Fighting City Hall
In this corner is your business
Most of your time as store owners
and managers, is spent managing your business, planning and working
towards growth and profit. Most people work hard at being an aggressive retailer, trying to implement new and innovative ideas.
Making a comparison to football, you spend your time playing offense.
And with stores that are growing today, they have done it by being
a team on offense, retail wise.
On the other hand, it is hard to win the football game when you are playing defense. Not impossible,
just difficult. The same is true for stores. A store that is trying
to defend its' market is more frequently trying to stave off losing,
as compared to working to win.
There is another type of defense
that retailers have to occasionally play. Unfortunately, there are
situations when you have to go to battle to protect what you have
worked hard for. Sometimes, the battle can be with a landlord when
it is time to negotiate for a new lease, or with a landlord that
is refusing to uphold their part of the lease. We have had the misfortune
of watching retailers that have been through both of these battles.
One retailer even had to be a part of a lawsuit in an effort to
require the shopping center owner and management to maintain the
plaza. These types of circumstances rarely increase profits, or
make other contributions to the growth of the business.
More frequently,
they are stressful both mentally and physically. When they are resolved,
there is usually a feeling of relief as compared to having a feeling
of satisfaction or accomplishment.
In addition to the situations
already named, we have observed merchants with the misfortune of
being unwilling participants in several other incidents. One of
these began when a new store leased space in a shopping center.
As a way of advertising, the new merchant created several of the
old style "sandwich board" signs which promoted their products and hours. The
signs were placed along the two major roads that accessed the
shopping center. Unfortunately, these types of signs are illegal
in that city. And, eventually, representatives of the code enforcement
department cited the new store.
Instead of simply complying
with the law, the merchant chose to fight - not through traditional
means, but by verbally abusing the city employees. Unfortunately
for all of the other shopping center merchants, the "rebel" merchant submitted photos of the fronts of all the other merchants
saying, "What about their violations?"
Most of the other
merchants were simply given citations, and promptly removed their
banners and other illegal signs. In this case, our retailer friend
was cited for banners as well as several other violations that
were found.
The first was the selection
of merchandise that was displayed each day on the sidewalk in front
of the store. The illuminated signage was also cited. The city maintained
that this retailer had not applied for a sign permit, even though
he produced the receipt from the sign company which noted the fee
paid for a permit.
The response of this retailer
included visits to the heads of the various departments of the city,
visits with the city council representatives, and even an appearance
before city council.
The code department stated that
the merchandise on the sidewalk could be dangerous. While the retailer
did not know how his merchandise could be dangerous, he stated to
the council that four of the ten council members did shop in his "potentially
dangerous" store. The codes were not rewritten, but the code
department did decide to leave the retailer alone.
Another retailer
explained how she had experienced battles with vendors. There
was the manufacturer that did not want her to sell the merchandise
because there was another dealer in the same city that had already
carried the line. It took a year of letter writing to the president
of the company to convince him that the retailers were some six
miles apart and had their own customers with few shopping at both
stores.
It might appear that we have
selected to interview retailers that have made a habit of picking
a fight. Quite the contrary, as we have interviewed retailers that
have made a point to look for as many business opportunities, or
ways to promote, as they could find. It seems that when you go looking
to grow your business, you will undoubtedly find some roadblocks.
You can accept the roadblock as being impossible to overcome and
turn the other way, or you can attempt to remove the roadblock to
business growth.
And, as you do so, there is
another benefit that you may find as you meet these challenges.
Make a point to keep your employees abreast of each situation that
you experience. Explain that with each of your efforts, you are
working to give your store the opportunity to increase business.
And if you have a monthly bonus
for increased sales, your staff will be more than understanding
of your efforts. "They
were our best cheerleaders", reported one of our retailers. "They
were thrilled as we worked hard to make our bonus program increase,
and in knowing that we were working hard to be on the offense".
There are many roadblocks to
successful retailing. The key is in knowing which roadblocks can
be removed, and which roadblocks are worth the effort (and profit)
of removing.
