Have you walked around a large department or food store lately? Too big to fail? I’m not so sure. I’m not convinced bigger is better. Bigger is bigger but not necessarily better. I spent 30 years in retail – managing and owning multi-million dollar businesses so I understand a bit about product selection and customer service. If I had to make a choice I’d spend my money on customer service every time. After all – how many different types of hammers do you need? At what point do customers give up looking at all the different models of toasters on the shelf and just pick one – any one? Too many choices of anything tends to numb the brain.

Who are you building your stores for? You or your target customer? The population is aging. They want to be able to get in – find what they want – and get out. They want to be able to walk around your store without having to walk endlessly in circles or guess where the exits are. They want to be able to find a sales person when they need help. They’d like to shop in a warm, friendly, inviting place – not a store that overwhelms, confuses and intimidates them. I may be dating myself but I remember a time when 25,000 square feet of retail space was the ideal size of store. Big enough to carry a large assortment of products with some breadth and depth. A store that you could manoeuver around in with ease.

The “Information Overload” epidemic continues. Here’s a case in point. I met up with some dear friends for lunch yesterday. My friend and I love hamburgers and fries so we decided to check out a popular burger place. Do you really need to list 12 different hamburgers on your menu? It’s a hamburger! – Enough already! What ever happened to the good, better, best selection process? Have we reached a tipping point yet? I certainly hope so. I think we are making life way more difficult than it needs to be. We need to go back to a simpler time.  Bigger is bigger but not necessarily better.

Copyright (c) 2014. Brian Smith – Reformed Control Freak. Are you looking for a speaker or workshop facilitator who can deliver an entertaining and informative session on a variety of soft-skills topics? Contact Brian today. He will work with you one-on-one to insure your event is an overwhelming success. http://briansmithpld.com