Years ago Anne Taintor and I met when we were each exhibiting our artwork at the Westport Creative Arts Festival. I’ve been following her career ever since.

She has branded herself brilliantly over the years and created a look uniquely hers. Whenever I see her products on sale I’m thrilled for her success. I was tickled to see her featured in O Magazine’s June 2008 issue. In an article enumerating 101 ways to say “no” they selected one of Anne’s hilarious message pins. I immediately went to place an order for 100. They are perfect fun gifts for my clients who find themselves giving away precious time.

However, when I selected the item to add to my cart I got the following message:

Sorry – Item 02316 is currently out of stock.
The good news and bad news about appearing in such a high circulation magazine is that everyone sees your product (good news), and if you’re out of stock the minute they want to order it, you’ve lost a sale and probably a customer (bad news).
I know I’ll return to Anne’s site next month to order this and several other products, but felt badly that her company hadn’t anticipated the volume created by Oprah’s enormous clout.
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