Help for independent merchants?
Last night’s vote approving Panera Bread’s petition means we aren’t getting another bank in Newton Centre like the one that opened in the old Kitchen Views space next to the Gulf station. That’s good news.
At the same time I worry about the little sandwich shop around the corner from where Panera will open. While I don’t think Pie or Johnny’s will be hurt by Panera, as their business models are different enough, Sandwich Works faces some big challenges. And it faces them alone. I think we would all support actions that support our existing small businesses. Some of that effort should be specific to each village, like the work of the Highlands Area Neighborhood Council. But some of that effort should be city-wide, and Newton Villages may be able to help.
Newton has a wealth of professionals in many fields of business, and we should draw on those resources, especially to help our own independent merchants whose businesses need help planning, growing, or responding to threats. Among our other goals, I would like to see Newton Villages work toward creating a consultative network of Newton residents who have expertise in architecture, advertising, marketing, interior design, and retail strategy.
In the case of Sandwich Works, this consultative network could help the owners address the specific issues of competition that now face them and determine the best strategies for moving forward. In short, they would no longer be alone in facing these challenges. This notion of a consultative network ties to, among other things, two recent articles in the Globe.
* One is Sunday’s article on the independent merchant’s association in Concord. And I would point out that past efforts to create merchant associations at the village level have not been successful, with the exception of the group in Newton Highlands. See “Strong support for local businesses keeps Main Street shops bustling.”
* Another is the piece on “positive deviance” discussed in an earlier post. As one person in that article explained, “The solution to the problem lies within the community. There are people who have the same resources, but they’re doing something differently.” For example, I would imagine that Peter Meyer, the owner of Lincoln Street Coffee, could share some valuable insights with other independent merchants. And visa versa. Moreover, each of these independent merchants may have greater credibility with their peers than would a silly nonprofit coalition or a city agency. See: “The power of positive deviants.”
Do you know any Newton residents who are professionals in the fields listed above? Do you know any independent merchants? We need to increase our outreach efforts. Please look through your lists of contacts and email me and Matt with suggestions of people we should contact. If enough of these professionals can contribute a just little of their expertise, all of Newton stands to benefit.
2 comments
I’m new to this list. Thanks, John for adding me.
I applaud the board of aldermen approving the arrival of Panera to
Newton Centre. I like Panera’s and so do my kids. I like the food, the atmosphere, and the service. I never once shopped at Tess or any of the other high-end clothing stores that preceded it. In fact, I’ve never once purchased clothes in Newton Centre (too expensive). I also never eat at the Pie place and almost never eat at Sandwich works, so neither will be losing my business due to Panera because they never had it in the first place.
Your idea of forming a local network of consultants to assist locally owned businesses sounds worthwhile. It also leaves me wondering though, what are the primary challenges facing each local business that is struggling. Strategy and consulting can certainly be helpful with some kinds of challenges (business model, marketing, etc.) but perhaps less helpful with other challenges (rent increases to an unsustainable level relative to the underlying business).
Anyways, count me in. Also count me in for any effort to identify and deliberately bring in the types of businesses that folks might want to see come to the area (like a good bookstore).
John Sarvey
Jackson Street
John Sarvey–Welcome!
I agree that Panera’s success is good news. Personally, I don’t love or hate Panera, but I think the deliberative planning process went the way it should have, and I’m grateful for that.
As to John Sisson’s suggestion about a consultative network, I’m intrigued. In the work of “business development” or “economic restructuring,” an important part of managing a village retail district, business retention comes first. So this is a good place to put our efforts. (See the Main Street Center’s introduction to what they call “Economic Restructuring”–you have to scroll down to it. Also see Main Street’s Eight Principles.) Business expansion is next: make the most of what’s already there. Last comes business recruitment–finding the businesses that belong in your downtown’s mix and convincing them to come. In a small way, by helping Linear Retail choose a restaurant over a bank (the high bidder for the soon-to-be Panera space), we participated in a recruitment process.
In the long term, there needs to be that kind of a support for local businesses. The Concord model John Sisson found is not a bad one at all, in my mind. There are similar “independent business alliances” all over the country. (See http://www.amiba.net , the national clearinghouse on such organizations.) In fact, the job description for the soon-to-be-hired economic development planner calls for him/her to help establish business associations, and it would be entirely appropriate for one such association to be for independent businesses. Similarly, the ED position calls for him/her to help establish a Main Street program (see links above), one essential element of which is the “Economic Restructuring” discussed above. So this needs to happen.
My question is whether we can do this now. Newton Villages is young enough that it doesn’t really officially exist. We are quite dollar-poor, though certainly rich in human resources. Beyond being short on money, we are also short on spare time (schedule scarcity being a close cousin to lean budgets).
Rather than trying to start from scratch, mining our own personal networks, maybe we would be more effective by helping connect The Sandwich Works to existing resources. Can the Chamber help? What resources can the state bring to bear? What about, say the National Federation of Independent Businesses? Or even the Extension Service of the University of Mass.? I guess I’m saying that I think we could do a lot of good by helping The Sandwich Works (or any other independent business) take advantage of the resources that are already there. The search costs involved in finding an appropriate program can be enough to dissuade a small business owner, who has absolutely no time to spare.
Thinking about the links needed to help The Sandwich Works, it occurs to me that the most important link would be a bond of trust with the shop owners themselves. We can only help if they are willing to receive help from us. Does anyone on this list eat there regularly? That could be the beginning of a conversation.
JS has a very important instinct that we need to follow. Some issues and challenges arise from the Panera application, and I think we need to confront them head-on. For me, the three concerns that Panera raised are: business mix, parking management, and preserving village character (chains vs. independents).
–Matt
Leave a Comment