Fifty years ago, when the first iteration of what would become Kawartha TV and Stereo opened (Fun fact: Kawartha was originally a sewing machine store), if someone used the term "Big Box" odds are they were actually describing a large… box.
Flash forward a few decades and the term Big Box took on an entirely different meaning.
Seemingly by design, the big box concept and strategy was a rather menacing one.
Roll into a market with a giant store and a monstrous advertising budget. Kick off from day one with a big splash in the premiere retail zone of the city, offer extremely aggressive pricing… and then, after figuratively bull dozing the local businesses, leaving the consumers in that community with few if any other options, progressively raise the prices.
And (tragically) this formula worked brilliantly time and time again.
There is little argument that big box stores, without any exaggeration, caused the demise of countless local businesses, in countless communities over countless (well 3 or so) decades.
So, having said all of this, the question is - how in a world of multinational big box superstores… stores that are veritable Goliath’s, armed with enormous marketing budgets, buying power and resources, can a local business survive, much less actually be competitive?
Scott Stuart of Kawartha TV and Stereo has been getting asked this question for decades.
His response? "It's not really that hard".
First, the cheaper prices at big boxes is often more of an illusion than a reality. By and large it's just not the case. Sure, they’ll have some lost leader pricing bargains, but once you get past that the "deals" are relatively few and far between.
But when you stop and think about it for a moment, this makes sense. The "Retail Taj Mahal’s" that are modern day big box stores, located in the priciest locations, have massive overhead that has to be paid for. Regardless as to how big a big box store or corporation is, they are not exempt from the fact that ALL businesses have to cover costs before they earn money.
Perhaps surprisingly, there was a positive side and benefits that came from the big box invasion.
The local businesses that survived were forced to adapt, which caused them to "up their game".
Local business joined buying groups that gave them access to the volume pricing they needed to face big boxes. These buying groups more often than not gave them the ability to match, or even offer better pricing.
And according to Scott, after that, it was easy.
How so?
With over five decades under their "retail belt", the Stuart family has found that shoppers today are the same as they always were.
They want good value, great service and to be appreciated. In Scott’s opinion local businesses have a huge advantage here.
"We pride ourselves on knowing customers personally, responding to their inquiries quickly and offering a great selection. We’ve always operated under the belief that if you take care of the customer, they’ll take care of you, and its worked out pretty well so far".
Nicely said Scott!