Corra Daily Planet

Is it the Death of Retail as We Know it?

Over the holiday season, while driving around Los Angeles I noticed an inordinate amount of vacant storefronts.   These vacant storefronts were not located in the more destitute of neighborhood, although I’m sure there are plenty of empty stores there as well.   These vacancies were located in some of the more tony neighborhoods, along certain streets that are known around the country, if not the world.   If there are empty stores in places like Beverly Hills and Brentwood, Studio City, then it is fair to believe there are empty retail venues in just about every neighborhood in every city.

This is the holiday season, after all, and the business that once occupied these stores couldn’t hang around long enough to make good in this brief window of shopping.  I would guess, as most do, that once this very disappointing holiday shopping season is over, the economic downturn will cause many other retail venues to fold their proverbial tents to never again appear.

Even the once solid luxury consumer market is down over a third.   For the stores that haven’t yet folded, the all but beg consumers to come in and buy the stuff that just a few months ago seemed to disappear magically from the shelves.    There are liquidation sales, giant liquidation sales, blowout sales, here is the deal of a lifetime sales, and just get this stuff out of here sales.   There are sales in Beverly Hills and sales in Studio City.   The entire city seems up for sale.  It probably would be, was it not carrying with it huge budget deficits.   And predictions for California’s immediate future are pretty grim.   If not dire.

Some of it is due obviously to the economic meltdown and the accompanying fallout.   There is no doubt people who have maxed out their credit cards, can no longer go to the equity home loan well, and who may be out of a job, are buying milk and groceries and not designer clothing and jewelry.   And while most are buying cheaper merchandise, reports say that the wealthy in cutting back may still buy the same brands but they are buying fewer items.   So what was once a well stocked store is now stuck with surplus.

There are other factors at work here.   Go to any mall.  Go to even the chic stores in the upscale shopping areas.   What do you see?   You see the same stuff.  In the mall you see the same cheaper brands.  In the richer neighborhoods you see the same richer brands.   There is nothing unique, really, nothing unusual.  The good news is that we understand our brands.   The bad news is that we are enslaved by them.

Not only can most consumers not afford many items.   What is really the point in purchasing the same items as the store down the block and the store across the street?   What about original merchandise?

Perhaps to survive and to prevail in the future it is incumbent upon the retailer to find not only quality merchandise at a better price point, but original brands from emerging designers and manufacturers.  It may well pay to hire people who after a preemployment screening check can demonstrate they can source new clothing, equipment, cupcakes, whatever it is, so customers will shop your stores because of the original merchandise you carry.   I realize this is not always possible.   I also realize that carrying the same-same as your competitor doesn’t say very much about your own branding and your buyers’ imaginations.

Look to employ people who can bring you the unusual.  Not just wild and unusual but something that people actually want to buy.   Look for employees who understand what customer service is all about and know how to apply it.   Forget about the sales clerk snobs at some of the tonier stores on Rodeo Drive and places like it.   Their time may soon be past.   Customers want someone who they can actually talk to.  Who actually understands their needs.   They are hard to find.  I realize that.

But sooner or later even the blowout sales will get pretty boring.   Those who are going out of business will be out of business.   it will be up to the survivors in the retail trade to try something a little different.  Like true service.  And merchandise that you can find everyhwere.  It’s a challenge to offer both service and original merchandise.  But what isn’t a challenge?   Driving by an empty store.

Are Your Sales People Relationship Builders or the Average Car Sales Person?

I was at a friends house for dinner the other night and a couple were sitting across the table from me.  The woman was one of the leading sales people in fleet sales in Southern California.   She had worked at it for years, and had moved from a downtown auto dealership to one on Los Angeles’ ritzier west side.   On the west side of Los Angeles it is difficult if not near impossible to sell many domestic automobiles.   The west side is the land of Lexus, Mercedes, BMW and now the ecology minded Prius.   Ford and GM products are not all that desirable.

Yet this women she does well in her fleet sales.   She has built relationships and as one responsible for the corporate market she is able to see Fords to America’s corporations.   She said the same people keep coming back to her, just as they have for the past fifteen years.  She insisted the domestic cars were of much better quality than the rap against them.   Matched against, say, the Toyota Camry, she insisted the Ford Focus in the better car.

