Porch pirates. Employee shortages. Tariff worries.  These are not uniquely American problems, I learned on a recent trip to visit friends in Scandinavia.  The shops of Copenhagen were a big inspiration to me before I opened my store 50 years ago, so it saddened me to see the way that issues such as online shopping… Read More

The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that 7.2 million Americans aged 65 and older have Alzheimer’s disease, which is the most common form of dementia.This means it’s very likely that some of your customers have some degree of dementia, or are accompanied by a friend or family member suffering from this condition. I’ve noticed signs in several… Read More

An update of a popular blog post from October, 2017 The manager at our neighboring Trader Joe’s was firing up the grill one Saturday to treat his staff to brats (it’s a Wisconsin thing).  I asked what the occasion was, and he said they had just gone 90 days without an injury.  We don’t think… Read More

“Hire Stella for $3 a day,” the message in my inbox said. “The first robotic retail worker.” I was of course intrigued, and turned to Stella’s website to find out more. My first discovery is that Stellabots did not invent the name – Stella AI is apparently a broad term used to refer to various… Read More

An update of a popular blog post from May, 2014 Summer is here, and vacation time means that almost every area of the country will be receiving visitors.  Whether they are nearby residents who now have time to explore, people visiting family in the area, or international travelers who have come from afar, tourists bring… Read More

It’s important to know what your competitors are doing in order differentiate your shop from what they are offering. There are three questions essential to this exercise: When I first started sharing insights with my fellow retailers, Walmart was the biggest threat to independent shopkeepers in many communities. Their extensive hours and impressive buying power… Read More

An update of a popular blog post from 2010 When I wrote about our store’s 35th anniversary celebration 15 years ago, our shop’s identity had just been stolen. I decided that rather than dwelling on the negative, I’d write about Orange Tree Imports’ upcoming big staff reunion. We had invited over 150 past employees to join… Read More

A shop I visited recently had a “to do” list for their sales staff posted where I could easily read it. While I was waiting for my turn to be served, I skimmed through the memo, and wondered how often their employees did the same. It looked like it had been up for a while,… Read More

An update of a popular blog post from 2015 When I first wrote about the importance of responding individually to reviews, the the main platforms for consumers to give feedback were Facebook and Yelp. Today customers mostly give feedback on Google when they are pleased — or displeased — with a retail experience. This makes it… Read More

Can shopping make someone happier? While we all acknowledge that money can’t buy happiness, we know that some people find the experience of purchasing something to be relaxing and enjoyable. In fact, shopping does sometimes release dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and reward. This is not always the case, of course. Shopping to fulfill… Read More