Our 2020 Spring Sale and a message from the Tomboy Toes founder
Please note: Our spring sale has now ended as of midnight EST on Thursday the 30th of April. Below is the message from the founder included with the announcement of the 2020 Spring Sale.
Dear Tomboy Toes Visitor,
Our 2020 spring sale is normally a celebration of the company's anniversary - this year makes four years in business - but in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, it felt inappropriate to us to be celebrating. That said, it was important to us to still offer the sale: we know many of our customers wait to purchase during our two big annual sales events, because they're working with a careful budget and shopping strategically. With the world currently full of uncertainty and disappointments, it was important to us that we offer some small stability by sticking to our guaranteed special pricing for the 2020 Spring Sale, like we always do.
Right now, what's most important to us is keeping our promises and our commitments. For our customers, that means offering the same scheduled sales even though we know many of you are no longer shopping for those special events like weddings, graduations, and conferences that are now in limbo or outright cancelled. We hope that all of our customers are staying home and staying safe, and working together with their communities to minimize the danger for the most vulnerable among us.
Tomboy Toes is doing its part as best as possible, although the company is a small one. Our little team is working from home, and we've guaranteed minimum pay of the usual pre-pandemic hours for our customer service employees who are paid for hourly work. We've reached out to our shoemakers and encouraged them to work at a reduced capacity so that their employees can minimize contamination risk and ensure each employee has proper PPE, and have done the same for our fulfilment partner who handles the shipping of our orders.
We want to sincerely thank our customers for their extra patience these past few months as it has taken us longer to restock product and get orders shipped due to these extra safety measures. Because of your compassion and understanding, we can give the people we work with the margin of safety they need to prioritize their health and the health of their families and communities. We're happy to say that as of this email all of our best-selling styles are now fully back in stock!
Our commitment to the well-being of the community at whole will continue not only in our policies for how we work with business partners and how we treat our small team of employees, but also in our plans for charitable giving. Last year we donated free pairs of shoes to a number of great causes like charity fundraiser auctions and prom dream-wardrobes for LGBTQ teens living in poverty, and we were lucky enough to be sponsors of great organizations like LGBTQ sports leagues and the makers of the Solace app for trans and non-binary folks looking to brainstorm and plan their individual roadmap along transition. With the hardships of 2020, we may not be able to afford to do these kinds of sponsorships to the same extent that we did last year, but we will continue to donate $10 to the American Civil Liberties Union for every set of Rainbow Multicolor Laces that we sell.
I write to you today as the founder and CEO of this company to tell you all this because I believe in transparency and accountability, and I think it's important that you as a customer know how we're choosing to use the money that you spend with us, whether that's now during this sale, purchases you've made in the past, or purchases you plan to make in the future. Tomboy Toes, being too small to qualify for most government relief packages, is weathering this storm on savings and the generosity of customers who have been willing to buy shoes from us even while events are cancelled and folks are working from home. To ensure our customer service employees and warehouse workers don't lose a single cent of their usual pay, I will not be taking any salary from Tomboy Toes while this pandemic is still going.
If you're in a position to pick up a pair of shoes during this sale, I'm proud to offer you our usual spring discount of 10% off for the rest of April - either way, I hope you're staying safe and healthy. Wishing you all the best, and hoping that by 2021 you'll be in a position to celebrate our 5th anniversary with us with unfettered joy,
Sincerely,
Lauren Craig
Tomboy Toes Founder
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