Another industry's take on BBs

[AWG]

I try and stay away from the "BBs are killing us" type of threads - they usually deteriorate into just b**** sessions.

I get Dealerscope magazine at my day job - and this month's editorial deals with BB and (now) thriving independent electronics retailers.

If anyone is interested here's a link:
Your enemy, your friend (http://www.dealerscope.com/doc/285848569870039.bsp)

Maybe there's hope for the "retailers" in our industry to survive - the ones who run a professional business as a BUSINESS, not a hobby; those who buy smart; those who differentiate themselves; and the ones who adapt to change rather than rail against the bad guys.
Your thoughts??

Tony

[Janis]

"If you've been doing well, even in the face of mega-stores, step back and ask yourself: What am I doing that's helping me stay afloat? Now, just keep doing more of that."

Excellent point.

Thanks for sharing the article - was interesting.

[Jim Miller]

That article makes a good point. Competition is a good thing, even when it's not easy to identify, qualify, or quantify.

Independent framers may think bigbox stores are harming our industry, but that really isn't true. These larger competitors have precipitated a new wave of evolution in framing, and the result is that more consumers are buying custom framing now than ever before -- they're just not buying all of it from small, independent businesses.

We can thank the bigbox stores for bringing custom framing into the homes of many consumers who might otherwise have left their custom framed items in a box under the bed.

The evolution continues, as foreign factory-framed decorative art flows into the USA. That segment of the art market, unlike bigbox stores, may actually slow the growth of custom framing.

[TFH]

"We can thank the bigbox stores for bringing custom framing into the homes of many consumers who might otherwise have left their custom framed items in a box under the bed."

This is a good point; however, I think the way the large firms are bringing the public into the market is by associating framing with % off. The percentage off game sacrifices the long term staying power of us independants. This seems to me to be more of a hinderance to the industry. I would guess that 50% of customers may realize 50% off any given price is some kind of ploy. That said, we independants then share the left over 50% of the customers.

Larson Juhl's way of bringing the public to the market is more appealing to me-manufacturers advertising to the public. To take the framing industry out of the Jurassic, Manufactures should enact some kind of MAPP or Minimum Advertised Price Policy. This would stop deflating the percieved value of our work. I'm also happy with Larson deciding to not sell to shops without storefronts.

[AWG]

You guys are missing my point...

The jist of the editorial has to do with how the previously struggling independent Consumer Electronics dealers are doing today, 10+ yrs after the emergence of the BB electronics chains.

Many independent CE dealers are doing well - some very well. Ten or so yrs ago many struggled and died (sound familiar to our businesses)
The emergence of BestBuy, etc helped weed out the weak, and those independents who survived (and are now prospering)were the ones who adjusted to changes. The BB retailers also gave the little guys a common enemy - lighting the competitive fire and helped band together the little guys (sound even more familiar??)

My point is this -I think Jim gets it - the big guys help as much as they hurt. As smart, professional adaptive frame shop owner has a fighting chance against the BB shops. I think that seeing how things shook out in another industry may give hope to some here who think BBs are the worst thing ever for our industry.

Tony

[TFH]

I think you're right about the last two sentences. I got a little off-topic. The BBs do help bring together the small shops and make the existing ones more competitive, of course out of necessity. I don't mean to vilify the BB; doing so is not productive. A more productive approach maybe to identify their detrimental qualities(within the industry) which I picked was pricing, and how to deal with it. The article you linked to was good; I was left wondering what did the successful shops do to compete. Did they focus on excellent service, better quality product, moving to a better location?

Dialogue on this is the most important thing that can happen for our industry. What do you think you should do against the % off racket? What do you think is one of the answers in competing against these corporations? I'm constantly looking for a better way, any ideas?

I think the big guys help the industry much more than they hurt, I do applaud whenever I see a certain companies network t.v. commercials aired, it brings framing to the mainstream, but how to keep our market share from shrinking should also be discussed.