At this point her husband chimed in and issued comps that were designed to demonstration the more positive qualities of the American cars.   Business is good she insisted.  Her husband believed it could be better.   He acknowledged Ford has its troubles but in no way is it going out of business.

I asked the key question.  Business is lousy in the automotive industry, I offered.   But Toyota, while experiencing its first loss in decades has watched its stock drop from $138 or so to about half of that now.  But Ford meanwhile is sitting at just over two bucks a share, and GM is somewhere around $3.66.   There is a marked different in stock value, I pointed out.   As well as the loss of market share.

The conversation went back and forth in its usual form over this very subject.   But then I seized on something that made sense to the husband, while the wife wouldn’t allow herself to absorb the concept.   The fact is most automotive dealerships have lousy sales people.   Even with training, the bulk of the better ones come off as wooden and obvious.   The others are just plain obnoxious.   Sure there are some excellent sales people in the dealerships.   There are sales people who truly know their products and who know how to actually talk to people.   But they are few and far between.

Meanwhile, if the Ford and GM quality is comparable to their foreign rivals, it is incumbent upon these two domestic auto manufacturers to convey this through branding.   They need to drive customers to the lots.   They need through advertising and branding to make the domestic car a desirable product once again.  Because, if they just leave it up to the average Ford or GM sales person to convince you, the customer, that the domestic car has experienced a renaissance of sorts it is never going to happen.  Customers will stay away in droves.   Briefly put, the sales people are not up to it.

The husband agreed.   His wife did not want to give such ample ground.  She went back to her own sales figures and talked about her bewst year ever.   It didn’t seem to matter that while she did well in the kitchen, the rest of her proverbial ship was rapidly taking on water.  Which on a macro level has been the problem with Detroit executives for quite some time.

So in thinking about it I had to wonder how many industies still recruited decent sales people.  Surely there are legions of them out there.  But are mere legions enough to adequate service what’s left of American Industry?   Are the sales people really the relationship builders that their supervisors want them to be?   Do they even know what it truly means to be a relationship builder?   Or are they merely high pressure arm benders and back slappers who as tactics have had better days?  Are they obvious about qualifying customers?  Obvious to the point of being annoying?  Just like the sales people on the car lots.

With the economy in a downturn and with people out of jobs, it may be time for you to look around for the few diamonds in the coal pile.   It may be time to find true relationship builders and recruit them while you can.   A good sales person can perform the kind of business development that can make you the exception in an ordinary world.    It is worth thinking it over.   Before you start looking to the government for a bailout of some sort.   Because that, I’m afraid, may never come.

When You Have Employees Who Steal Data

Cedars Sinai Hospital is one of the best hospitals in Los Angeles and for that matter in the rest of the country.   It has a sparkling reputation, one well worth preserving.   But when a former employee with access to medical records uses that database to bilk insurance companies, this poses a serious public relations issue.  It can also provoke lawsuits from angry patients who had their identities stolen for illegitimate purposes.

According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, a former Cedars Sinai employee bilked insurance companies for some $69,000 by making false claims, using the stolen data of Cedars patients.  The former employee took advantage of the computerized system to steal and profit from the data and from the position to which he had been entrusted.

This was not some employee who had not permissible access to the data.   This was someone who illegally used data to which he had legitimate access.   To counter the privacy breach, Cedars has applied more security to its computerized system.   But security only goes so far.

That is why you need to run background checks on all your employment candidates.  There are no guarantees you will eliminate all threats, but preemployment screening goes a long way to help eliminate the obvious threats.   It also pays to run enough background searches so that you can discern a behavior pattern.   In this economic downturn it is particularly necessary since employees in desperation are more prone to indulge in illegitimate activity.

Some companies run period employment background checks on their current workers.   this is becoming an increasingly common practice.   Because the few bucks you spend running background checks is a lot cheaper than the loss of proprietary information, the resulting lawsuits and the public embarrassment theft will cause.

Check them out before you hire.

Cutting Costs Without Layoffs

A week or so ago I suggested the companies should look for ways to cut costs without laying off their employees.  Layoffs are not only demoralizing to the entire workforce, ultimately they reduce efficiency.  Reduction of efficiency can cause you to cut back on services to your clients.  You can overload your surviving employees,  increasingly the probability of mistakes.   Ultimately, the domino effect can result in your losing clients.  Not a good idea anytime, but especially during this economic slump.

