Sam Walton said that the way to compete with his business was to offer superior service and product knowledge as anyone who has wandered down the aisles of a Wal Mart only to ask for help to no avail knows.
If this is true of small businesses, how will home businesses do?
Perhaps they’re doing better than “main street” (high street in UK speak) if they’re online affiliates or auction sellers?
The same publication lists an article entitled…Online Sales Rocket Past High Streets
From StartUpUK
Small shops could ‘vanish in 10 years’
Small, independent stores could disappear completely from the UK’s high streets over the next decade, a group of MPs has warned.
The growing power of supermarkets and their extended reach into local communities has put the country’s small, high street retailers at terminal risk, according to a report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Small Shops.
The report, High Street Britain: 2015, warns of potential social and economic knock-on effects, as well as environmental consequences, for many communities across Britain, as retail giants like Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and others open premises just outside towns and “aggressively compete� against their smaller, high-street rivals.
Continuous mergers and predatory pricing schemes are blamed for driving many independent retailers out of business, as well as the chain stores’ ability to offer greater parking.
As a result, the parliamentary group predicts that the UK’s high streets will be virtually free of independent retailers by 2015, with newsagents and post offices likely first to go, followed by convenience stores.
The report suggested introducing a new retail regulator, temporarily suspending mergers, closing the Channel Island VAT loophole and extending the supplier code of practice to cover the non-food sector.
No comments yet.