Embark on a journey of taste and refinement at Bar Ran Brugge in Bruges, where Ran Van Ongevalle's passion for mixology transforms every cocktail into a work of art.
"RAN" is more than a bar - it's a testament to Ran Van Ongevalle's dedication to craftsmanship and creativity. With each drink meticulously crafted to perfection, he draws inspiration from the elegant designs of Baccarat glassware, elevating the sensory experience to unmatched sophistication.
I have a friend who recently took a job with a respected women’s clothing retailer after 13 years of retirement. My friend, Leslie, a former school teacher, wanted to be of use and knew that retail was a great opportunity for seniors. She was all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed her first week. She loved that the manager asked her to try on clothes she liked and then suggested outfits that would look good on her. Leslie even purchased a few of those suggestions, couture she never would have ...
Read More
How limited resources can motivate teams to accomplish goals and breed solutions.
September 3, 2023
India last month joined three other countries in the exclusive club that has put a craft on the moon. What’s unique about India’s accomplishment is that it did this at a fraction of what the U.S. spends on space exploration, shares Ben Cohen in The Wall St. Journal. While the U.S.’s NASA program has a $24b budget, India’s ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) budget is just $1.3b. India, which started its space program in 1963, is able to do more with less because of ...
Read More
What Threads can teach us about leveraging our existing network when launching a new service.
July 22, 2023
Threads, a new Twitter-like service from Meta, the owner of Instagram, launched this month and almost immediately attracted 40m active daily users. The service’s growth has since stalled and now has just over 10m daily users, but that is still commendable. The Wall Street Journal shared that this impressive launch was largely possible because Meta used its built-in network of one billion Instagram users. This user base helped it overcome the “cold start” problem of acquiring ...
Read More
In this new webinar for sales reps, I share why your retailers are struggling online and underselling your lines. I share how you can help them and boost your commissions by 18%.
It was October 2021, and I had just finished my first in-person trends seminar since the pandemic impacted all industry shows. At the end of the image-packed program, an audience member raised her hand and challenged, “Do trends even matter anymore?”
It was a valid question. The pandemic had disrupted business, upended supply chains, transformed education, revealed vulnerabilities, altered priorities, and unexpectedly claimed many lives. The question was tinged with cynicism. Pent...
Read More
The sale you can't miss runs from April 1 through April 11. From floor to ceiling, once-a-year savings: 20% off over a thousand items! The Home Sweet Home Sale Event includes ALL Furniture, Lighting, & Rugs and also selected other Decor. Sale begins this Saturday. Stop in at either store to place your order.
We work hard each day, and likely don’t mind if others notice. We want others to see the ingenuity of our software. But what if that wasn’t the case? If you want an example of someone that got passed by, just ask Van Gogh. Yeah, thaaaaat world-famous, earless, impressionist artist whose work today graces the walls of countless museums. The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) is currently running an exhibition showcasing how the world missed appreciating Van Gogh’s...
Read More
The next book our Bridge team may read is John List’s book The Voltage Effect. List, who is a behavioral economist at the University of Chicago, shares a variety of suggestions to grow a business. He warns us about false positives, such as what the “Just Say No” drug campaign experienced. He suggests we look for businesses with scalable ingredients. (People are not scalable, but good news for Bridge: software is!)
I'd add to List's advice this simple maxim: show ...
Read More
Today’s Wall St. Journal shares show retailers are frustrated by Facebook’s e-commerce offering.
Sellers complain it misses many basic features, including offering an item in different colors or sizes (what Bridge calls a “multi-SKU item”). One can’t control where the item is sold—apparently, a seller may have to ship to the Maldives. Some sellers said it’s too complicated to manage the service. What if they need help? There&...
Read More
In the book Great by Choice, Jim Collins posits that processes are key to an organization's success. As an example, he cites John Wooden, the NCAA championship-winning UCLA basketball coach, who trained athletes on processes that included everything from shooting to tying one’s shoelaces. In practicing, a player may perfect their shoelace tying and do thousands of repetitive free-throw shots. When we watch a game from the nosebleed seats like me (...what can I say, I’m ...
Read More
Keep your holiday decorating organic chic in this handcrafted round tray that features classic warm hues, rugged textures, and rustic finishes. Handmade by a traditional craftsman, its beautiful imperfections offer an effortlessly stylish appeal for holiday decorating.
CALAISIO
natural elegance, extraordinary durability
View Post
The Times ran a massive 8-page section of Wilkes-Barre, PA’s downtown. The insert, one continuous piece (4-full pages each side), showed a Main Street in flux. Even with rent averaging $9/square foot, many stores are teetering on survival.
The only entities that seem to be growing in the area are universities and government agencies.
Trivia: Planters Peanuts was started here and used to have its office on this strip.
View Post
While we’re hiring, some of our customers are still struggling within the retail environment. One client, Cathy Hulgan Designs, is closing because the new landlord wanted to double the rent and asked for a long-term lease. Cathy was a big proponent of ours. I am saddened by her store's closing. I’ll miss her.
I’ll note that her situation did bring to mind the merit of offering digital services and Bridge’s business model. Unlike a rental retail space in a strip mall, ...
Read More
Today’s Times shares some of Amazon’s steps during the pandemic to grow its empire.
I used to tell retailers that they don’t know it, but they’re now in: the software business. I missed something in that statement. They are also now in the warehouse business. Websites and warehouses go hand in hand. They’re flip sides of the same coin.
As e-commerce grew, all the major retailers should have been growing their warehouse space. For example: if ...
Read More
These days, ugly Amazon warehouses are beating up pretty retail stores. Many stores in 2020 had record online sales that made up 40% or more of revenue, but they are struggling because they had to bear the burden of retail stores. Retail stores cost more per square foot to rent, furnish, and maintain. They also cost more to staff. A warehouse person need not be a people person and a snazzy dresser; they can exhibit anger management issues and ...
Read More
When we watch or read the news, we can see how important what we do is. We can see big and small retailers struggling to pivot to multi-channel Many stores had online sales that made up 40% or more of revenue, but they also had to bear the burden of retail stores. Retail stores cost more per square foot to rent, furnish, and maintain. They also cost more to staff: a warehouse person need not be a people person and a snazzy dresser; they can exhibit anger management issues and ...
Read More
This week, Amazon launched its online pharmacy targeting the 3.8 billion prescriptions filled in the U.S. each year. Shares of major pharmacy chains dropped about 10% on the news. Amazon honed this weapon in its Seattle lab and is eagerly unleashing it on retail chains and mom-and-pop pharmacies.
Something struck me while reading this news: Does Amazon remind you of Covid-19? The similarities:
Amazons kills many businesses in industries it touches. Pharmacies are now worried