We’re all willing to believe in Santa Claus, but a world in which Wal-Mart and Target share a web site together would be truly incredible. Unlike the big discount stores, small retailers are doing exactly that. They’ve discovered Santa Claus’ greatest secret: if you help one another and have fun doing it, the whole world will welcome you.
Small retailers are marketing side-by-side with their competitors on joint websites. And they’re helping consumers rediscover the fun in local retail shopping.
Tracy Keating is the owner of Life Is Sweet, a candy store in Keene, New Hampshire. She is one of the drivers behind www.keenelocal.com, a website that encourages consumers to stimulate economic growth, create jobs, protect the environment and preserve their community by buying local with just 10% of the money they spend. The site makes the initiative fun, with T-shirts and stickers. It also makes buying locally easy, listing businesses by name and individual website address. Several restaurants, several jewelry stores and two candy stores share the site, among others. Why would Tracy help create and support a site that welcomes her competitor?
“Competition is not an issue,” she says. “Once you elevate one business downtown, it benefits all of downtown. We tell people, if you plan to spend $100 out and about, spend $10 of it locally. That money stays in the community and actually triples, and we all benefit.”
In the nearby town of Peterborough, the restaurants and shops of Depot Square also have a cooperative website (www.depotsquarepeterborough.com). It includes a calendar of entertaining special events, a raffle and an e-newsletter along with a page for each store, restaurant and gallery in the square, plus links to individual websites. The handsome site was designed by one of the businesses in the square, C.C. Stephens & Co., making it home-grown in every sense.
In another approach to competing with the major discounters, Roger Weinrich of Good Fortune has taken a closer look at why consumers are attracted to malls and big stores. “They’re fun,” he says, “because you can walk around like you’re in an amusement park.” Roger and his staff decided they would create that same atmosphere for their customers. From the ice cream freezer at the front of the store to the ping-pong table in the alcove, Good Fortune encourages visitors to have a good time. “We charge $5 to play ping pong,” he explains, “and we donate the money to the community kitchen. It’s a great draw in winter. We also have a Diamond Mine. We fill a container with sand and put loose diamonds in it and every Saturday customers get a chance to scoop up one pile to find a diamond. We’re experimenting with promotions a month at a time. Some of what we do is risky; we don’t know what will happen. But it’s all fun.”
THE HANNAH GRIMES CENTER, LOCATED AT 25 ROXBURY STREET IN KEENE, NEW HAMPSHIRE, PROVIDES OFFICE SPACE, WORKSHOPS AND A SUPPORTIVE ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH NEW AND EMERGING BUSINESSES CAN BE LAUNCHED, DEVELOPED AND GRADUATED AND OPERATES HANNAH GRIMES MARKETPLACE, AN INDEPENDENT RETAIL STORE MARKETING LOCALLY MADE AND GROWN PRODUCTS.