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We hear it over and over. "Good business citizenship" matters to shoppers. They vote with their feet, their wallets, and their hearts, and increasingly choose those retailers who "do the right thing", whether it's how they source product, hire and pay employees, reduce environmental impacts, etc.
Followers of The Retail Owners Institute® know that one of our beliefs is that "Retail is a mirror of society." And independent retailers, especially, are often in the forefront of "good business citizenship".
So, why not let your customers know? As Joe Kefauver wrote in Retailing Today*:
- "Is there a fun way to let people know how many employees at a certain location have gone from entry level to a management position?
- "Can a company creatively communicate how many volunteer hours or non-profit dollars a certain establishment contributed to the community over the past year?
- "How is a given unit and its larger company talking about the use of its culture of opportunity to help leaders in a city solve problems?"
These are the things that independent retailers do day in and day out, without perhaps even realizing how special they are! And especially in today's world, these are your competitive edge!
- Many of you are using social media to promote sales events, new product arrivals, etc.
- You already are finding how to convey your store's personality when it comes to your merchandise.
- Why not also use it to share how you do business? That is what increasingly matters to your customers.
- As a retailer, you likely are one of the civic leaders in your community. It's okay to let people know.
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* "What retailers can learn from Uber's playbook", Guest Viewpoint by Joe Kefauver. Retailing Today, February 3, 2016.
Perhaps you also have noticed the recent announcements that Wal-Mart will be closing 269 stores, 154 of which are in the U.S. In several breathless pieces about this announcement, much attention was focused on the negative impacts the closings will have on their respective communities. Perhaps so.
Maybe the spirit of The Retail Owners Institute® is misguided, or we're looking through rose-colored glasses, but we can see opportunities galore! Consider this:
For every $1 million in sales that a closing Wal-Mart was doing, there's $500K of volume for each of two new or expanding merchants. So, closing a $10 million store might sprout 20 small businesses right down old Main Street!
In most communities, there are several good merchants already. We can imagine those folks stepping up quickly to help fill the vacuum a closed Wal-Mart created by adding stores without adding much administrative overhead. One good bookkeeper can handle more than one store. Same with POS systems, for example.
Or, a Wal-Mart closing can prompt new retailers, who can take advantage of the many in-the-cloud resources to reduce admin costs and introduce new retail concepts to a community.
Take That, Chicken Little! The Sky Is NOT Falling!
See, there well could be great opportunities out there. At least for those who are not distracted by the negativity. And retailers, more than most any other group of business owners, are incredibly optimistic.
