Rock on!
The best day of our life…aside from our wedding day and birth of our children…yada yada yada. The only thing that would have made it better would have been meeting Adam Duritz.
Gretch and I decide at the last minute to buy some front row tickets to the Counting Crows, Maroon 5, Augustana concert in KC back in September. We also scored some sound check passes, which allowed us access to the Maroon 5 sound check prior to the show. We drive to KC, grab a hotel, and cab it to the venue. We do the sound check with about 20 other people….it was pretty cool. That’s over, and the show doesn’t start for another 3 or 4 hours and we aren’t too interested in cabbing it back and forth, so we decide to just “hang around”. The staff is busy getting ready for the show, not paying too much attention to us. We kick off our shoes and sit back, content on watching all of the goings on to get this thing started. We meet this guy…..a radio promoter, who is meeting some contest winners to take them for a meet and greet with Maroon 5. He invites us along. Which is where the picture is taken. Back to hanging out….couple hours until the venue opens the gates.
By this time, everyone is so used to our faces, they start to think we belong there. We managed to get VIP wristbands which gave us access to the VIP lounge, buffet and VIP bathrooms. The seats were outstanding! Not in the bathroom, but the at the show. The show was amazing! After the concert we made it backstage for the after party. I stole Maroon 5’s bottle opener. I know, very mature. We drank some Corona’s with Maroon 5……no Adam Duritz! UGH! How many good things can happen in one day, really?
So the moral of the story is…..you’ll get the farthest by acting like you belong right where you are. Duritz, call me.
Julie
News | Comment (0)Franchise Owner
Here is a shot of Holly, me and Gretch at the Matt Nathanson concert for my Birthday!
Holly Cottrell is the new Franchise Owner of the Urbandale Pink Hippo. Gretchen and I and the production girls are getting ready to move into our new facility. We should be there by December 15th. More details coming soon. We still take custom orders! Holly has been working for us for quite sometime and is very helpful in matching custom pieces. So keep those Holiday outfits coming!
I would like to say, we have built quite a personal relationship with many many of our loyal customers, and it is difficult to think about not seeing those familiar faces on a regular basis. Which is why we might give you the address of our new production studio when we get the papers finalized! Thanks for all of the great friendships this past year! You are an amazing group of women and your support means so much to us!
Much Love, Julie
News | Comment (1)Moving On
Counting Crows
Holy cow, are we in our busy season! We are smokin’ busy with the holidays around the corner! Our attorneys have finalized our franchising docs and we have presented them to our buyer for the IA store. We are planning on closing on the sale of Urbandale Nov. 17th. What this means is….Gretchen and I are relocating the The Pink Hippo production and distribution studio to another facility locally. You will still be shopping at the same awesome retail location in Urbandale, but it will be owned and operated by our new franchisees. We will still be roaming the halls for a few weeks as we finalize our new location. We are getting our Holiday line out a little late this year, but have been swamped with special orders. The stores are currently receiving the holiday products and we are updating the web site as well. Please visit us at Gift Mart in Des Moines November 20-22.
Our energy will be going to developing the new production studio as well as marketing our franchising opportunities. Please check back as we will be adding information to franchising link on our web site.
Here is a shot of Counting Crows at the KC concert.
Love, Julie
News | Comment (0)Finally…..
Well, we finally can come up for air and take a few minutes to update all of you on us. The opening of the Naperville store Sept. 3rd was a huge success. We had a very busy week training our new manager Patty, and our other part-timer Lauren. Both of these girls are awesome and a huge asset to the Pink Hippo. Although that store has only been up and running for a little more than a week, sales have been crazy and we already have a few interested buyers! Yay!
Thank you to all of our great Hippo customers, friends and family for all of your well wishes and support for us. We really appreciate all of your kindness.
Gotta head to Bunco. So check back often for more updates and tidbits about us! We promise it won’t be 6 months before you have another posting!!
Oh, and hopefully soon we will be able to add some pictures for you all to see. Just trying to get it to work!
Gretchen
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Pink Hippo expansion..
Ok, so I’ll admit it…..it is fairly safe to say we are opening a shop in Naperville, IL, right outside of Chicago……opening Sept!! It is also fairly safe to say that we are putting our clothing boutique, Daisy Mango, on a brief hold, while we get Naperville up and running. As most of you know, we are franchising The Pink Hippo company. Currently, there are several interested buyers for Urbandale. Decisions will be made shortly on this shop. Naperville will remain corporately owned until it gets stabilized, which probably won’t take too long in that demographic! We have 9 others states with interested investors. We are in the process of developing our production and distribution facility, which will remain local. Our products will be manufactured there and wholesaled to our franchisees. See, it is so simple…..what’s the big deal?
Hope everyone is on dry, safe land tonight. It is so hard to see the destruction the flooding has caused all around us.
Julie
News | Comment (0)Thank You!
We would like to start off our first official blog post by saying we are so thankful for our incredible customers! We have met some amazing women since we opened our doors last year! The Pink Hippo has some exciting new things happening! I’d love to tell you about them right now, but I am too tired. So, check back in a few days!
Julie
News | Comment (0)Welcome!
We are working on setting up our blog, please check back again soon!
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