We Want it to Mean Something
We have a romantic notion of Mom & Pop. The corner store, the comfortable place where we shop; it’s the construct we have in our minds that when connected with a real experience becomes sticky, in a good way. It sticks with us and we romanticize it.
We want it all—the perfect cup of coffee, in the perfect place to drink it in and an expert barista who knows us behind the counter.
The merchant princes defined the Golden Age of retail. John Wannamaker and Marshall Field built empires on wanderlust—singular vision enabled by large buying staffs presenting dizzying arrays of exotic goods. The lack of ubiquitous and efficient communication allowed for each major city to have its own multi-story, downtown emporium. As these stores have closed in recent years, we’ve all likely heard of someone’s fond memories of the purchase of a prom dress or seeing celebrities in person for the first time or of visits to Santa at Christmas time.
During the Golden Age, big merchants were not very different from the corner store owner. As superhighways begat malls, and malls begat chains, before we knew it mediocrity had set in. Big box stores, while financially successful for retailer and customer alike, left us flat.
We’re in a post-big box age where retailer and consultant alike are seeking to differentiate stores and the consumer experience in those stores. Is it a wonder that differentiation has quickly become anthropomorphizing the brand? We strive to make spaces more human and to give brands human personality traits and anticipate the choices a brand would make, if it were human. We want it to mean something to consumers, because we know they expect and support businesses that fit their romanticized notions of the Mom and Pop stores.
Place, Products, Policy, Personality
As we re-humanize retail, what can we learn from those Mom and Pop places that stick in our minds? How do they do it and what makes these places compelling and memorable?
This is where the hard work of mom and pop retail occurs. Owners, alongside a few employees, prep the produce, bento boxes, and coffees for the day. They get up early and stay late, often including friends and family members into their businesses. In fact, the owner of a small sporting goods store in the Bronx said to me once, “Only family is allowed to work the cash register—they’re going to steal from you, so it might as well be family.”
Mom and Pops know their stuff; they are truly Content Area Experts on Brussels sprouts, butterfish , a hot party dress, or the perfect gift. They care deeply about what they do, their products, and their customers’ satisfaction
How is it done and what can we learn from them? Are there lessons to be learned about customer-centricity and brand loyalty? How does the owner/operator grow the business beyond his or her own capacity to manage the day-to-day operations of the business while keeping its own personality?
We all know of places like this. We hold special places in our hearts for them. Sometimes, they are a single corner store and sometimes they become small chains. In rare occasions, they scale up, become well-known brands, and still maintain their original magic.
I took a look at three categories of stores that we can learn from:
The Corner Store
The Emergent Chain
The Branded Merchant
The Corner Store is that great single place that is locally, regionally or perhaps nationally known that exemplifies the qualities we all seek. The Emergent Chain started out as one great place and has successfully duplicated it; they are on their way, with lots of doors and lots of loyal customers. Finally, The Branded Merchant is the popularly known brand that started out as one great place.
I started out talking about my Dad’s place, Palmer’s Carry Out. Although he sold it in 1976, the name is the same and it remains an integral part of its neighborhood and community. The “new” owners have successfully carried out its original purpose, giving people what they need (want?) and, yes, still carrying out the lady’s packages.
Another example of the Corner Store, Moss (
www.mossonline.com), in New York City, serves a different neighborhood of customers. It is truly an emporium of high-design—a great place where you can buy the very latest from the best product designers in the world. Murray Moss’s singular vision is akin to the merchant princes of yesterday, just with a very sharp focus.
In thinking about current owner-operated places I admire, the Emergent Chains Jeni’s Ice Creams, and Northstar Café came immediately to mind. Jeni (www.jenisicecreams.com) started here in Columbus, Ohio hand-mixing exotic ingredients in crazy combinations at our historic public market, The North Market, and Salty Carmel Ice Cream is normal here now. She now has three locations, with more to come, sells to other major retailers (Dean & DeLuca) and restaurants worldwide. Not only is the product fantastic—try the Reverse Root Beer Float—but her stores are warm places where people hang out. She is equally adept at finding, hiring, and training and her staff seem to be cut from the same cloth as Jeni—warm, committed to great ice cream, and always serving customers with a sparkle in their eye.
