We follow the travails of indie stores and the Internet in real life—and on the silver screen. The Times shares how the blockbuster film “You’ve Got Mail,” a story about an indie bookshop owner who finds love online, has fared over 25 years.
“We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.”
~ Walt Disney
I read this quote in ‘Show Your Work’ and wondered how it applied to our mission here at Shop Local. I asked my team and they submitted their interpretations. One colleague even used an AI tool.
Team Submissions:
“We don't make Shop Local to make money, we make money to sustain Indie Stores.”
~ Jim
"We didn't make this software just to ...
Read More
When we talk about prices, there are two prices that are important:
The price that we charge clients.
The price our clients charge their customers.
We normally talk about the former, aka how our prices compare with other competitors, like Shopify or wholesale services like Faire.
Of increasing importance to us is what our retailers charge their customers. Walmart recently announced that it was taking brands to account and pressuring them to keep ...
Read More
Scott Galloway, the NYU business professor and firebrand, pens a weekly, attention-grabbing article about business trends. In last week’s post, he noted the rise of the attention economy. (...Yes, my post is an attention-seeker writing about an attention-seeker writing about attention.) Comparing our current economy to those of the past, Mr. Galloway notes that today’s oil is time. He tracks the growth of digital companies like Netflix, Microsoft, Facebook, and TikTok that...
Read More
In the early 2000s, the board game Cranium became a hit. The game combined elements of Scrabble and Pictionary with the goal of helping more people enjoy playing a game. Richard Tait, who created Cranium and sold it to Hasbro in 2008 for $77.5m, passed away in July. Like Mr. Tait, I had been a paperboy, but he went beyond what I ever offered: he came up with a new service that sold breakfast sandwiches along his newspaper route. He increased profits and made customers happier. ...
Read More
This past week, Amazon announced it was adding Grubhub delivery to its Prime subscription (Read the news about Amazon and Grubhub here). The goal of Amazon Prime (and other subscription services) is to make the subscription so pervasive that it's sticky. Don’t like Prime movies? Ok, but you love free Grubhub delivery. If you don’t need feature X and want to cancel, you realize you still need feature Y and keep paying for the subscription.
Today’s Times shares that Amazon Prime members often spend twice as much compared to those that aren’t members. This led to me ponder: What if a first step to reducing Amazon’s monopolies is just canceling a $119/year ‘membership’? Prime may be Amazon’s strength—as well as its achilles. If we can find a way to undermine it, I believe one can save money and our communities.
How much does Bridge cost vs other marketing tools? Let's imagine a printed catalog costs $10 to print and send to a customer. The customer uses it for 10 minutes. It therefore costs $1 per minute.
The Bridge Smart Products service costs a brand $9 per year per retailer. Over that year, a retailer interacts with that Smart Product data for 104 minutes. This number is approximately 2 minutes per week. (Please note: some retailers view Smart Product data at a much higher rate, such ...
Read More
Many businesses are struggling during the state-mandated shelter-in-place orders. One industry that is weathering the storm well is technology. Technology companies often deliver services digitally, which obviously makes them ideal to side-step these orders--but they often utilize another feature that makes them profitable now and in general: subscriptions.
Scott Galloway, a business leader and host of an online business class called 'The Sprint,' recently brought to my attention the ...
Read More
August 19, 2019
August 19, 2019
Maker Scarlett Markham is actually a former Parkleigh employee! She developed her line, Flour Pail Kids while working here. We thought our customers would be as amused by it as we are by Scarlett. Her quirky sense of humor mixes nostalgic icons with the edge of today to inspire her work. What could be more full of Rochester spirit than a tiny Genny Beer pin? Her Rochester icon t-shirts are also a stand out among others around town. When Scarlett isnβt designing or doing one of her jack-of-all-...
Read More
June 22, 2018
June 22, 2018
Amazon gets you to buy more iPhones, lawn mowers, power washers, and movies by: first selling you bananas. Whole Foods, owned by Amazon, ropes you in with the promise of savings. These banana sales will translate down the road to a tighter grip on all of a consumersβ purchases and result in lost sales for all or most retailers including Best Buy, Home Depot, AutoZone, Nordstrom, and more.
This will likely result in job loss and lower tax revenue. That may put downward pressure on our ability ...
Read More
December 21, 2016
December 21, 2016
Whether it's building a snowman, watching holiday movies, baking cookies or something else - what is your favorite winter tradition?
View Post
May 11, 2016
May 11, 2016
Can you relate to this: On Monday a jewelry store was scrambling to send an advertisement to a printer. They needed a logo from a brand quickly. Using Bridge's Library, retailers have immediate access to brands' hi-resolution logos.
Above is an example. This is a retailer's Newsfeed. The Newsfeed is showing that Fiskars loaded logos for Waterford, Wedgwood, and other notable brands. Fiskars' Bridge retailers have quick, one click access when they need it.
Bridge's Library service accepts all ...
Read More