Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Big Lessons from Small Retailers

In Hub magazine Tim Dorgan's article "Little Guy Lessons" brings to light some interesting ideas focused around small, innovatiave retail chains. Using strategies that shake up the mega-retailer, the smaller stores win over with unique customer service, creative merchandising, niche-marketing, and solid vendor relations.

Along this same line is Dan Jablon's article "Giant Tools for Would-be Giants" where he looked into the technology used by one particular large retail chain, 7-Eleven, and how smaller retailers could use technology to the same advantage that 7-Eleven does.

Today, word has it that Wal-Mart is slowing down and cutting back on new store openings to focus on "fixing problems at its current stores; in effect, stop competing with itself."

Maybe some of the big guys could learn from the small guys?