Today, (Thursday), we had a very busy day. We got up early and met Sara in the city. We planned out our day for a little bit in a coffee shop and then we (Sara and Jana) headed off to our first interview. We walked for a bit and then arrived at a locally owned grocery store called Big Apple Finer Foods. It was so interesting because neither one of us had ever seen a grocery store that was not a chain. We talked for quite a while with a women named Holly, the granddaughter of the owner of the store. She has worked in both the locally owned side of the business world as well as the large corporations. The business has been around for 51 years and they are still very successful. A couple of the points that she touched on a lot were their customers and work ethic. First, they are able to maintain this great environment and compete with their competitors (Whole Foods, Jewel, etc.) in large part due to their loyal customers. She shared several stories about how their customers will stop by almost daily, interact with the employees, and be very loyal about shopping solely at Big Apple. A lot of this customer dedication comes in large part for the family and employee's work ethic. They are very personable with their customers and willing to go the distance to satisfy their customer's needs. For example, customers will call in their grocery list and the store will put everything together for them or they will send a delivery truck out if someone needs food or anything else and cannot make it to the store. They will also ship in anything that a customer is looking for. We learned a lot of interesting things from this grocery store pertaining not only to how the grocery store business works, but also to how local businesses are able to compete with the larger corporations. Clearly Big Apple is doing the right thing because they have been able to stay around for over 50 years (they even outlasted a Jewel that was previously on the same block as them!)
After that very interesting meeting, we headed about 2 miles north to a music venue called Metro. A man named Joe started this business almost 30 years ago. The business prides themselves on playing a lot of independent music and bands. It was extremely interesting to hear his story and how his business works, especially because we both enjoy more of the indie music style as opposed to the mainstream music. He shared his journey with us and how he was able to manage against the big names such as Live Nation and House of Blues. He mentioned a lot that working with his own business has its advantages over the larger corporations because of two reasons in particular: trustworthiness and ability to get things done fast. The customers that come to the music venue have built this connection with Joe and his staff and are able to trust that they will put on a good show. He mentioned how many times parents, who once used to and still do come to Metro, call up the offices to see if a show is appropriate for their children. There are also a lot less levels of management involved with the local businesses. For example, if someone thinks that a band is good they don't need to tell their manager who tells their managers until a month later it may reach a huge desk full of things of the main boss but instead, they give it directly to Joe who listens to it that day (that's just one example).
After that, we went back to Deerfield, ate dinner, and are heading to bed. We have another busy day tomorrow!
Sounds good, Jana. Can you refresh me a bit? Will you be comparing the music venue to the Beachland and Grog Shop in Cleveland? I would be interested in hearing about the how these businesses survive.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, the concept of insurance and employee benefits is something that always puzzles me for employers. Would you say that these companies are facing new challenges in this current economy? Must they provide health insurance for employess, or just workmens comp? How do these extra costs affect the prices in the grocery store? How can they offset the monthly overhead?
Nice work, Jana. Keep up the investigation.
Our project is more of a general theme- how small, local businesses compete with larger corporations- it just so happen to be that we went to a music venue that day. As far as the economy goes, both Sara and I were really surprised to hear that the economic downturn didn't have that big of an effect on Big Apple Grocery Store. People need food to survive, and in fact, less people were eating out, so more people were coming to shop at the grocery store. I had never thought of it that way.
ReplyDeleteAs far as Metro went, I think that they weren't too affected either because they generally keep their ticket prices pretty low (there isn't much red tape to go though so all the money goes to the band, the owner, the few employers, and then back to the customers for lower ticket prices). Both of these places also own their buildings which helps tremendously because rent is insanely high nowadays.