Yale Youngblood |
In last month's cliffhanger column, we devoted a good portion of the text to a math problem. For those who might have missed it, and as a refresher for those who might have forgotten it, I cited some frightening notions from the book, "The Great Depression Ahead," by author/economist/demographer Harry S. Dent. In a nutshell, Dent opined that the retail realm is in for a world of hurt —for now and for the foreseeable future—because of a changing of the shopping guard. Out as primary buyers are the some 75 million Baby Boomers who had supported the economy vigorously for the better part of two decades. Replacing them are the some 41 million Generation Xers, who have become the folks now most likely to frequent the mall/grocery stores/car dealerships/garden centers. DO THE MATH ... It doesn't take a PhD to realize that if the composite groups spend exactly the same, per capita, that spending in general will be WAY DOWN. And that isn't exactly what retailers want to hear these days, especially retailers in our market, where you've have had to battle weather woes for two years now, to boot. So, what do you do as a garden center operator in response to this significant commercial challenge? Glad you asked. I did some asking myself, of industry folks who actually had a good year in 2010. No, there weren't many of them, but here's what they said worked:
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