According to an article in the New York Times more companies are looking for ways to avoid laying off employees.   they are exploring the four day work week, unpaid vacations, and even pay reductions.  Les money is better than no money at all.   Companies are for the time being reducing or eliminating their contributions to pensions and 401K plans.

According to the article, many companies say they have been very selective in hiring.   What with preemployment screening programs in place in most companies it would stand to reason, as they claim, that most of their workers are the productive sort and not the slackers.   Many companies believe that since the economy dropped so quickly, it may come back just as fast.   No sooner would they layoff their employees, then they would wish they hadn’t done so.   The other bonus is that your not laying off employees builds the kind of employee loyalty no birthday or holiday parties will ever buy.

There are ways to cut costs in supply chain management.   You can cut costs by making better deals with your suppliers who may not be thrilled about it but would rather keep you afloat.   You can cut costs in materials, but using less paper, fewer office supplies.   I remember working for one company that shipped brochures to trade shows.  These were heavy boxes.  So heavy they never would pay to ship the surplus back to headquarters.   So be prudent.

In fact, do you even have to go to all those trade shows?   Maybe.  but in this economic downturn, how many of your clients are really showing up there?   Even cutting back on one trade show and certainly cutting back on the executive conclaves, can save you some bucks.

So, as the article notes, it is wise to look for other cost cutting measures, before you layoff your personnel.  and check them out before you hire.

Holiday Greetings From the Corra Group

Corra Group wants to wish everyone a very Happy Holidays.  I realize this is a tough period for everyone.  the job market is tight, the economy is in a slump, and nobody wants to spend any money.   Besides all that, it is really cold all around most of the country.

But, hey, perhaps it is times like these that make us grateful for our friends and families and the times we share without spending that much money.  We can have fun, even if that fun includes laughing at our mutual insecurities about the economy, jobs, and other things that concern us all.   To digress, I saw one ad posted in a newsletter for all the laid off journalists and media people to congregate at a New York watering hole and mourn together the passing of their jobs.  I am sure others from different industries will join their associates in mutual commiseration.   The first drink should be on the ones who are still working.

So it’s that kind of world.  We have seen it before.  Or our parents and grandparents have.   It is a tough economy, but this too will turnaround.  And from it we can perhaps glean a better understanding of how we can live our lives, and how to re-energize the nation’s industries.

We here at Corra Group realize there is more to this world than background checks.   With the nation’s economy at stake, we must all consider the best means to move our country forward.   We must concern ourselves not only with survival but with overall success.   Because this nasty period will pass.  We may not laugh about it, and we may not forget about it for some time to come.   But we will move on.

Meanwhile, be thankful for what you do have.  And for those of us still working, be thankful for a couple of days off and a job to which you will be returning.   And above all, have a very safe and happy holiday.  From the Corra Group.

Check them out before you hire.

When Friends are Laid Off

I used to work in Hollywood.  Hollywood and the entertainment industry are great to work in.   But when you are out of work, things get cold and lonely very quickly.   All those loving moments you see on television, all that warm and fuzzy stuff, goes by the wayside quicker than the last piece of sushi on the strike lines. People won’t take your calls.  Friends avoid you for fear you are asking them to help you find a job.  Which you are?   You are forgotten easily.

Well, now with massive layoffs in publishing, media, advertising, and just about everywhere else, this same sensibility is becoming pervasive.   When your friends get laid off, and you don’t, it is hard not to think how easily it could have been you that was let go, instead of them.  It is difficult to not feel guilty to want to avoid their contact.   they will be asking for your help and at least a little tenderness and consolation. And your focus, naturally, is hanging on to your job.

The fact is most people know you can’t really help them find work when there is no work to be found.  In industries, such as the news media, where the entire industry has been decimated, you are only a friend and not a miracle worker.   The thing is, be a friend.   Help them where you can.  If they don’t know much about social networking website, then show them how to use the FaceBook, Linked In, MySpace, Twitter, and all the rest.   If you do, miracle of miracles, hear of a job opening, take the time to let them know.   And be kind.  Chances are it isn’t there fault that the economy was run into the ground.

