“Let them eat cake” is the most famous quote attributed to Marie-Antoinette, the queen of France during the French Revolution. As the story goes, it was the queen’s response upon being told that her starving peasant subjects had no bread. Because cake is more expensive than bread, the anecdote has been cited as an example of Marie-Antoinette’s obliviousness to the conditions and daily lives of ordinary people. But did she ever actually utter those words? Probably not. ...
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“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 ...
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Here at Shop Local, we’ve seen brands try to cut out indie stores. We’ve seen big-name companies close accounts in good standing and raise minimum annual purchase amounts in the toughest of times in order to cut out indie stores. Well, now some of these brands are back with hat in hand.
Ronald Reagan said, “If you’re explaining, you’re losing.” Reaganomics usually refers to tax cuts and trickle down economics, yet I propose that we take the Gipper’s quote and ask: How can simplicity contribute to a business's success?
When we share what leading companies do, we can often skip an explanation and sum it up in a brief sentence. Examples:
Bridge has something that every store needs, but doesn’t really want: product data. We get stores to trust us that they need our product data for 64,000 products from 109 brands. They really don’t want the data—they want the sales from it. The data itself is worthless, but the sales from it are invaluable. Do you know who also has this issue? Funeral directors. Last week's Wall Street Journal shares that mortuaries are leveraging bonsai trees, setting up bouncy castles, ...
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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. ...
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Jeff Lawson, CEO of Twilio, a software company valued at $28 billion, was recently interviewed in the Wall St. Journal. When he shared who his advisors are, I was surprised to see Danny Meyer, the restaurant kingpin who owns Shake Shack (another publicly-traded company). Mr. Lawson read Mr. Meyer’s book “Setting the Table” and was impressed to learn about the difference between service and hospitality. Service is the delivery of the technical aspects of ...
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Jim Collins, in his book BE 2.0, explains how purpose and mission are important to companies. To help explain this, he uses the metaphor of crossing a mountain range and seeing a star on the horizon. Your purpose is to reach the spot on the horizon below the star. The current mission is climbing up the mountain you’re on. The next mission is climbing up the next mountain and so forth in order to get closer to the spot on the horizon. You will have many missions, and may never ...
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While I was down in Dallas evangelizing about Bridge, the Dallas Market Center’s software provider and sister company (called MarketTime) invited me to their offices for a meeting. The goal of the meeting was to explore teaming up to help brands and retailers speed products to market, as well as get a leg up on the competition.
The Dallas Mart consists of two primary buildings, each with atriums and many floors each. I like the Dallas show because of the abundance of ...
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The health of our communities and even ourselves may depend on whether indie stores like Powell's succeeds.
Powell's Books, one of the nation's largest and best-known book retailers, has stopped selling on Amazon after 20+ years, shares RetailDive. The store cited how bad Amazon is long-term for itself and communities. The store realized it was sharpening its executioner’s sword, as Scott Galloway has said ruefully.
I found this quote from the owner insightful:...
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That is the question my family posed to me last night during our more-frequent FaceTime conversations.
With the passing Labor Day weekend, students entering their in-person or online school year, and the ending of a strange summer season during a global pandemic, people are looking forward to a time that can bring spirit and happiness to the darkness: the holidays.
But how holly and jolly will this holiday season be in terms of shopping? After all, the holidays are notorious ...
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Shopify's Chief Operating Office said on CNBC last week:
“While other companies are trying to build empires, we are arming the rebels...”
That's a clever quote that could be applied to our retailer base. Bridge is helping hundreds of retail 'rebels' fight back against the hegemony of Amazon. Bridge gives indie stores and brands the software tools they need to connect, sell, and grow.
Today is President's Day, and rebels fighting a big empire is fitting. Let the ...
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October 27, 2019
October 27, 2019
The Head of the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy says it’s now easier and cheaper to order things online than go in the store.
The Rudin Center for Transportation is part of New York University, and is named after Lewis Rudin—the developer of the wholesale building 41 Madison.
If online is better according to the head of the Rudin Center, what is the Rudin family—which owns 41 Madison—doing to help tenants and visitors adapt to this fact?
This holiday season more shoppers will shop online ...
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August 8, 2019
August 8, 2019
I read the New York Times and want to ask: Are we sharpening our executioner's sword? That is what FedEx wondered as it helped Amazon grow by delivering its packages. Finally, FedEx woke up and decided it's better to make less money tomorrow than help usher in its death in the near future. As the Times reports, FedEx is terminating its ground delivery agreement with Amazon at the end of August, thereby passing on the delivery of millions of packages.
Amazon has historically partnered with ...
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July 26, 2019
July 26, 2019
TOOLS TO ROCK YOUR POSTS by DIANE SEIDLE
If you’re a long-time merchant, you probably never considered that you’d have to become a content creator. Here are several tools that make creating content easier than ever; not only do they help produce posts, in many cases they even supply the creative ideas.
Of all the available tools, Canva is the beast of content creation. I wrote about it in this column several years ago and still use it to create awesome social media posts for Facebook, Twitter, ...
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December 6, 2018
December 6, 2018
Warren Shoulberg, HFN gadly, is quoted in today’s Times about water beds. Warren, great quote!
Good morning. The Galloway book mentions this Amazon cutting out UPS and FedEx. If it can own its own shipping, it can underprice stores anytime/all the time regardless of taxes or other variables.
To quote Jaws, “I think we’re gonna need a bigger boat” :)
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March 14, 2018
March 14, 2018
We strongly suggest that you GIVE A BUNNY this Spring; or at least a chick with Bunny Ears --- because, to quote Grandma (many years ago), "It will do your heart good!" ... Please note that the Bunnies shown here are only sold at our lovely, little store in Peckville PA; although phone orders (877-489-4060) are happily accepted because we ship everywhere !!!
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