Retail Thoughts

Competition - Fair vs. Unfair

Terry — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:58:43 +0000

While I’m all in favor of competition, I would like it to be fair.

What is a store?

Terry — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 01:23:53 +0000

When I was young I thought of a store as a place to buy things. Concrete and glass surrounding rows of merchandise. I thought of a store as a cold place, and never wanted to be in retail.

Why I Love Brighton

Terry — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 21:34:20 +0000

As a retailer, my favorite vendor is far and away Brighton. Not just because they have good products that sell well, but because of how they care both about their vendors and their customers. They stand behind their products, making it easier to sell them, and they treat all of their vendors large and small very well.

A Day in the Life of Retail

Terry — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 03:04:32 +0000

A customer told me today she wished she had a store like Karalina's.

I smiled and thought back through the day……..

Customers are always right. Aren't they?

Terry — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 07:39:54 +0000

I grew up hearing “The customer is always right”. As someone with 2 degrees in economics, I also learned about the assumption that customers were rational. If they are rational, then they must be right. Then I started working in marketing and came to believe the customer was the most important thing to a business, so again they must be right.

From time to time I looked out into the real world for evidence of all this wonderful learning, but the evidence was often lacking. As a child I watched the adults buy and consume the products of the day, fat laden food and cigarettes. They didn’t seem good for you to me, but hey the customer is always right.

Shop Local vs the Web or Why I Love & Hate Amazon

Terry — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:14:22 +0000

In another time, when I was VP of Marketing at an Internet retailer, I was extremely pro Internet retail and against anything that would slow down the web including sales taxes on web sales. The benefits of Internet retailing were obvious to me. Greater customer choice, lower costs and prices, delivery to your home or office, the ability to read reviews on products and retailers and more.

The benefits were so large and obvious I never considered the costs. I traveled a lot back then and seldom thought about the effects of Internet retailing on local communities where we all live.

Karalina's Begins Work of Participating in The 3/50 Project

Terry — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:07:09 +0000

Yesterday, Karalina's began the hard work of being an ACTIVE participant and supporter of The 3/50 Project, a natonal grass roots project to promote & save the locally owned brick & mortars that our nation is built on.

We began the work of trying to educate the community on this issue, and gain their participation and support. Small businesses are the backbone of our country, and often the leaders in making our local communities strong & vibrant.