Purple Shoes

About a week ago, my wife and I went to out to dinner to celebrate her birthday. The restaurant sits beside a shopping area, so we ended up wandering through some stores on the way back to our car.

In case you’re wondering, yes, this story does end with my wife purchasing a pair of purple shoes.

So anyway, we are walking through this shopping area and we happen upon a large intersection where four paths came together. There was a jeweler, a restaurant, a clothing store and a shoe store on each corner. The first three were pretty empty… maybe one or two people in each one. But the shoe store was a whole different story.

This particular shoe store had the idea to rent out most of that intersection and set up tables with mounds of shoes on sale. There were shoes EVERYWHERE!

And you know what was happening? There were people swarming everywhere around those tables, and streaming in and out of that store. The prices weren’t even that great, but just the fact that the store owner had the foresight to rent out that space and get their product out in the open made all the difference.

My wife and I never would have stopped at that shoe store if they had not put their merchandise outside. But we ended up buying a pair of shoes, and when we went inside to purchase them, there were probably ten people inside the store trying on full price shoes as well.

I can only image what the jeweler, clothing store and restaurant owners were thinking as they watched people absolutely overwhelm this shoe store while their stores sat fairly empty.

What they should have been thinking was, “How can I do the same thing?”

I used to work in a shoe store, so I know that having a flash sale can be especially tempting to consumers. It’s certainly a different market than jewelry. But the fact remains that the shoe store was the one using their space most effectively.

• The jeweler should have had a sign out front advertising, “Free ring cleaning inside!”
• The clothing store should have had their sale items or new products out on a rack.
• The restaurant should have had free samples or ice water, or something outside on a little table to give to all those people standing in the hot sun.

It may have cost them extra to put out that sign, or table, or rack, but it certainly would have been better than watching a shoe store make a killing while their shops sat empty.

So what can you get out of this story?

What can you do in your store that takes advantage of the weather, the space, the current news events, or the things that other stores in your district are doing?