Editorial Blog: May 2010 Archives

Five Retail Blogs Worth Reading

Looking for good information on retail on the Internet can be quite the time bandit. To help you out, I'm compiling a list of blogs and sites about retail that I think have worthwhile things to say about the industry (or business in general) and are worth reading regularly. Here are my first five blog recommendations :

1. Retail Prophet Blog - Retail Prophet president Doug Stephens writes a smart blog looking at how retail is evolving and how retailers can evolve with it. Check out his March 11, 2010 entry, "Retailing in the Absence of Recovery."

2. Fast Company's new Adventures in Retail Blog - This just launched blog on the Fast Company site is written by first-time retailer Craig Pelkey-Landes, who has just opened a camping/hiking/lifestyle store in southeastern Pennsylvania. Is it folly or will he find his fortune? He's going to let readers know how it's going each week.

3. Retail Design Diva Blog - This blog is presented by DDI (Design & Display Ideas) and GlobalShop, the largest in-store marketing and store design event in the world. The witty Design Diva is fun and informative, and covers myriad topics related to retailing.

4. Retail's Big Blog - This big blog site is produced by the Washington, DC-based National Retail Federation, which is the world's largest retail trade association. It offers blog entries in 18 categories including marketing, retail trends and sustainability. It's all retail, all the time.

5. Rick Segel's Blog - Rick Segel's been a speaker at the CGTA Gift Show more than once. A retailer for 25 years and the author of 12 books, he's a great source of insight and ideas.

I'll be adding more blogs (sites, videos, etc.) to my list in the coming months. Feel free to let me know about anyone on the web you feel is worth reading.

Posted by Lori Smith on May 3, 2010 2:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Open 365 Days a Year: Progress or Problem?

This month Toronto's city council is set to vote on a proposal that would allow all stores to be open, 365 days a year. I'm not sure whether this is a sign of progress or a problem.

The Toronto Star has taken the progress position on the proposal. In an April 19th, 2010 editorial titled "Holiday shopping ban is outdated," the newspaper offers four arguments:

1. Relgious holidays with Christian roots are not relevant to an increasing number of the city's citizens. "Toronto has evolved… In 1961, just 9 per cent of greater Toronto's population was non-Christian. By 2001, that figure had increased almost fourfold to 34 per cent. The next census, in 2011, will undoubtedly show it is higher still."

2. The rules aren't fair. "The current holiday shopping rules are freighted with exemptions and special designations, allowing many retailers to remain open while others are required to close…Retailers not eligible for such exemptions suffer an inequity." In addition, it says that "the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas, representing more than 27,000 business and property owners, is pushing hard for open retailing on holidays."

3. The existing rules aren't enforced. "No charges for a violation of the holiday shopping ban have been laid in Toronto for at least three years."

4. Store owners can choose whether they want to be open. And, employees can choose whether they want to work. "…employees…are protected under the Employment Standards Act, which gives them the right to refuse work, without repercussion, on statutory holidays."

This stand was refuted by The Globe and Mail's Marcus Gee. In a column that appeared in the April 27th, 2010 issue of the paper, Gee asserted that commerce, not secular and multicultural pressures, is the real reason for the proposed changes to the rules. He writes: "Of the nine Ontario public holidays, only Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, Good Friday and Easter Sunday have obvious Christian roots. The other five -- New Year's Day, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Labour Day and Family Day -- are inoffensively secular…. There has been no great pressure from ethnic organizations to change the shopping rules."

Gee acknowledges that "there is a certain logic to ending the uneven, hard-to-enforce holiday retail ban and letting storeowners make the choice on their own whether to open or not." But, he questions whether retailers will really have a choice. If your competitors are open, can you afford to be closed? Similarly, he points out that while "technically" the law gives employees the right to refuse to work on holidays, how many of them will "be able to resist the call of the employer or the lure of the extra cash?" He quotes City Councillor Karen Stintz who "wonders… whether the result of this change might be a two-tier system, in which middle-class office workers get holidays off and working-class retail workers don't."

However, Gee's most compelling argument centers on the loss of the collective "pause" that holidays give the majority of the working population. It is these days that families get to spend time together. He writes: "The provincial government created Family Day precisely to address this family-time famine. Holiday shopping works in the opposite direction. Many families that might have spent the day together will disperse to the malls instead. The shopping compulsion is strong enough as it is. With stores open all the time, the pace of life becomes even more frenetic. Something is lost."

I agree with Gee. I like the collective "pause" that these holidays allow. I'm glad that the majority of stores aren't open at least a few days a year. I'm not a retailer but if I was, I would prefer it if the rules were enforced and the majority of stores were closed for major holidays. Doesn't everyone deserve a few days off without fearing that they're losing market share to their competitors?

Do you want the right to be open 365 days a year? Visit www.gifts-and-tablewares.com and vote on the home page poll. Click and be counted!

Posted by Lori Smith on May 10, 2010 3:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Multitasking -- Just Say No!

I've been multitasking all day and haven't gotten a thing done.

For a long time I've suspected that multitasking, while much lauded, isn't good for a person's health or career. But now, thanks to Harvard Business Review blogger Peter Bregman, I have proof.

In his most recent entry, Bregman looks at "How (and Why) to Stop Multitasking." Here are some of the facts he cites:

1. "A study showed that people distracted by incoming email and phone calls saw a 10-point fall in their IQs.

2. When we do several things at once "our productivity goes down by as much as 40 percent."

3. "Research shows that heavy multitaskers are less competent at doing several things at once than light multitaskers."

What will happen if you give up multitasking? Bregman conducted an experiment in which he gave up multitasking for one week. This actions resulted in:

1. Less stress. He found it "delightful."
2. Significant progress on challenging projects.
3. A loss of patience for things that he felt were not a good use of his time.
4. Tremendous patience for things he felt were useful and enjoyable.
5. "There was no downside. I lost nothing by not multitasking. No projects were left unfinished. No one became frustrated with me for not answering a call or failing to return an email the second I received it."

Tomorrow, I'm going to try a day without multitasking. Maybe I'll get something done.

Posted by Lori Smith on May 25, 2010 5:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Editorial Blog

Commentary on retailing, shopping, consumers and the gifts and tablewares industry today by G&T editor Lori Smith

May 2010 Archives

May 3, 2010

Five Retail Blogs Worth Reading

May 10, 2010

Open 365 Days a Year: Progress or Problem?

May 25, 2010

Multitasking -- Just Say No!

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