Comments on: Brick and Morte

By: Jeff Miller

Jeff Miller — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:19:57 +0000

I talked to the fellow at Know Knew Books on California Avenue in Palo Alto, CA — a warren of bookcases, much picked-over but with a few gems — and as he was tapping away at his computer, he said that much of his business now comes from Internet orders.

A desert island with a bridge to the 21st century.

By: Nick S

Nick S — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 05:58:31 +0000

I understand specialist retailers in a fairly compact urban setting: I’ve seen that in cities like Amsterdam. I treasure the people who sell and repair appliances in the US, because they tap into an older model of sales and consumption I respect. And there are still areas where that survives: the sewing machine shop, in particular, remains tied to that kind of relationship.

What I don’t quite understand is how specialist shops survive in the US, especially when (like so many) they’re run out of tiny strips or converted homes on slightly hard-to-find highways. Long-standing relationships surely matter, as Greg G said, but it’s often hard to tap into that local knowledge — something where the web might actually help.

Right now, you often have a bizarre situation where, for time-sensitive retail missions, you’ll go to a megamart or big-box store and pay Big Box rates for something not quite what you want, all because you never knew about the small place up County Road 141 run by someone with 25 years of expertise and just the right bit of kit. I want a website to tell me it’s there, and I don’t mean “SmallPlaceUp141.com”, because some places don’t need their own site and domain — I just need to know an address and see a thumbs up from people. Local guides are better than they were, but they’re still not as good as they could be.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 19:23:53 +0000

I’ve been thinking about this lately too.
I am amazed for example that there are actually bicycle stores anymore, when one can get them online or CL etc for way cheaper.
But then there is such a thing as having a physical life. Going places, stores, restaurants etc.
I found in my severe delving heavily into the web for the last ten years that my “real” life really suffered as a result.
I know where to get anything online, all kinds of technical/informational things, but no people for the most part. I think a lot of the web results in a lot of people sitting around by themselves all the time.

By: Greg G

Greg G — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 10:57:05 +0000

I can certainly understand your line of thought in wondering why certainly specialty stores still exist. I do as well. Even ones that can be very useful when you have a problem. I didn’t want to throw away a vacuum that has worked well for nearly 20 years. It merely had a broken belt, and was difficult to find bags for. I sought out a local specialty vacuum store. It turns out there was one in a strip mall not 3 miles from my apartment, that not only I did not realize was there, but also had a full web site offering a discount coupon for parts. I printed it off and paid a visit. They had a very wide selection of parts, bags, and plenty of demo vacuums in store for testing purposes. Prices were reasonable for the belt and bags I needed and the coupon was accepted with no hassle. A good experience, I have no idea of how well this place may do financially. I do know that the strip mall in which it is located in, isn’t much more than 10 years old. So this isn’t some relic from the 50′s still standing solely by its own momentum.

The second example is this. Several years ago I met the proprietor of a small shoe repair business. A shoe repair business had been in the same location for years, several of which it spent as a closed store front that he had taken over around 20 years earlier. Many of the features and equipment in the store dated to the late 50′s early 60′s. This store was also in an area that was heavily populated by orthodox Jews who were very loyal customers. He made keys, sold shoe supplies, and rented part of the front of the store to a retired man who repaired jewelry a couple of days a week. He had one other employee, who more or less helped out as a hobby. Even with a good local customer base he was still forced to come to arrangements with various dry cleaner locations in the metro area. Some of these as far as 75 miles away, to collect and deliver shoes for repair or cleaning to keep enough business to cover his expenses and turn a profit. In mid 2007 he was hospitalized after a brief illness while visiting family several states away, and quickly succumbed to it. The speed at which this business unraveled and disintegrated was astonishing. All his dry cleaners immediately found other vendors to service them. The dry cleaning business next door also immediately started offering shoe repair drop off. There was no family member willing or able to take over the business, so it was shuttered, the equipment removed, and the store sits empty to this day. 20 years of building a business, and building momentum gone literally within days. A very sad end.

I couldn’t imagine trying to start up such a business like that today in this economy. Not unless you were running it as a pure hobby and making money with it wasn’t an issue at all so much as using it as a way to fill your time out was. Specialty stores of various kinds will undoubtedly continue to exist, but I really feel for their owners. You have to be darn sure you’re going to fill a niche that’s under served, have a good location, or provide the kind of service that people seek out and will travel to you for or you may quickly find yourself doomed to failure. Even with the best of luck how many of these specialty stores are one disaster from failure?

By: Jason Scott

Jason Scott — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 02:19:59 +0000

This has been wholly informative and educational.

As I indicated in the entry, I definitely saw that some products and services need a static location, like restaurants and supermarkets. After that, it gets a bit fuzzy for me and it’s starting to get fuzzier with each passing year, which was what I was trying to get across.

The gang seems to have made it clear to me that among those things that still could use a static location are “places where you have to touch or hold stuff in your hands and/or where you want to have a conversation with someone who knows their stuff while handling these things.” I dispute the direct need for an expert to be in just one location (an online expert, assisting you, would also be effective), but I can definitely see where coming in and being shown physical items would out-do an online catalog… for now.

But OK, a vacuum cleaner guy, a REALLY GOOD vacuum cleaner guy, and his room of vacuums might still have a place.

But I can’t help feel that even that guy is not as necessary in 10 years, for better or worse.

Anyway, good insights, people.