The Northstar Café (www.TheNorthstarCafe.com) is a perfect combination of organic food (the best veggie burger anywhere), material-rich dining rooms (plywood, slate and concrete have never been warmer) and low-key, cool staff. The friendly and warm husband and wife owners, Katie and Kevin, are frequently on premises and are very serious about the menu, the staff and the customer’s positive experience in the dining room. It shows. Look for a Northstar Café in your neighborhood soon.
The Branded Merchants, Crate & Barrel and The Body Shop, are great examples of chains with personality. Their stories are well known, both started out as neighborhood places that grew to international notoriety based on their founders’ visions, perseverance and moral fiber. Somehow, Gordon Segal of Crate & Barrel and Dame Anita Roddick (we’ll miss you) of The Body Shop maintained the core strengths of their businesses and that tone, atmosphere and attitude when you walk in their doors, no matter where those doors were located. I have been fortunate to meet both of these retailers and I can tell you the thing they have in common with all the others I’ve profiled is that they care. They care about their merchandise, their stores, their staffs, their world, and most importantly, their customers.
Beyond Presentation
What is common amongst these places? The customer experience is one that at some level is emotional. It is a place where one can shop and feel good about the products they take away and the place that it is. It goes beyond procurement and moves into satisfaction, satiating a deep-rooted desire.
Channeling Mom & Pop
How do we bottle this up? Channel it for ourselves and our clients?
I asked friends and colleagues—customers—about their favorite Mom & Pop stores and why they keep going back and I got an array of very simple answers. Most people seem to base their emotional connection with these places on the notion of warmth and attentiveness—that the operators and the people they deal with genuinely care about their customers and build their assortments and stores around this knowledge.
There are some universal themes. Here are some excerpts.
“I am from India & this is a place where success stories are only with Mom & Pop stores. There are lot of reasons for their success, but in my view they are more successful because of the loyalty that Indian consumers tend to exhibit. They do not change their purchase habit as long as their corner store has what they want, they do not try any other big stores. The strategy that stores follow is inventory management & nothing more.
“I remember one specific sweet shop in my native country. The shop attracts customers only because of word-of-mouth & the quality of the product in terms of taste.
“The strategy for all these corner stores is simple-know your customers & manage inventory accordingly. No CRM or any other soft skills are required to sell!”
--Mathangi, India
“I'm a bit biased because it's a business run by family friends of mine, but Molly Bea's INGREDIENTS is a small, owner-operated specialty bulk foods store located in Northwest Indiana (about an hour from downtown Chicago). The elements that make it special are easy to identify but tougher to describe: genuine interest in making the customers happy, a proactive approach to new products that might interest a customer, and helping to educate everyone that walks in the door on everything from the most mundane detail of a new fair-trade coffee or imported nut, to the background behind the variety of gluten-free flours and pastas they carry. The consistent thread running through every customer interaction is attention to every detail and reinforcing that they are indeed valued by Molly Bea's as a customer. Check it out here:
http://www.mollybeas.com .
--Henry, Chicago
“I think the only Mom & Pop operation I frequent is the butcher shop where we purchase all our meats (unfortunately they don't do seafood as well). It's not intentional - it just happens that we haven't found others for our other shopping/service needs since we moved. “Why do I like them? Everything is done by the people behind the counter who I can speak to face to face. The prices are better than the local MegaMart chain and the food is of higher quality. There's better variety. Very little is "pre-packaged." If I have a special order, I can call ahead and they'll set me up. They're never too busy to offer preparation/serving suggestions.”
--Andy, New York
When I'm doing a home improvement projection and I know what I'm doing (Ha!), I'll get my supplies from the nearest giant chain store (DYI, Lowes, Home Depot, etc.). When I'm faced with a project that I have no idea about, there's a hardware store around the corner from me that I'll always go to ... the people there know what they are talking about. I pay a bit more, but it saves me three more trips to the Chain Stores because some untrained employee had no idea what he/she was talking about. Prove to me that you know what you’re doing, and I'll shop at your Mom/Pop store every time.
--Tim, Cleveland
Oftentimes we focus on the store environment and the merchandise—both vitally important—the things our customers buy and how they buy them and ultimately how we make money. However, stores and merchandise come and go, and so do the ways people buy. What makes Mom & Pops compelling? Human things like eye contact, caring, and thoughtfulness. As consumers ourselves, we crave this. Not, I think, because there has been some sort of horrible degradation of service, but because it’s what we always have craved—someone to care enough to carry our bags out to the car for us.
