Independent Retailers

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Wal-Mart 2.0

by Cinda Baxter on October 6, 2008

in Economy, Independent Retailers

We’ve known for a long time the customer perception of big box versus neighborhood business is pronounced. Big Box = Evil. Small Business = Neighbors. Doesn’t mean they always shop that way, but the mental picture is certainly in tact.

Until now.

Wal-Mart has been talking about creating a smaller, local-feel environment in their big boxes for a couple of years now. Well, that talk has translated into reality with this week’s opening of the first four Marketside locations-—Wal-Mart’s new “smaller format” grocery stores, placed nowhere near a Wal-Mart. Marketsides don’t wear the parent company’s moniker…have a much more whimsical logo than the original giant…but still don the teeth of a large, big box operation (aren’t you proud of me for not using the word “fangs?”).

They aren’t alone. Loew’s began kicking a similar concept around during their annual meeting last month. If consumers nibble at this, you can bet there will be more, and they won’t be planted on major highway intersections; they’ll land smack dab in your very neighborhood.

For now, this appears to be aimed predominantly at hardware and grocery-—retail categories not previously impacted the way the gift and stationery industries have been (think: Paper Source, Swoozies, Blue Tulip, etc.).

Will it stick? Or is this something that will burn itself out? Time will tell, although a failing economy only makes it harder for the locally owned stores to hold their own if one of these Mini-Me boxes pops up nearby.

Good luck, fellow retailers…and welcome to the party.

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No…not you.

by Cinda Baxter on October 4, 2008

in Economy, Independent Retailers, politics

For those whose hearts came to a full stop during the VP debates Thursday night-—

Palin: “But when you talk about Barack’s plan to tax increase affecting only those making $250,000 a year or more, you’re forgetting millions of small businesses that are going to fit into that category. So they’re going to be the ones paying higher taxes thus resulting in fewer jobs being created and less productivity.”

Reality check time.

According to the non-partisan group, FactChecker.org:

“…it’s simply untrue that “millions” of small business owners will pay higher federal income taxes under Obama’s proposal. According to an analysis by the independent Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, several hundred thousand small business owners, at most, would have incomes high enough to be affected by the higher rates on income, capital gains and dividends that Obama proposes.”

”Several hundred thousand” is, according to most experts, somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.4% of all small business owners in the U.S.

Jump start your heart. You’re still on safe ground.

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Did I call it, or did I call it?

by Cinda Baxter on October 3, 2008

in Economy, Independent Retailers

In browsing through some of the old RetailSpeaks newsletters, I ran across my column in the January issue. Somehow, it seems more timely than ever…especially when you hit the part about Washington Mutual:

Let’s face it-—what shakes the economy shakes our stores. Many of us felt aftershocks from the mortgage crisis jiggle our registers; next up appears to be a wave of shakes from the very thing we love to see-—our customers’ credit cards.

Notoriously the last to admit risk, banking officials have been not-so-quietly whispering warnings of potential disaster in 2008. According to Newsweek, Citigroup has earmarked $2.24 billion to cover credit card defaults this year; Capital One, Bank of America, and Washington Mutual are each bracing for a 20% uptick in losses; and AmEx-—long seen as the home of financial sound credit card holders-—is boosting its default coverage reserves by a whopping 44%.

…I’d be the last to suggest anyone should be buying as if we were still in the cash-rich days of the late ‘90s (oh, to be there again!). But I do firmly believe the fastest way to store failure is to circle the wagons, hide the checkbook, and stop looking for new product….

Concepts like “open to buy” and “turns” have never been more critically important to independent retailers than they are today. It’s not enough to remember how last spring’s sales went; that was last spring.

In the end, and regardless of how the quarter played out, independents need to remember that looking behind never bodes well for what’s ahead. We have the ability to spin on a dime, allowing us far more flexibility than the big boxes, and can can tailor our product mix to the customers we know will keep shopping.

…Remember that this roller coaster ride we call “retail” has wonderful peaks as well as sometimes scary valleys.

Read that bold faced type part again. And again. Now’s the time to get smart, folks. Now’s the time to plan your budget, then stick to it. Now’s the time to switch from big, whale-sized orders intended to carry the entire quarter to a series of smaller re-orders that can be placed as cash flow supports them. Now’s the time to pay that credit card down as fast as you can. Now’s the time to reassure your employees that things are under control so they don’t scare off your clientele with deer-caught-in-the-headlights expressions on their faces.

