Who is your toughest competition?

My number one competition is the off-price stores. People say, "I got that at TJ Maxx for so much cheaper." They don't know they're buying seconds. Next comes the Internet. If you have collectibles you can't compete with eBay. As people get more Internet-savvy, I'm starting to lose sales to people who say, "I can get it on the Internet cheaper." In both cases we don't lose as much as other stores do, because we're in a resort. Third is the economy itself. When interest rates go up, seniors travel less. When gas prices go up, you get fewer day-trippers. And with fewer dollars in each person's pocket, there's only so much disposable income to go around. People travel with a finite amount of money. The more they spend on accommodations, food, and attractions, the less is left for everything else. I might be the only teashop in town, but my competition is T-shirts, fudge, and just about everything else.

Our strongest competition is that part of the market that does not abide by the rules in the area of prestige gifts. These items should be sold on the basis of quality presentation and service, never on the basis of price. People who are willing to discount prices on prestige items end up hurting everybody in the industry, though those of us who are willing to help maintain both the aura and the dignity of those lines can still combat those people. Also, I would urge manufacturers to keep the playing field level. Both in making sure they distribute to the right kind of retail venue, and in strictly upholding the pricing of their own goods both in retail operations and in their own shops.

I don't feel that we have any real competition. Rather than concerning ourselves with potential competition, we put our energies into being unique so we won't compete. Other people may have some of the same lines but we all have our niche. The feel of the store and the services we offer are different. The one major area of competition is the artists themselves. A lot of them do both retail and wholesale sales, and their retail prices do not relate to the going rate of markup. Whereas for me keystone is a thing of the past, they take the same item and keystone it, or mark it up even less. The artists end up competing with themselves, because they're low-balling a price compared to galleries that have more expenses and overhead. I can't purchase artwork from artists who do wholesale and retail, because I can't be guaranteed that one of my customers won't see the same merchandise for less.

I consider everybody my competition, from retailers to catalogers, even to eBay. But my most direct competitors are retailers that sell gifts and tabletop. There are many people who have picked up portions of our product line who try to compete with us directly. I think we have to expect that most of our merchandise can eventually be found elsewhere and our customers are buying from us not just because of our merchandise mix but also because of the type of retailers we are. Customers buy merchandise not just because of the product but because of how you make them feel. With my staff, I continue to harp about the importance of the basics of old-fashioned retailing, which boils down to: Make the customers feel special. That's the strength of Cottura, which is why we have such a loyal customer base.