Spent way too much time last night trying to google up a distant article I remember about Bend being the "second most over-retailed town" but my web-fu wasn't up to the task. I tried "over-retailed"; "Too many stores" and "Retail Square Footage" (and variations -- Average Square Ft. etc.....)

About the most interesting thing I came up with was a graph that showed that Americans have 23 sq.ft. of retail devoted to them, while most Europeans have about one tenth that much. Not exactly sure what that means.

At any rate, in one of the comments yesterday, Carl asked: "Why pillory the Big Boxes?"

Well, that's the question, isn't it? In fact, it is one of the main themes of this blog. Certainly not something that can be answered in a pithy phrase.

But in another discussion with a customer yesterday, I mentioned that there were roughly 3000 comic shops and 3000 independent bookstores and 3000 independent games stores and said;

"Strange how that 3000 number keeps popping up."

And indeed, it's more an anecdotal number instead of hard statistics. More of a median number. A number that can stretch rather dramatically from 1000 to 5000, but you get the drift.

So I'll throw out one idea today.

Community.

Small stores foster a sense of community. One of the real epiphanies I've had in my business was the realization that I was selling a sense of belonging as much as I was selling product. The Cheers Bar phenomenon of knowing your name., or at the very least, your face. And greeting you. A very big part of my job is to greet you by name as you walk in the door, and look happy to see you. And since I can't fake that, it usually means I AM happy to see you. And if I don't know you, my job is to make you feel welcome in the local community of whatever it is you're interested in.

The 3000 number is the number of stores that the people in each hobby or sub-culture or community are willing and able to support.

Not that they are always aware that's what they're doing. They just know they like popping into the store on a regular basis and talking about games or comics or books or sports. (Or beads, or knitting, or quilting, or cigars.....)

Sometimes they don't miss it until it's gone. They mistake getting 'cheap' product as the main goal of their activity. So they don't support the local focal point of their community. And then they wonder one day why isn't as much fun anymore and why it's so hard to get a group together. In answering Carl yesterday, Jeff said this:

Imagine you get some utility from having a vibrant downtown of independent shops. Then a Wal-Mart opens up on the outskirts of town. You begin shopping at the Wal-Mart because the prices are cheaper and you can still walk through the vibrant downtown when you like. But with everyone buying things at Wal-Mart, the downtown stores can no longer afford to stay open and the center of your city turns into an empty husk. You'd prefer to have the vibrant downtown to the Wal-Mart, but nobody ever gave you that choice ..


And that is exactly what I think I see; people don't abandoned small Mom and Pop by intent. They are enticed by the bigness, the cheapness and the newness. But if you asked them, they'd probably say they want both experiences. I think that would be possible if everyone could manage to divide their purchases, but of course that thought never occurs to them.

Meanwhile, the internet is even more a danger to that irreducible 3000 shops number than the big box stores are, especially over the long run. Because people can get the same sense of community online; it may be a virtual community, but it feel pretty close to the real thing.

But still, in the end, if there is to be any hope at all, if there is indeed an 'irreducible' number of shops, it will be the personal touch -- the community -- that keeps the Mom and Pops in business.