A completely new view of Shop Local

ByBecky McCray

Today, I finished my last speaking event for 2013. (Whew!) So I’m taking time to reconnect with you. I’ve missed talking with you!

You know that I’m writing a 7 week series on The 7 Most Common Weaknesses of Local Shops, and what we’re all going to do about them. Here’s the list so far:

  1. Weakness 1 is Limited Hours
  2. Poor Customer Service
  3. Limited Merchandise Selection
  4. High Prices
  5. Dated Appearance or Ugly Buildings
  6. Not Marketing (Monday)
  7. Failing the Show-rooming Test (the Monday after)

Here’s the reason I’m doing this. I want to help more local businesses break out of these bad habits. I want to see more prosperous local businesses. I want your town to prosper.

These seven articles come from the major update of my Shop Local ebook for small towns. All the Shop Local messages that are out there are making an impact on people (see this evidence from Delux Corp), but we have make the local stores better to actually capture those new sales.

The new Shop Local 2.0 booklet has a huge section on Better Local Shopping and another on Building a Better Community. The ebook has blossomed from 12 pages to 50 pages. It’s a whole new ballgame. It’s not quite polished up yet, so I’m not putting it up for public sale.

In a related topic, sometimes people tell me that they can’t do Shop Local because it will offend their tourists or visitors. I disagree. For a traveler’s view of Shop Local, read my friend Sheila Scarborough’s “Before the holiday shopping frenzy begins, plan to keep it local.” Sheila loves local, even when it’s not local to her house. I bet your visitors can see her point, too.

Until next week, 

Becky

PS –  Oklahoma retail businesses might be interested in this trip to Dallas to shop the Market and look for fixtures, with bonus training en route: Entrepreneur Tour to Dallas.