Rebirth of Small Independent Retail

“We found a continual rebirth of small independent retailers in America. We found successful retailers in almost every classification of merchandise.” Both were statements from the introduction to “Challenges of the Future: The Rebirth of Small Independent Retail in America” (www.retail-revival.com) that looked at very successful retailers from all over the country that have found ways to compete with the big boxes.

Retailers can be so important to agurbs® as they tend to be a strong small business base for many communities. More than 95% of retailers have only one location, 90% have sales of less than $2.5 million, and 98% have fewer than 100 employees.

John Clarke is a third generation grocer in South Dakota. He believes so strongly in the power of superior customer service that his employees all answer the phone by saying, “The friendliest store in town.” He said, “If you say something often enough, the more apt you are to do it.”

Donna Hogan owns the Fickle Frog in Corning, Iowa (population 1,800), a destination specialty gift store that sells an array of original artistic products. She remodels her store every year because, “why would someone keep coming to your store if it always looked the same.”

She saw the trend of high end coffee bars so “I had the idea of opening an espresso bar in my store and I don’t even drink coffee!” But it brought new people into her store and developed a niche for her. She also does a newsletter that is personal and chatty about new things in the store. Always on the lookout for new niches, “right now we’re working on creating something for the Red Hat Society, which has 300 members within 90 miles of us.”

As this report and my personal experiences of traveling all over the country have shown, there are some very innovative people in retailing. There are many that are going to survive and thrive, even as there are others that are going under.