And now’s the time to smile at your customers, no matter how hard it might be…after all, they can’t see your knees shaking when you stand behind the counter. You have to remember, the image they receive is the word of mouth they’ll take away.

Hang in there. You can do this. Believe it.

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Advice, please?

by Cinda Baxter on October 2, 2008

in Consulting, Independent Retailers

I can tell the stress level has jumped in Retail Land. My inbox is seeing more SOS emails than ever before from store owners who find themselves in tense predicaments with tight time frames–many of which have to do with controlling the message about how their store is doing. It’s not unusual to see an email begin with “Help! I have an emergency!”

Been there. Done that. And completely understand.

On-site consulting isn’t the only thing I offer; you can also opt for phone consults. Need me for a couple of days? No problem. Need me for a couple of hours? Still no problem.

I’m here to work for you….remember? Drop me a line; I’ll help with the heavy lifting.

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Personal sanity in a retail life

by Cinda Baxter on October 1, 2008

in Independent Retailers, Real life

Yup. I watched Oprah again.

In all fairness, a friend called to instruct me (catch that? this wasn’t a request) to watch today’s episode about slowing down. Apparently my frequent travels have a couple of folks concerned I’ll misplace my trail of bread crumbs and get lost in the woods.

But I digress.

Admittedly, I “watched” the show while working on the computer (these are billable hours, after all), but managed to focus on what was arguably the most important two minutes of the whole thing. Norman Fisher, Zen master and author of “Sailing Home,” offered terrific advice for the overwhelmed and overworked:

“How are we doing with our state of mind? How are we doing with our happiness? How are we doing with our attitude? We don’t think about this. We think about all the things we’ve got to be doing and all the ways we’ve got to be perfect, but every day we’ve got to wake up and say ‘How’s my state of mind today? Am I losing ground? If I am, I’d better address that first because the rest of the stuff I do won’t be worth anything if I’m harried and hassled and in a bad mood.’

“And it has to do with telling yourself ‘I have got to take care of myself. I’ve got to make that a high priority.’”

Yes, that’s hard to do…especially if you’re trying to run a retail store while Wall Street telling you Main Street’s about to melt down. So what do you do to retain your grip on reality?

According to Fisher, you take 20 minutes…30 minutes…first thing in the morning. Get up before the kids, the spouse, or your normal alarm clock time. (Yes, losing the thirty minutes of sleep is a bummer, but not as big a bummer as dragging yourself through the day wanting to bite the heads off your customers, then spit them out on your employees.) According to Fisher, you should use the time

“…to breathe, to return to yourself, to digest yesterday’s emotions, to kind of take stock of yourself, and set yourself up for the day. Believe me, that amount of time [at the start of your day] saves you time during the course of your day.”

I buy it, partly because I’m pretty good about doing something similar to this. Took eight or nine years in the store to recognize boundaries weren’t going to prevent me from achieving goals, but were going to get me to them.

Try the twenty minutes thing, first thing in the morning, before you turn on the Today Show or say hello to your spouse. Slither out of bed, go to a quiet spot in the house where you can be completely alone, then breathe in. Breathe out. Take stock. And know you just invested in the best asset you have-—yourself.

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Weddings Etc.

by Cinda Baxter on August 28, 2008

in Independent Retailers, Retail, Travel

If you’re in the Homewood neighborhood of Birmingham, Alabama, pop into Weddings Etc. on 18th Street. Owner Melissa Hill has created a smart, chic, retail boutique built on great product and even greater customer service. She knows her stuff, and is happy to share the wisdom. In my humble opinion, this is a retailer to watch, folks; she’s got big things ahead of her.

After you enjoy the store, take a stroll down to Zoe’s Kitchen for a glass of (addictive) limeaid made from fresh lime juice and cane sugar, with an order of chicken salad. You’ll think you’ve died and gone to heaven…

…until you bite into the requisite chocolate cake, at which you’ll realize heaven is located in Homewood.

You’ll thank me for this. Your bathroom scale, however…well…that’s your problem.

Photo: Melissa and her trusty manager, Meghan Ratliff

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Numbers Unplugged

by Cinda Baxter on July 25, 2008

in Economy, Independent Retailers, Marts, Rant, shows

My heartfelt rant about the numbers game and Atlanta attendance is apparently getting some traction. Have had a couple of phone calls and emails from vendors asking where, then, I think the disconnect is between what they saw in their showrooms and the actual attendance count data. Here’s my response:

1. Look around your showroom. Are the products offered also begin carried online? If so, there’s part of your problem. Retailers are avoiding things that can be found in their stores, then purchased online for a discount. Why in the world would they want to be some e-tailer’s free showroom?

