave Shoppe I have a lot of men come into the store shopping and if they don’t have a wife in tow I am the one they ask “does this look good on me”. 

A long, long time ago I decided I didn’t just want to sell them “any” shirt but sell them a shirt that looks good on them so sometimes I have to be brutally honest so I looked this customer in the eye and said “I would like to offer you my honest opinion that Hawaiian shirt clashes with your hair” He looked at me and said “Well I thought so too but I was going to see if you said it looked nice just to sell a shirt”

So we both started laughing and he asked me to pick the one I would pick for my husband if my husband was unfortunate enough to be a carrot top. So I picked our black traditional Hawaiian shirt with white vertical hibiscus flowers. It toned down his hair and he looked good in that shirt.

I guess the moral of this story is as a merchant do you want to just sell a shirt, or sell a shirt that looks good on your customer?


 

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Wholesale Clothing Pricing


When you hear the words “wholesale pricing”, the first thing that comes to mind is that the prices offered will be less than the retail price. But wholesale pricing does not mean that you, the general public will be paying what the manufacturer sells it to a distributer for. Wholesale pricing is usually indicative of being sold at a price lower than retail, and you usually need to purchase more than one item to qualify for that price structure. Take for example Costco, while they sell you items at prices lower than retail, you usually need to buy in bulk such as a package of 8 steaks or a case of hash browns etc. Obviously your not paying what Costco pays, but nonetheless you do get a wholesale price on your purchases.
 
Another example is wholesale flowers, a company like wholesale flowers and supplies will sell to the public at wholesale price points, but it's certainly not what they pay for products as they are most likely a distributer for bulk products manufactured and or imported by other companies. While they buy in bulk to keep the pricing low enough to be called wholesale, you usually do not have to don't have to purchase an entire lot to get a good price, often you only have to buy one item. But usually your choices are limited to just one style or brand.

 
Hawaiian shirts sold at wholesale to a school group

The same applies to clothing and for all that matters most other goods. While you may feel that you should be able to buy factory direct because you have the money to do so, most manufactures will not sell to you at wholesale prices unless you are a licensed re-seller, and some request that you have related business. Groups needing Hawaiian shirts wholesale can purchase in bulk from Wave Shoppe Hawaiian shirts at prices that are slightly above cost to manufacture.
 
Forget about buying Hawaiian shirts for $5 as that is a price point from nearly 2 decades ago. And you have to be careful with whom you purchase from, some companies online offer shirts for $15.95 each, but they are made overseas, under who knows what kind of conditions, and sizing can be way off as much as an entire size. Wave Shoppe Hawaiian Shirts offers wholesale prices on bulk purchase and you can get men's as well as women's sizes, something many clothing wholesalers do not offer.


 

Monday, January 13, 2014

Tropical Shirts of Hawaii


Soon the weather is going shift gears and once again begins to warm much of the United States; it will be time for Hawaiian shirts. The warmth of the sun will begin to change people’s chemistry and make them crave good old fashioned outdoor BBQ or Luaus, think pit roasted pig or Kalua pork and mac salad with rice.

Even if people on the mainland cannot be in Hawaii, they still manage to do a good job of bringing the laid back lifestyle of the islands to their very own backyards. Anyone who has ever attended a Hawaiian themed party will attest to the fact that just about every man in attendance wears very colorful shirts, as well as shirts symbolic of Hawaiian or Polynesian culture.

The tropics are well represented in the fabrics utilized in the making of Hawaiian tropical shirts; you will find lush greenery, flowers, sea life, palm trees and even cool looking surf themes. After getting a few new shirt, most men or women only needs to add are flip-flops or a pair of beach sandals and shazam, you are ready for summer!

Women also get dig the Hawaiian styles. Women's whom like to wear women's Hawaiian shirts can choose form hundreds of designs on Hawaiian shirts made for women. Don’t forget the little ones, you can purchase boys Hawaiian outfits and shirts for children and matching girls Hawaiian dresses for little girls and tweens.

On Casual Fridays choose from Aloha shirts made by RJC Hawaii or KYs International, Milson Hawaii Fashion or Wave Shoppe, your guaranteed to be a fashion hit at the office.

During the summer, or any other time, enjoy the tropical, Hawaiian island look of the Hawaiian shirts that can be found while shopping at Wave Shoppe Hawaiian Shirts.
 

Monday, January 6, 2014

How to make a grown man (almost) cry!

Recently my husbands’ Hawaiian shirt collection has grown to overflowing one whole closet.  While rifling through his stash I noticed some of the ones he has had 10 or more years are faded and a little ragged so I asked him to weed out the old ones to make room for some new ones and the look on his face made me laugh out loud.  Seriously you would think I had told him the sky was falling.  “But those are my favorite Hawaiian shirts” he said to which I replied so are all 150 or more but we don’t have the room to keep the old ragged ones and as the owner of a Hawaiian shirt apparel company you should be wearing the ones that still look good!  



After bantering and bartering he agreed to give 10 measly shirts to the Goodwill. So then he spent 15 minutes trying to select the ones he could part with and that was hilarious next thing you know he stomps off muttering “just pick the ones I can’t wear any more”  so I agreed and while he was gone I found 15 shirts that had seen their better days years ago. The next morning he came out of the bedroom wearing a t-shirt that had holes in it so can you guys guess what will happen next?


 

Friday, January 3, 2014

What color is your favorite Hawaiian Shirt?

One of the best things about owning a Hawaiian tropical shirts & apparel company is that you get to pick out the prints that we offer to customers.  Charles and I have always had a little competition going on because as we both poll our customers to find out their favorite prints and colors we both feel we know what will be a best seller and what could be a fizzle.

Recently we stocked a new print that Charles designed and we worked hard to make sure the color was perfect we did this print in a navy blue and royal purple. Charles was only going to put the purple in the womens Hawaiian shirts and muumuus but I wanted to put it in the men’s print too. So I bet him that men would buy the purple shirt too. He thought that men would not like the purple shirt but would buy the blue one instead. 

Well long story short we put the blue and the purple Hawaiian shirts for men on the rack and within 30 minutes a man came in and said “Wow this is a beautiful shirt” he bought it right there and then. I didn’t want to be infantile and say “ I told you so!” but I just couldn’t help it J 

I have to hand it to my hubs though he does have a keen sense of color and he is a very good designer and makes some really beautiful prints. So what color is your favorite for a Hawaiian shirt? Would you wear purple? 
 
 

Rare Gray Aloha Shirts