Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Spring time, in Sparta, for All American Christmas Company...


Spring is here! In our little town it's a time for mowing yards, cooking out, and getting ready for summer. In the warehouse, it's a time for Spring Cleaning! We have to get our shelves in order, ready for the stock we'll be receiving. Head over to our sales section to see what items we have marked down, don't forget you can take an additional 25% Off items in the section with the coupon code sale07

All these items are closeouts and clearance, once they are gone...they are gone FOREVER.

Click here to check the sale section

Monday, March 31, 2008

Calculating the power...

It's a pain planning your lighting project and not knowing how much juice you're going to need. Well, bust out the calculators, here are some tips.

Standard C7 Bulbs are 5 watts
25 Bulbs = 1.14 approx Amps
50 Bulbs = 2.3 approx Amps
100 Bulbs = 4.5 approx Amps

Standard C9 Bulbs are 7 watts
25 Bulbs = 1.6 approx Amps
50 Bulbs = 3.2 approx Amps
100 Bulbs = 6.4 approx Amps

Mini lights vary in voltages but many we carry are 2.5 volt
300 Mini lights = 1 Amp

Total Number of Bulbs X Bulb Wattage ÷ 110 = Amps Needed

These are the rules we run with, we hope they help you when planning your lighting project.
--
Zach Broyles
All American Christmas Co.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Minimum phone order?!

No one likes minimum orders, but for some businesses it's crucial to keep the operation running smoothly. Our minimum phone order is 150 dollars, now for some people this may seem outlandish but it really does help our office run better which in turn makes everyone happier.

During our busy seasons we get calls constantly, A third of them are just obvious questions that are answered on the site, another third is questions that can't be answered on the site, and the last third is orders. We have the minimum because if we take many small orders for 1 or 2 items it's very easy to screw those kind of orders up by miscommunication. Any sort of miscommunication over the phone means a wrong product is shipped and the little mistakes like that usually cost the most to fix. We implemented the minimum phone order after dealing with many people saying they received an order with an item they didn't want but told us they wanted. This is frustrating for everyone.

This is just a little view into the minds here at aachristmas.com, we want to make the best shopping experience available for the customers and be able to provide the best services available.

--
Zach Broyles
All American Christmas Co.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Oh, the holidays....

We hope everyone had a great Easter, full of way to much running around hunting eggs with quarters and candy in them and one to many chocolate bunnies. I know that when any holiday that traditionally involves candy is going to end up with me being sick for the following week because I overload my system with sugar and lack of real food.

If you are wondering when some of our Mini lights are going to be back in stock the answer is...not soon. We are still waiting on the our major orders and our 20s and 35s should be in around June. It takes a while to get everything during this time of the year.

--
Zach Broyles
All American Christmas Co.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

LED light burnout

A common concern with LED lights is if they have a lot of issues with burning out. LEDs generally last longer than any other bulbs on the market, on average our standard bulb sets last 200,000 hours! So if theres 365 days in a year, and each day lasts 24 hours, then a year is only 8,760 hours. So, in theory LED bulbs should last 22.83 years...That's a long time. If a LED does happen to burn out on a string the rest of the lights stay lit.

We often tell customers about the LED lights we have in our warehouse that light up the building in the dark. We're not a high tech operation, but that doesn't mean we aren't crafty. In the rear half of our building we strung up 4 or 5 sets of blue C6 led light strings along the ceiling to give a little light when its dark. These lights were put up whenever we first starting getting LED lights (maybe around 4 years ago), they only turn off when the power goes out, and they are still burning. These early LED Christmas strings are not half as good as these new sets, the technology is better and the bulbs just plain look better.

If you are thinking of making the switch to LED the benefits definitely trump the up front cost. Less electricity costs, longer bulbs life, more vibrant bulb colors.

Click here to check our LED lights


--
Zach Broyles
All American Christmas Co.