A retail conversation

M's new guardian angels at the office

A recent conversation with staffers at a nearby Hallmark store:

Male sales associate: Hello, Hallmark Gold Crown at ___________, can I help you?

Waveflux: Hi! I called to see if you guys stocked any of the Hoops & Yoyo dolls.

Male sales associate: [silent]

Waveflux: [silent]

Male sales associate (warily): ...Hoops and who?

Waveflux: Uh, Hoops & Yoyo....they're characters that Hallmark made into dolls. They're very popular.

Male sales associate: Um...I don't know what that is. Hoops?

Waveflux: And Yoyo, yes. They're featured on the Hallmark website. The dolls are sold through the website. I thought I'd see if I could pick them up from a store.

Male sales associate: I'm gonna put somebody else on. She might know.

Waveflux: Okay.

(murmuring on other end of line)

Female sales associate: Hello, how may I help you?

Waveflux: Hello. I was looking for...are you familiar with the Hallmark characters Hoops & Yoyo?

Female sales associate: Hoops and...Yoyo? (laughs) No, no I'm not, sir.

Waveflux: They're characters on the Hallmark website, little cartoon characters. There are video clips of them on the site, they sell dolls and t-shirts of them...

Female sales associate: Are you talking about Webkinz?

Waveflux: Webkinz? No, I don't think - no, I've never heard of Webkinz.

Female sales associate: Because we do sell those.

Waveflux: Hoops & Yoyo are two different animals. Hoops is a bunny - no, I'm sorry, Hoops is the cat, a pink cat, and Yoyo is a green bunny...I think they're fairly popular.

Female sales associate: I'm afraid I'm not familiar with them, sir. Unless they might be Webkinz.

Waveflux: I don't think they are. It doesn't sound as if you carry them...I was going to come by and buy them from the store rather than order them from the website, but I'll just go ahead and order them.

Female sales associate: Okay.

Waveflux: If you get a chance, you might want to look up "Hoops & Yoyo" on the web. Just Google it and you'll see what I mean.

Female sales associate (laughs): Okay.

Waveflux: Okay, thanks very much.

Female sales associate: Goodbye.

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So what I'm thinking is that Hallmark may not have the whole clicks and mortar concept balanced out just yet. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking.

(Cross-posted.)