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Exasperated, Paisley retailer Des Barr this week went out and shopped for 230 copies of the Daily Mail and then posted them at his own expense to Kevin Beatty, group managing director of the company that publishes the newspaper. His challenge to Mr Beatty was a simple one - see how long it takes you to put 230 posters into these papers on a weekday morning before you home deliver the copies. Mr Barr's story illustrates well the frustration that news retailers have with the newspaper supply chain. It shows how publishers can act like feudal landlords when it comes to working with newsagents - increasing at will the rent they extract from the goodwill and investment of small businesses. Mr Barr has built a home news delivery business based on exceptional service. He has canvassed local people and won their newspaper orders. Ironically, he is full of praise for Associated Newspapers, which Mr Beatty leads. It has pumped millions into supporting delivered newspaper sales, Mr...

Shopkeepers should stop complaining about competition from the internet and look to it for ideas, Sarah Curran, founder of my-wardrobe.com, says in her latest FT column . "I remember vividly a retailers' conference in Dusseldorf, which was filled with many of the UK's leading high street names. The buzzword was 'the customer'. I wondered what their priority was before that," she says provocatively. Ms Curran started her business with a boutique in London's Crouch End. I knew who my customer was, she says, because I was the customer and I knew the retail experience I expected. But moving on-line in 2006 she had to work out how to replace face-to-face contact. On-line retailers have to create "stickiness" so that the experience is engaging. They do this by using aspirational photoshoots, editorial features and video content. The internet and social media offer many exciting ways of doing this. In contrast the high street can "often see...

Ed Garner of Kantar Worldpanel reckons he has the best tool for knowing what is happening in the UK grocery market and his data says Tesco's strategy does not work. Nine out of 10 people already visit Tesco regularly and no matter how hard it tries, this number is unlikely to become 10 out of 10. Sitting in a room with 9 businessmen and one environmental campaigner yesterday I mentioned this 9 out of 10 statistic and they simply did not believe me. How many people shop at Tesco, the chairman asked and only two of us put up our hands. The other shopper said he mainly used Tesco late at night when he had to make a distress purchase. Which got me thinking about my visit the previous evening to buy toothpaste. I had caught a train out of Paddington and planned to buy the toothpaste at Sainsbury's busy c-store in the station. Thinking ahead about this purchase and after hearing at the Independent Retailer Conference about how multiples organised their shops around shopper missio...

It was the stream of shoppers visiting Steve Archer’s new convenience store in Newcastle-under-Lyme last week that really underlined his point that sometimes local shopkeepers cannot see the opportunity under their noses. He had persuaded the landlord of two small closed shops to let him lease them, knock them together and provide a full convenience offering including off licence. Nearby retailers led a petition of their customers to oppose the off licence and lost. “Local people really like the idea of being able to walk to their shop, rather than travel to the supermarket,” Steve told me. I could see this was true with my eyes. Mr Archer’s message is pretty much the same as the one Justin King, the boss of Sainsbury, told the national media at a City dinner around the same time. Shoppers are going “back to the future”, Mr King said, making more frequent trips and putting fewer items in their baskets. There is a big opportunity, Ed Garner, communications director of Kantar Worldpanel,...

A thing that you notice about great retailers is how much credit they give their staff. While the big supermarkets project their credentials behind impressive (and often overstated) job creation numbers, collectively local shopkeepers match them. A reason society doesn't know this is perhaps the lack of a context for independents to-broadcast their success. Reading George Anders' inspiring book The Rare Find , published by Portfolio Penguin, a question springs to mind: What is the reward for local shopkeepers to recruit great staff? Anders writes about world leading talent and how it is unearthed. How is this relevant for small shops? And for their potential colleagues? Thinking about great retailers I have met, I think answers include how local shops help young staff develop, how first-employers keep track of their peoples' later career success and how shopkeepers nurture local superstars. Superstars with humble jobs like the janitor who President Kennedy met on a tour...

On a return visit to Hatton News in central London this week, I was surprised to find that two metres of the magazine display had been replaced by cards. Trade has been difficult for Manoj Harji but he took advantage of the closure of Clinton Cards further down his parade to change his product mix. The cards are generating more profit from the space than the magazines were, he says. I did not have the opportunity to check his numbers and his range is similar to that in Funky Pigeon, which opened a concession in WHSmith, which is located on the far side of the closed card shop. The first problem is lower footfall and the second is about filling your linear feet of shelf space with what is scarce, and scarcity is hard to find in the middle of London. (Mind you, across town at Exmouth market Space is selling tiny cards at £3.99, imported from the USA.)

A great window display seen in central London. Inspirational work.

On the one hand, the government wants small retailers to take on young people as apprentices, with details of a £1,500 support package due any time now from Skillsmart Retail. On the other, different retailers have different priorities. For a supermarket like Tesco, with 3,000 places on its in-house apprenticeship scheme, it is about developing its people and building team spirit in its stores. It's oldest apprentice is 67, says UK personnel director Judith Nelson. For a discounter like Aldi, it is a great way of attracting talented people to join its company with the promise of becoming managers in the future. "There are people who want a career in retail," says finance director Matthew Speight. For an independent c-store operator like Rav Garcha, it is a way to build the self-esteem of his team and to get his staff delivering on their mission to make "a difference locally". Unlike education that is designed to get a class of students to a median level, t...

A successful off licence depends on pricing and range. Most customers will want to buy one or two bottles of wine so it is important to get the pricing of single bottle correct. After a gap of perhaps eight months I revisited Roli Ranger's Ascot Londis store last week. The wine section looked pretty good. Roli told me what had changed - a big new chiller section. I think his promotions were pretty good too. A floor display in an attractive wicker basket helped to give the section authority. While not every retailer will be in a location that can display £30 plus bottles, I think this is a neat touch as it helps shoppers to think about spending more. It works similarly to the really expensive item on a restaurant menu, nudging people to trade up.

Bob Gorton's book Boosting Sales  (Bloomsbury, £9.99) available on Amazon,  gives the owner of every business a lasting insight into the simple rules that will help you make more money than you are today. The success of the book is not because it is full of new ideas but because it presents simple business rules in a way that is easy to grasp and easy to follow. "I once tried sport parachuting," Bob writes, "and when I had stopped trembling for long enough to listen to him, the jump master taught me a very important lesson. He said: 'Once you are out there, look at the white cross on the ground, because people generally hit what they are staring at.' So those people who look hard and constantly at the competition...seem to find a lot of it. Look hardest at your customers, you will better understand their wants and needs and find more customers." The book is organised logically. Bob is an engineer and he is sharing the rules for business success, rul...

The day before Christmas we smashed my wife's treasured Emma Bridgewater butter dish. While the lid with its memorable message 'Don't let the cat get the butter' survived, my daughter and I determined to visit the local shops and effect an instant replacement. But first we checked out the price online. Henley-on-Thames, our local market town, has a few showy independent homewares shops and while I was prepared to pay a premium I had set myself a limit. My surprise was to find the price was the same. I remarked on this to the owner, who was very aware of the clicks versus bricks challenge to the success of his store. This manufacturer, he said, worked quite hard to maintain its price points. I bought the dish and was delighted to receive a Christmas gift of a tea towel as well. If Tesco's business model is under threat from Amazon and the internet, does this mean your business model is too? Yes, is the answer of Michael Koploy of Software Advice, who has just pro...