Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Work underway to improve Prescott's retail business

An effort is underway to help improve retail business in Prescott.

The endeavor was kicked off at a meeting of retail merchants Tuesday, Dec. 9, with Jon Chadwell, executive director of the Prescott-Nevada County Economic Development Office, addressing a group of 40-50 business owners on the issue. The business community was asked to contribute ideas as well.

"For a long time," Chadwell said, "people have said we need to help retail business, and I agree."

He said the problem was what could be done. Much has been done to improve the looks of Prescott, including the mural at Sterling Park, the construction of a new library and the building of new sidewalks. But, he added, it's difficult to get state or federal money to improve buildings privately owned.

Earlier this year Chadwell attended a workshop on how to save retail businesses in a small town. The meeting was held in Little Rock where a consultant said the first thing small businesses could do is advertise and making some changes in how business was done.

First off, Chadwell said, business owners have to be willing to make a difference. "Insanity is doing the same thing all the time and expecting different results. You need to adapt and change with the times. If you're going to compete you need to change in business."

One of the first things businesses need to know, he said, is the competition, especially their weak points. For small, retail business the competition tends to be the big box stores. In most cases, he said, the weaknesses for the box stores are the same as their strengths.

The box stores have the advantage of size, being able to buy in volume, offer a wide selection, have inventory control, faster transaction time at the register, tend to be newer, clean, the items are easy to find, they have multiple departments for one-stop shopping, are well located, have great signage, the perception of better prices and cross market lines.

The weak points of these stores, include, the size, as there is no personal touch and they are slow to react to customer feedback, the high tech systems are horrible when they don't work properly, and are again less personal, the stores have no character or atmosphere, there is no novelty factor, the employees have little or no product knowledge as they are shifted from department to department, there are fewer specialty items, the location tends to result in traffic congestion, with little, if any, pedestrian access, and the low prices tend to be only on certain items, and low prices are often associated with inferior quality merchandise.

Small businesses, Chadwell said, can fight box stores by having inviting exteriors to their stores, such as decorated windows, offer the personal touch, like knowing the customer's name without having to read if off a check, know the products they're selling, offer fast, friendly service, more convenience, a faster response time to customer suggestions and making sure extra customer service is the norm, not the exception.

National retail trends, Chadwell said, show only 25 percent of retail sales are made between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. This is because most people are at work during these hours. It also translates into 75 percent of the retail business being done after 5 p.m. during the week, or on weekends when people have time to shop. Additionally, studies show Internet and catalog sales account for 6.5 percent of sales per year, and have been growing at a rate of 1 to 3 percent annually because of the convenience of shopping at home.

He continued saying one of every three box stores and small business fails within five years. Also, in 1960 there were four square feet of retail space per person, with this ballooning to 38 square feet per person by 2000.

Retail trends show shopping malls are dying across America at the rate of one each month. What's happening, Chadwell said, is small businesses are combining to create downtown or area draws for the customers.

In the last five years, more movie theaters have been opened in downtown areas since the 1950s, even though the theaters tend to lose money, he said. However, theaters give people a reason to go downtown, and stores stay open while the movies are shown to get the foot traffic.

According to information Chadwell obtained at the workshop, 85 percent of successful small businesses extend their hours of business, 80 percent train their employees, all advertise extensively, and they blow their own horn in the advertisements. This is done by the businesses letting customers know what they're doing for the community.

Other factors in successful small businesses include service, making the customer want and expect more than they can get at a box store, sharing information with other businesses, helping one another out, and creating their own unique image.

There is a cycle for success with small businesses. The cycle can be entered into at any point. It is as follows: District looks more attractive; more people visit the district; businesses sell more; businesses can afford higher rents; and property owners can rehabilitate the buildings.

A campaign is being developed to try and get area residents to "Shop Prescott, Where You Always Get More Than You're Shopping For". Chadwell is working to get funding for advertising participating businesses.

Studies have shown, he said, those businesses following the criteria involved have grown an average of 18 percent in the first year of participation.

The marketing plan for participating businesses will include inclusion in a full page newspaper ad each week locally, along with a full page ad in an area newspaper each week as well, along with daily radio spots. Flyers will be placed under car windshields at events in other towns to try and get people to shop in Prescott as well.

There are three certified hospitality trainers in Prescott, he said, and they can set up workshops for local businesses at no cost.

The business people on hand were asked if they were willing to make some changes to improve their business. They agreed to the idea of extended hours, at least to 8 p.m. nightly through the week, and opening on weekends from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. They also agreed to the need of training employees and having managers attend an annual training session on hospitality as well.

They were told they will need to share information with other businesses, telling if the business if family owned, makes donation to local organizations, their history and what they offer for sale.

Any business owner planning to participate will have to sign a contract agreeing to adhere to the aforementioned items.

Should a business owner sign the contract and back out, they will be required to reimburse the program a prorated portion of the program costs. Said business will be dropped from the ad campaign and have to give all its data back.