Posts by Damon Meadows
Pears & Apples
Apples & Pears | Collection Highlight: Dwelling The Apple and The Pear. Why it’s trending! Often featured in renaissance paintings. Often have religious implications. Pears mean divine sustenance, abundance and longevity and Apples symbolize peace, fertility, and immortality. Apples & Pears: A Hot Trend Collection Highlight: Dwelling
Read MoreNavigating 2024 Holiday Season: What Retailers Need to Know
As we gear up for another holiday season, it’s time to face some hard truths. The retail world is changing fast, and the challenges for 2024 are more complex than ever. If you’re in the trenches like I am, you know that prepping for Q4 isn’t just about stocking up on inventory and decking the…
Read MoreComprehensive Guide to Managing Internal and External Theft in Retail: Advanced Strategies for Experienced Retailers
The Hidden Cost of Theft in Retail For retailers, theft is more than a financial loss—it is an operational disruptor that impacts team morale, customer trust, and long-term profitability. Whether it’s employee theft undermining internal processes or professional shoplifting rings targeting your inventory, theft is a multi-faceted challenge. This guide delves into advanced strategies tailored…
Read MoreWhat Retailers Are Saying About 2025
A Look Inside the Latest Survey—Straight From the Front Lines Earlier this spring, we sent out a survey to hear how you’re doing. Not just in numbers—but in reality. What’s actually happening inside your stores, what you’re hearing from your customers, and how this year is shaping up with all the curveballs flying in—tariffs, freight,…
Read MoreTrust Is Still Your Superpower—Even in a Tough Market
National Small Business Week was May 4–10, 2025—and while we might not get parades or ticker tape, we do have something more valuable: the trust of the American consumer. At a time when uncertainty is everywhere—especially with rising tariffs making headlines again—small businesses are still standing tall in the eyes of the public. According to the latest…
Read MoreBuilding a Custom GPT for Employee Training
Programming a GPT like ChatGPT-4o to train employees and reduce onboarding time isn’t just smart — it’s a game-changer. I recently created MelroseGPT for our company, and it can now answer HR questions, explain company policies, and help train new employees and even give you all the ingredients to decorate a tree that looks like…
Read MoreThree Years with AI.
I started using ChatGPT like most people—asking about dinner, weekend plans, and the occasional dumb question for a laugh. Then I trained it on Melrose. That’s when everything changed. While looking for different topics to write a blog on, I came across the instructions Chat gave me on how to train our AI on our…
Read MoreHow Retailers Can Rank First on AI-Powered Web Searches
I came across this article today and it absolutely shocked me. After researching one trillion searches on the internet, 39% of those searches were done with AI. The way consumers search for products and services online is evolving rapidly, thanks to AI-powered search engines. Unlike traditional keyword-based search engines, AI search relies on natural language…
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