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The Gifted Retailer

GDA Staff -- Gifts and Dec, 5/2/2011 3:36:13 PM

On the advice of a former employer, Barb Stein, owner of Great Northern Trading Co. in Rockford, MI, opened her gift shop in the building she and her husband had purchased as an investment. Today, the store is part of what has become one of Michigan's premier downtown shopping areas.

Gifts & Decorative Accessories: What do you like best about being a retailer? Great Northern Trading Company
Barb Stein: There are a lot of reasons I enjoy being a retailer, but several stand out from the rest. Probably my number one reason is the people I get to meet each day that patronize my business. Even though we are not a tourist destination, I've had the opportunity to meet people from all over the U.S. and many foreign countries. Talking to them and hearing their stories has been so interesting. As any long-time merchant will agree, people who come into your store will tell you things about their lives, their families and themselves that they would never tell to anyone else. Second best would be the relationships you establish with sales reps and vendors over the years.

G&DA: What was the most valuable piece of business advice that you ever received?
BS: The most valuable piece of business advice I ever received was received totally by accident and it's actually kind of a funny story. My husband and I purchased the building that my business is in as an investment. I was working full time in the office of a wonderful shoe retailer in a nearby town. He thought at the time it would be great if I could be home a little bit more and suggested that I open up a "shop" in the building we had recently purchased and resign from my full time job. To this day, I can't tell you for sure what made me decide to leave a regular paycheck for the unknown, but thankfully I did. Obviously I never got to spend any more time at home, but the little town where we made a small real estate investment has grown into one of the premier downtown shopping areas in the state. People come from miles around to enjoy all our downtown has to offer including shops, restaurants, parks, recreation, festivals and farm markets. We still own the original building and all the additions that have been made to it. I've never had to deal with a landlord and having my rent raised. Sometimes, the best advice just falls in your lap.

I would be remiss if I didn't also give credit for valuable advice to the sales reps that I've met over the years. These unsung heroes fall into three categories. The lousy ones that call you on the telephone or email you to let you know that they are your new rep for "X" company and would you please send all your orders to them at the following address and then they never even walk through your door. The average ones who appear when you ask them to, but never seem to be able to answer all your questions. And, finally, the outstanding ones who always have your back.

Great Northern Trading Company They actually walk through your store and understand the kinds of items you buy, the displays you create and they instinctively know what you are looking for. They'll even refuse to sell you an item because they know it wouldn't sell in your store or they'll insist that you purchase an item you're not sure about. Theirs is the most valuable advice!

G&DA: What is/was your most successful promotion?
BS: Our most successful promotions include our Holiday Open House which is held for two evenings in late November. We started this event with one other retailer in town and it has grown to a town-wide event. We use this as a chance to introduce all our new holiday gifts and decor. We have strolling carolers, serve refreshments and give each person who comes thru our door a free Christmas tree ornament. It's been such a big success that the residents of our town would probably never forgive us if it didn't happen each year.

Each spring we do an Anniversary Sale. It typically lasts about nine or 10 days and always includes two weekends. We give away candy bars that have a discount under the wrapper that is good on the customer's entire purchase that day. This is a great time for us to unveil all our wonderful garden and spring gifts and decor.

G&DA: What three product/lines are your best sellers?
BS: This year and actually last year too, our best selling product has been the lighted branches from The Light Garden and Primitives By Kathy. Last year the biggest selling branch was the plain willow, but so far this year, the best seller is the silver dollar lights. The other two best seller lines are Transpac for their Spring/Garden items and Good Bead for their charms and accessories. Good Bead was in our top seller line in 2010.

G&DA: What are you doing to attract new customers? Great Northern Trading Company
BS: We've created a Facebook page, but I have to admit it isn't coming easily for me. The social media thing is totally foreign to me even though our store has been completely computerized for some time. I'm taking it one step at a time. We also have an email newsletter that we use regularly and our customers seem to like that. One of our local radio stations has a great program that we've been using for a little more than a year and that seems to be working quite well. It's called the "Value Connection." The station has a segment that is on every day where they sell gift certificates to local business at a 30 percent discount. For us they offer a $25 certificate that costs the customer $17.50. In return we get a $25 credit on our account toward future advertising. The whole thing is really a win-win situation. We get customers (new and old) who get a discount and we get the full value in advertising. This past year we have used the advertising credits to promote our Holiday Open House and our spring Anniversary Sale.

G&DA: What was your most effective display?
BS: We've done a million displays over the years - some good and some not so good. On the whole, the most effective were the ones where we cross-merchandised and actually showed customers how to use more than one of our items at a time in their home. This can be as simple as a wall grouping where it looks so good, the customer wants to purchase all of the items so he/she can have the same look in their own home or a complete room display. Currently with the garden theme being so big, it's been helpful that we actually have some small gardens in the front of the store where we can show garden items in an actual garden.

G&DA: How do you find your best employees?
Great Northern Trading Company BS: Every single employee we've ever had started out as a customer, and usually a really good customer. It just stands to reason that if a person really likes your merchandise they will also be good at selling it to others. This philosophy has worked for many years. We've also been very lucky that most of our employees have stayed with us. We offer a generous employee discount and I always try to make each employee feel part of all our major decisions including occasional trips to market with me. All of our current employees have been here at least 10 years.

G&DA: What was your biggest retail problem and how did you solve it?
BS: Back in the 1990's we desperately needed more space. We'd already added on to our building as much as possible so that wasn't an option. We found some off-site space that we could rent for warehouse and storage and that worked for a while, but it didn't give us any additional selling space. When our local hardware store announced they were leaving the downtown for a much larger and brand new space on the edge of town, the building directly behind us came available. We were able to purchase the building and join it with our existing store. That increased our selling space and allowed us to bring our storage back too. Everything went along great until....

A few years ago, the economic decline made us realize that perhaps we now had too much space - and now we had the opposite problem. Our answer was to build a few walls and turn half the new building into office space. Turns out, there was a market for downtown office space and we were able to help with that. Now we're keeping our fingers crossed that the economy doesn't get any worse as we've come to depend on that rental income. It seems there's always some problem to solve.

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