Many independent retailers have a love/hate relationship with the B2B platform Faire. We love being able to find obscure, small lines that would never have been shown in a trade show. We hate what this direct ordering option is doing to the sales rep system. We love knowing exactly what is in stock when we… Read More

This is an update of a popular blog post from 2015. Repetition is pleasing to the eye, and multiples of almost any item can make a great backdrop for a merchandise display. If you don’t have enough of one product to hang dozens in the back of your window, take a trip to a “dollar… Read More

Planning for the holidays is always tricky – will sales be up, requiring more sales staff, or remain the same as last year?  Big box stores often roll out their seasonal hiring plans in October, and an AP story in today’s newspaper predicts a 3% sales increase between November and January.  However a study by… Read More

This is an update of a popular blog post from 2013. An employee discount is one of the least expensive “perks” you can offer, so it pays to be generous.  It helps you attract and keep good employees – and we all know the high cost of finding and training a new staff member.   At… Read More

Sol Price was a legendary retailer whose Price Club, founded in 1976, eventually merged with Costco. He is attributed with creating the buying and merchandising philosophy that is still proudly posted in each Costco store. I’ve taken some time to consider how these Six Rights of Merchandise might apply to independent retailers. Stocking the right… Read More

This is an update of a popular blog post from 2015. A fascinating mix of psychology and mathematics that goes into setting promotional prices.  Of course it is important to start with a good understanding of the basic tenants of retail math, such as how to take keystone markup by doubling the wholesale price, and… Read More

“People buy from people” is a retail adage that speaks the importance of the human touch in forming ongoing relationships between a business and its customers.  Clearly in the case of our giant competitors such as Amazon and Walmart, there is no effort to identify the individuals behind the screen – and they are successful… Read More

This is an updated edition of a blog post from September, 2012 Halloween is now the #2 decorating holiday in America, more than one of our sales reps has proclaimed.  I usually counter that in the US we really only have two major decorating holidays: Christmas and Halloween.  But over the past decades, Halloween has… Read More

Peter Miller managed to offend me on page 15 of his new book entitled Shopkeeping: Stories, Advice and Observations. I must admit that he eventually won me over (mostly), but as the author of four editions of Specialty Shop Retailing, I take exception to his statement that “there are no books on shopkeeping.”  As a… Read More

An update of a Specialty Shop Retailing blog post from 2009 It’s been 15 years since I last wrote about how to deal with errors in shipments coming in from our vendors, and I still stand by my first sentence: The pickled pig feet were probably the worst.  Some of the bottles in another shipment… Read More