There are not many American main streets, shopping centers or commercial districts without empty storefronts today. The economy and pandemic have been hard on existing retail businesses, and high rents are often prohibitive for those wanting to start a new store. In addition, some residential developments are required by mixed-use zoning to include ground-floor retail.… Read More

Amazon, the largest online retailer in the world, now accounts for some 37.8% of all e-commerce sales. The U.S. has antitrust laws on the books intended to encourage healthy competition between companies, and to help keep the free market working by preventing monopolies.  It’s hard to believe that Amazon has not been taken to task… Read More

According to Forbes, women drive 70-80% of all consumer purchasing decisions. There are many reasons for this, including one fascinating suggestion that it’s because our brains have a thicker corpus callosum. I’ll leave this speculation aside, because the question that I’m interested in pursuing is how to get more men to shop in our stores.… Read More

The latest term in the HR world is “quiet quitters” – employees who continue to show up at their job, but put in a very minimal amount of effort. According to a shocking recent Gallup poll, at least half the U.S. workforce may fall into this category. There once was a time when a low-performing… Read More

A friend recently told me about a motivational seminar he went to years ago. The speaker started out by asking everyone in the room to take out a dollar and throw it into the center aisle.  Pretty soon there was a rain of bills aimed at the center of the room. The speaker scooped up… Read More

It’s easy to get caught up in the daily aspects of running a store – especially in these trying times.  But it’s worthwhile to dedicate some time away from the shop to revisit the reason you went into business. If you’ve lost some of your focus or enthusiasm, this is a great way to get… Read More

You’ve probably heard the statistics about how much more it costs to get a new customer than to keep an old one.  Often this acquisition cost is quoted as being five to ten times that of keeping a current customer happy. And while there is a certain attrition to be expected from people moving away… Read More

Dak Prescott, quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, recently received a $66 million signing bonus with his four-year contract.  While you will undoubtedly not be offering anything remotely close to that astronomic amount, it could be that a signing bonus would help your recruitment efforts in this tight market. Retail stores usually make a signing bonus… Read More

Those of us who were in business around 2008 remember the difficult years when the U.S. economy took a downturn now termed the Great Recession. According to the NBER (National Bureau of Economic Research), there have been ten recessions since World War II. The question that is on everyone’s mind is whether we’re heading for… Read More

What do tulip bulbs and toys have in common? They can both be promoted using a sales technique called a Dutch auction – named after a technique used to sell flowers in Holland.  Instead of starting low and bidding the price up, the price starts high and descends until someone accepts it. Here is an… Read More