nickshanagher

  The US edition of Setting the Table , Danny Meyer’s inspiring guide to success as an independent restaurateur, has a brilliant blue cover with a single saltshaker. The edition I bought does not and that is the only weakness with this useful guide to setting up your first shop, moving from one to two, from two to four, and from four to infinity. The saltshaker is relevant because it is attached to a brilliant story about leadership from Meyer’s early days in the mid-1980s when he had opened his first restaurant and was developing his business style. Pat Cetta, an experienced restaurateur who informally mentored Meyer asked him to clear a table of everything except a saltshaker. He asked: “Where is the saltshaker now”. “Right where you told me in the centre of the table.” “Are you sure it’s where you want it?” I looked closely. The shaker was actually about a quarter of an inch off centre. “Go ahead put it where you really want it.” I moved it very slightly...

A third generation family business, TJ Morris, the company behind Home Bargains is both a success story and an enigma. Well on its way to £1 billion of sales in the UK, it is highly profitable. In 2009 operations director Joe Morris spoke to the FT about its reasons for success: 1. Word of mouth 2. Good products 3. Low prices 4. Honesty 5. Transparency. Its strategy for good products and low prices: 1. Only sell brand names 2. Only sell products it can make a profit on. No loss leaders. 3. Don't confuse shoppers with offers that are here today and gone tomorrow [opposite of Zara!]. 4. Stock changes depending on what can be bought cheaply [manufacturers who overproduce are use TJMorris to get rid of volume.] Run by four brothers. The driver is Tom, who is renowned as a great buyer. "If you buy right you can make money even if the stores are not perfect," says Joe. The shop experience: 1. Is about browsing: let's see what is in there motivation for shopp...

Analysts from ING helped to push the share price of Tesco down 1 per cent on 4 July by suggesting that it has its strategy wrong. Their prognosis is not new. For a couple of years, various analysts have said that Tesco needs to start a price war. What are they looking at? At a price gap between Asda and Tesco, which they say is widening. "We feel that deeper price cuts are the only way to prevent Tesco customers from switching to Asda," ING says. "Ultimately, lower prices should lead to higher volumes, higher sales and higher profits, which in turn can be reinvested in lower prices." ING says that if Tesco continues on its current track it will be unable to convince "Tesco-tired customers" to come back to the store. The analysis is like the rain-laden clouds that have soaked Britain all this summer. It is a known unknown that makes business planning difficult. What investment decisions should a local retailer make? What should your wholesale suppli...

While the magazine and newspaper industry is fearful that its current distribution model, dependent on sales through corner shops, is at risk from the rise of the internet, the people who will make the decision are your shoppers not your suppliers. Free is the big selling point of the internet on the basis that access to the internet is cheap and easy and the advance of technology means vast amounts of data can be stored cheaply and easily. In the film industry, there is a widespread view that DVDs will disappear as people take to buying movies over the internet. However, a report from leading US media research group Screen Digest says that hopes for the rise of digital media have taken a hit - with it downgrading its forecasts following lower than expected sales last year. "The level of interest in digital downloads just isn't there," analyst Arash Amel told the Financial Times. Why? Becaue people don't like the restrictions that come with digital downloads, he sugg...

The October 2009 issue of Which, the consumers' bible, provides a helpful double page diagram revealing 10 secrets of how supermarkets position goods to make shoppers buy more. There will be no surprises for a local retailer who is paying attention but the simplicity of the presentation is useful in thinking about how well you are executing your strategy in-store. "Look right" is tip number six, saying: "Most of us look right when we enter the shop - so that's where supermarkets put current deals...[which] can be brought out at a moment's notice - if it starts raining heavily, you may see umbrellas appear hear". If your layout will not accommodate a 'deals zone', you should still pay attention to what shoppers see when they look right - this will set the tone for their visit. (Also note the presumption to action, with the best stores being able to quickly change their displays and offer. That is quite a challenge!) If you take time to look out ...

With a bricks-and-mortar store, where you locate is a big decision, fixed by your capital investment. On-line, location can be changed at the click of a button. I have the opportunity to move to a new space on the betterretailing site that will be launched later this month. The benefits will be that this blog will appear alongside others that will tackle different aspects of strategy and tactics for local retailers, including a new blog by Steve Denham. It is exciting for me and should help readers find even more good stuff, near at hand. I am also looking forward to coaching from Sam on how to make these short items even more useful, such as embedding links. Just as retailers may benefit from a good mix of footfall driving shops near them, so too on the web. Fingers crossed.

Arthur Ryan, the secretive Dubliner behind the success of the Primark chain, is standing down this week and a tribute in the FT at the weekend lauded a "veteran trader who redrew the face of the high street". An analyst even provided a quote that suggested he had managed to keep all the people happy all of the time. I first came across Penneys - the Primark brand in Ireland - in the 1970s and used to buy cowboy boots and jeans there. They were cheap and cheerful and worked. In Primark, the sorts of things that I like to buy are t-shirts and underwear, summer casual clothes and so on. However, one of the secrets to shopping in Penneys/Primark was always to work out when the shop was not full and how to do returns. The canny shopper with time on his or her hands could make the cheap prices work for them. Today, I simply cannot bear to wait in the queues for the tills. While most retailers seek to reduce queues, in the case of Primark the queue may be part of the package. ...

For suppliers, Tesco creates a cheap route to market and in return for accessing it the supplier gives up his control over his brand. The independent channel, in contrast, is hard work and more expensive but he retains control. The integrated wholesale/retail model of the large supermarkets has been winning for 40 years. But if social networks are allowing consumers (shoppers) to undermine the rise of the big brand, how could this be exploited by smaller nimble businesses? An opportunity for the wholesaler in the new century.