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The Magic of Mom & Pop Businesses

Last Thursday an article was posted on www.crosscut.com that talked about a new book on Mom & Pop businesses by Robert Spector, "a Seattle writer who is an expert on retailing and has written books on Amazon and Nordstrom." The article (The Enduring Wisdom of Mom & Pop by Knute Berger) outlined the key themes in Spector's book and brought up some interesting points about independent businesses.

In his article, Berger reports that it's Spector's assertion that Mom and Pop businesses are incredibly resilient. They have, Spector says, "survived every bubble and retail trend, and they're highly adaptable because they have to be. In the Darwinian world of retail…it's not the strong but the flexible who survive." Berger also explains that "Spector sees retail as intensely personal, and Mom & Pop businesses as the living expression of community… and vibrant commerce is at the center of what a city really is."

Further into the article, Berger writes:

…There is a craft, and maybe even a little magic, in becoming a treasured neighborhood icon, or a place customers want to come back to. Sometimes, Mom & Pops are successful even when they make business decisions that would look "bad" on paper, like Hobby's, the Newark, N.J. deli Spector describes that gives a free sandwich to any person who comes in and says they're hungry and haven't eaten. Why? "Because no one walks away hungry from Hobby's."

What do you think? Are Mom & Pops resilient? Is there "a craft, and maybe even a little magic" to being a success? Spector's book is called The Mom & Pop Store: How the Unsung Heroes of the American Economy are Surviving and Thriving. It's published by Walker & Co. I'm definitely going to check it out. (It's available on www.chapters.indigo.com and www.amazon.ca.)

Posted by Lori Smith on September 8, 2009 5:27 PM |

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Lori Smith, , Editor-in-Chief
Lori Smith is the editor of Gifts and Tablewares, Canada's premiere gifts and tablewares magazine. Written for retailers of gifts, tablewares, housewares, stationery and home furnishing accessories, its objective is to help readers increase their sales and run their businesses more profitably by providing information on new products, merchandising, small business management, customer service, consumer behavior and industry news. The magazine is published six times a year by BIG Magazines, LP, a leading Canadian information company.

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