10/23/2018
We who are older than 50, or so, are watching the demise of many of the “big box” stores we knew well in our younger years. Stores such as Sears/Roebuck, J.C.Penney, Montgomery Ward, were all the mainstays of most cities above 15,000 population about 40 years ago and, for the rural and small town dwellers, THE reason to “go to town” on Friday night or Saturday. Fifty-four years ago, I was sent to Danville, IL to manage a jewelry store. I could have stood in front of my store and thrown a rock and hit all three of those stores and a smaller regional chain store (Carson, Pirie, Scott)—from Chicago. All these and about 20 other smaller stores in a two block area. Most all small store managers gauged their good days/bad days on whether the biggies had a sale going or were having down days. That was a gross error on our part.
Those four big stores are gone. Yes, a few Sears and a few J.C.Penney remain, but their numbers are shrinking. CPS is gone completely as is Montgomery Ward. The “times,” they do change things.
Many believe e-Commerce caused this. Or, discount chains, such as Walmart, or so-called “factory outlets.” I don’t believe that’s why the old biggies didn’t survive. Look who does make it: it is those stores who can see what people are willing to go buy. e-Commerce is not going to replace retail stores. When I first observed online buying, and heard the numbers claims on the first years of it, I thought small retail stores can’t stand up against that. But, a couple of years later, I noticed more retail shopping centers being built. I thought they’ll never rent these spaces! They did. Then, in close proximity, there came even more retail centers—in even larger stripcenters!
If you check the census bureau records, you’ll find retail establishments have been on the rise every year since e-Commerce existed with the exception of one year. That’s amazing! How can this be? How can more retailers make it every year? The overall answer to that is there are just gobs of people, everywhere!!
Small retailers will never be bested in service given. Oh, yes, there are some small retailers who fail this test or temporarily have bad help. But, here’s how they win against e-Com. They out service them. People love attention. People love to know from whom they buy. So, if you own or work in a small business, cater to your customers. They will be loyal and find you more customers like them.
Secondly, people like specialty items to be in small stores. (A small store would be about 2,500 sq.ft. of space or less. Some of the best specialty items are founds in less than 1,000 sq.ft. stores. It becomes an even more special purchase if their unique need is also thought to be unique by the store they go to for purchasing it. So, if your little store has one or two really special items, find 4 or 5 more special than the first and keep the interest up in why people come into your place.
The old biggies, they ain’t coming back. Too bad. They didn’t see the clear and big picture. They saw only their past success and their founders’ position. And so, in the absence of change and upgrading their business model and execution, they failed. (We could pick apart their management, their diversification and its costliness. But, that wouldn’t change the fact that people didn’t want to go there anymore and management didn’t see why.)
Oh, No! Music didn’t seem to be part of my morning. The only bits and pieces of a SIMH were bits and pieces which I didn’t like, too irritatin’! So none shall be mentioned.
Thanks for reading, the Elder
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