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Small Retailers Shouldn’t Lose Hope
October 21, 2008
Yes, 2008 so far sales have been down and mom and pop retailers are nearly out of cash and have tapped out their credit lines.
The picture isn’t pretty. So if a small business retailer has stretched its cash and inventory as tightly as it can get right now, has a poor last quarter and goes into the first quarter of 2009 with no cash or credit, they won’t be able to replenish inventory. No inventory means lost sales and revenues decline even further.
The only strategy that makes sense to survive this next 3 months is to plan for the worst:
- Keep inventory levels as low as possible without loosing too many sales.
- Beat vendors over the head for the best price possible, and negotiate longer terms.
- Try to negotiate a reduction in rent. Mall rents are the highest for retailers because they claim they can deliver traffic. Right now, malls aren’t able to deliver the buying public, so play hard ball with them.
Posted by Shanu Singh Guliani on October 21, 2008 | Comments (0)