2. Are your vendors selling to big boxes? There’s another part of your problem. Independent retailers have had it with Target, Kohl’s, WalMart, and the like. They’re trolling those aisles before they come to market, making darn sure they don’t pick up the same stuff.

3. Did your vendors offer new product? Did you show new lines? If not, well, duh. Explains why the temps had foot traffic and you didn’t. Lots more newbies…less overexposure.

4. There are three types of buyers right now:

  • (a) those with ample spending money
  • (b) those closely watching budgets while buying responsibly, and
  • (c) those who don’t have money, period (aka: the “Lookie Loos”)

Group A showed up and ordered. Group C skipped the show entirely (don’t even try to tell me that’s a bad thing), and Group B-—the vast majority of buyers-—will be working with your road reps or faxing in orders from catalogs. That’s not lost business. It’s rescheduled business, if you play your cards right and attend to their needs without making them feel pressured.

5. Smart buyers aren’t front-loading with as much inventory as before. Smart buyers are bringing in sure sellers, at a conservative pace. They plan to place reasonably sized re-orders as needed, rather than take on a whale-sized shipment all at once. As cash comes to them, orders will come to you. Can’t judge a show on just the paper written at it any more; technology and a sagging economy stretch that window out by six months.

6. Double check your math. When pondering quieter hallways at the show, did you factor in the reality that most buyers are clipping their stays down to two or three days? Ex: Let’s say you have 100 people (for the sake of easy numbers), five days, and a hallway. In a good year, all 100 people are in the hallway every day, from morning to night. Makes it look like 500 people were there (100 x 5), but there really were only 100. Now…let’s say those same 100 people each cut their time in the hall to only two days. Still had all 100 people…just never saw them in the hall at one time. Some days, could have been as many as 80 of them there…other days, could have been as low as 20. Never all 100 in a single glance. Trying to gauge show attendance by traffic levels without factoring in frequency is flawed math. Badly flawed math.

It’s all cyclical, folks. Let’s use this economy to hone our skills and survive together.

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Independents’ Day Hymn

by Cinda Baxter on July 4, 2008

in Holidays, Independent Retailers

“Independents Day” (spelling intentional) has been used a lot to promote the little guy:

2001:
Grundig, German manufacturer of world band phones and electronics, launched a year long “Independents Day” campaign promoting locally owned retailers who carried their line. The retailer who sold the most product won a trip to the U.S….on the Fourth of July.

2004:
The Federation of Wholesale Distributors in the U.K. launched its “My Shop is Your Shop” campaign on June 1st, dubbed “Independents’ Day.” Over 5,000 retailers participated with great success.

2006:
Two dozen retailers launched a “buy local” campaign in the Portland, Oregon area…long before most U.S. consumers had even heard the phrase.

2008:
Record labels from around the world kicked off their inaugural “Independents Day,” celebrating the role of indie labels in pop over the past 50 years.

In keeping with the patriotic theme, here’s my little ditty for independent retailers everywhere (to the tune of The Marine Corps Hymn, aka: From the Halls of Montezuma):

From the lanes of small town USA
to the streets of NYC,
there are independents everywhere
and we’re happy so to be.
Our job‘s not the easiest around,
and our work load’s ten times yours.
Still, we’ll stick to what we each do best
just to keep open our doors.

We know customers by their first names
and we know their kids’ names too.
We hear personal things most should not
as we show folks what is new.
As a therapist, we’re free of charge
and we’ll sell the latest wares,
but start buying from those online stores?
Good luck finding one who cares.

Yes, our hours are shorter than the “bigs,”
and we carry fewer lines.
We can’t offer 2/3 off the price
or impress you with big signs.
Still, we’ll give you better quality,
both in goods and service too.
If you need cheap stuff, then go to them;
 come to us for what is new.

So to Walmart, KMart, and the rest,
do you think your staff can sell?
Give them Mrs. Johnson’s two hour chat
and they’ll think they’ve gone to hell.
And to online stores like Amazon,
who are open round the clock,
we don’t want to be what you’ve become;
we like profit with our stock.

Need the newest thing or latest buzz?
Get it from your corner store.
We are nimble, quick and sharp as tacks,
and will always provide more.
We will be here when it rains or shines,
and will rise up to each test.
As an Independent Retailer,
we are, simply put: the best.

© Cinda Baxter, Always Upward 2008

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