Finding Retail Books

September 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment


Years ago, I remember going to the local public library to check out what reference books they had on retail operations. This was in 1995, when I was based in a small town and I needed some reference material to improve our retail operations. Well, I found one book on supermarket operations, that was all I managed to find. It was written in 1977, and looking at the contents, the basic supermarket operations system was still relevant in 1995. I guess that’s why it’s called the “BASICS”, these are fundumentals that has stood the test of time.

That’s why I included an Amazon Bookstore in my navigation bar. It’s not easy to find books and resources specific to Retail Marketing and Operations. I managed to read some of the books listed in my bookstore, and there is always something you can learn. In case you’re wondering, Amazon.com ships books worldwide, so if you see something you like, order it.

I will put a review up on some of the business books I’ve read soon.

To visit, my Amazon Bookstore, CLICK HERE.

Posted by | Filed Under Blog 

How Your Store Looks

September 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment


How’s the view of your store from where you’re standing?

How does it look when you standing at the check-out counter paying for your purchases?

We spend so much time at our retail store, that sometimes we just don’t see the things our customers see. Worse yet, we’ve gotten so used to it.

  • Tangled cables?
  • Paper clips?
  • Rubber bands?
  • Little scraps of paper?
  • Pens and pencils lying around?
  • Covered in dust?
  • Dirty Check-out register machine?

Did you notice it before your customers did? What are you going to do about? If you don’t like what you see, you know what you should do. Don’t wait.

As part of your morning opening routine, take a good look around your retail store from the prespective of your customers. Check the check-out counter, the walls, the windows, the ceilings, the shelving, the floor, the stairs. Check and clean every morning. That should be in your SOP.

In our retail stores, we report for work an hour before our retail store opening. We use this time to do the cleaning and replenishing. The objective is to get the store looking like new. We want clean floors, clean shelves, new merchandise on full shelves.

When we open our doors for business, we can focus on serving our customers.

Posted by | Filed Under Blog