Bill Crawford's Blog

Expo West = Retail Opportunities Galore!

bill.crawford@penton.com — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:50:00 GMT

I am working through a pile of things getting ready to head to Anaheim for Natural Products Expo West tomorrow morning. To add more details to my calendar, I went to the show website and was, once again, amazed at the amount of things going on at the show!

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Signs That Things Are Looking Up - ??

bill.crawford@penton.com — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:27:00 GMT

Via the news and conversations with some indepedent retailers, I've come across some positives about the state of retailing natural products. Could we have turned the corner?

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Redefining Customer Service

bill.crawford@penton.com — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:28:00 GMT

This is a continuation of the thoughts floated in my post here yesterday - customer service is a key to successful retailing, but the definition that customers have of service is changing.

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What’s a Store For Anymore?

bill.crawford@penton.com — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:09:00 GMT

A very thought provoking article came out yesterday. It ranks retailers on the basis of Customer Service – and half of the top stores don’t have “stores”!

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Thinking Long Term - Taking Care of the Present

bill.crawford@penton.com — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 17:49:00 GMT

Dealing with present needs - while preparing for the future opportunities - keeps us all busy in life. Some thoughts about the need for that in your store follow. I've spoken about this for several industry groups in the past six month or so. There seems to be a lot of focus on dealing with the present (which is current quite a challenge) and planning for the future (when things will hopefully be better, but assuredly will be different).

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What Do Customers Really Want

bill.crawford@penton.com — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 22:49:00 GMT

Earlier this week, two very interesting – and at least partially conflicting – studies about the retail marketplace came out. How these bits of data potentially affect natural products retailers is quite interesting!

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The floggings will continue until morale improves!

bill.crawford@penton.com — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:05:00 GMT

I’ve seen this slogan at several tourist shops over the past few years. Part of me chuckles due to the insane nature of that statement while part of me grieves as I recall how often I’ve seen that philosophy in action.

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The Right Thing Wrong or The Wrong Thing Right

bill.crawford@penton.com — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:17:00 GMT

Which is better – doing the “right thing wrong” or doing the "wrong thing right”? AND – we aren’t playing word games here, there is some solid thought about activities and priorities in your store in this question!

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Ghost Demand – Trying To Haunt a Store Near You!!

bill.crawford@penton.com — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:27:00 GMT

In recognition of this being Halloween Eve, I thought I’d visit with you a bit about a real retail horror story – the dangers of ghost demand!!

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Retailer Education Day – Expo East, 2009

bill.crawford@penton.com — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 03:05:00 GMT

I was privileged to spend a fair bit of my day on Wednesday, the 23rd, in and as a part of the Retail Education Workshop at Expo East. Here are my thoughts and observations.

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