101 Sale

25 years ago, opening a retail store was a much simpler undertaking. Consumers were regularly buying staple items they required. Businesses were not difficult to run and business was good. Store owners often saw themselves as shining examples of individuals living the American dream. A time when neighborhood kids knew if they ever needed a job, they could look to one of the many neighborhood stores; candy store, drug store or local women’s shoes store business. Some of these stores had been operated by the same family for generations. However, in today’s economy most of these mom and pop enterprises are closing their doors. They are losing the struggle to just keep their businesses afloat.

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Over the years, most of these local businesses had survived competition by large department store chains. They managed to compete because they provided great customer service. They were able to maintain a steady flow of loyal customers. For example; your neighborhood shoe store would let customers return a pair of shoes without a receipt, a gesture based on personal acquaintance with the customer and had faith that they would be back in the future. Sometimes developing strong good customer service bonds are better than mere bargain sales and discounts. The ability to offer this type of personal customer service was one of the main tactics small retail outlets used to gain the advantage over large department stores.

Since the development of the internet, small retail stores find themselves striving to keep up not only with their local competitors, but they now have to compete with online stores. The impact from online stores was slow at first, however, as more and more people started to use the internet, they started making more purchases online; i.e., online shoe stores. Instead of going to your neighborhood shoe store; people started buying shoes online. As online retail stores started to see an increase in business, local vendors started to see a sharp decline. While this is convenient for customers, it has begun to take a toll on once-prosperous local shops.

In today’s economy, small merchants face an even bigger challenge in order to stay in business. With the banks in their current state, they’ve tightened the reins by decreasing merchant’s line of credit. This credit crunch has cause local merchants to turn to drastic measures. For instance; your local comfortable mens shoes store owner has had to dip into his retirement fund to purchase inventory or funding their marketing budget. The merchant simply doesn’t have a large funding base to draw on. However, with banks decreasing credit limits, the business owner have fewer financial options. And with the decline in business compels him to consider the strong possibility of a completely restructured life.

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