There are reasons to show compassion.  The first should be that you want to be a decent human being and not just one more uncaring homosapien who feels the rest of us our heavenly graced by your presence on the earth.   It is time to be close not distant.   Also, things change.  Come one ugly Friday, you are out of a job and your friend is working again.   You may need his help.   You might even be working for him,   If you have been aloof and cold, avoiding his calls, it would be safe to say he will return the favor.   Your preemployment screening with his new found company may not go as well as you might have hoped.

So be cool.   Be cool by being compassionate.  Be helpful when you can.  None of us our saints, in case you haven’t noticed.   But we can do what we can and on our better days a little bit more.   When the phone rings and it’s your buddy, answer it.   A few minutes won’t hurt you any.  In fact, it may even make you feel a little better about the world.

TV Guide is Updating an Old Format in a Changing World

Once upon a time in this country, if you owned a television set, chances are you bought TV Guide to go with it.  TV Guide is the weekly publication that served for years as the Bible for television viewers.   You either bought it at the supermarket, or if you were really in the zeit geist, you had a subscription.  It was the last word for consulting TV programming.   The television directories that most newspapers included in their Sunday editions just didn’t cut it.

But life was simpler.  For one thing you didn’t have six thousand odd channels, or whatever it is.   You had but a few.  And then a few more.   And then you had cable.   So then the TV Guide was comfort food.  That and the horse racing handicapping publication were the pride of the Annenberg Group.  Then TV Guide became outdated.

So TV Guide went on television, appropriate enough.   There you could consult the programming listings.   But every local cable channel did the same thing.   TV Guide as it was, faced obsoletion.   The end of the era.

But then TV guide got the idea to develop its own original programming.   Features, etc., mixed in with channel listings.  Not bad, but still a little threadbare.  So what to do for the current and gradually disappating viewership.

Macrovision, the owner of TV Guide, just sold it to One Equit Partners for $300 million.  to some, that may seem like a lot of money, but in its day, relatively speaking, TV Guide would have commanded a lot more money than that.   Projections as low as they were, initially had the sales figure higher.Times and all of its changes.

Allen Shapiro, noted producer, and one of the new owners intends on making the TV Guide Network a destination site for original program.  No more mere listings, punctuated by a few features here and there.   TV Guide instead will be a full blown destination site with original programming.   It should be interesting to see how this progresses.

So the moral of the story, at least for now, is when you deem your product obsolete, but the branding is still strong, then look to repurpose it so that it will find appeal in the current time.   Recycling older brands is a bit of an art form and you will need the right employees to render the changes.   Maybe you will find employeees in-house, or maybe you need to outsource.  You may consider hiring new personnel, but if you do so run the proper background checks so you can judge if they are qualified to make all the necessary changes.

Meanwhile, we shall watch and see if viewers once again watch TV Guide

Weather Channel Layoffs Marks a Change in the Weather

There has been a marked change in the weather.   At the Weather Channel that is.  NBC Universal had bought the Weather Channel back in September.   Now come the layoffs and the buyouts.  I suppose there is not enough weather to go around.

While in this harsh economy it is necessary to cut costs, cutting staff is not always the best of solutions.  Sometimes it is, mind you, and there are situations where it is strategic to cut back on employees.   but other times employee layoffs are a reflexive action.   They are a planned action, but those making the choices do not always understand  the ramifications.

If you have a business that brands itself as distinctive and special, this is often your edge over your competition.   But when you start cutting staff your customer service will suffer, your internal efficiency.  In fact, whatever distinctive qualities you have as a business may be lost in the shuffle, and you are just another generic company.  Layoffs will often lead toward the generic.

In the case of the Weather Channel, the programming while necessarily repetitive was also quirky and highlighted with special features.   The weather casters at times were odd ducks, kind of lovable outcasts from local television channels.   They didn’t try to overwhelm you with the magnificence of their warm and fuzzy personalities,  call it cornball, the way the locals often do.  There was something offcenter and engaging about the Weather Channel men and women.

If  you tuned in during the middle of the night or real early in the morning, often you would find the casters struggling to stay awake.   they would all but yawn int he camera sometimes.   I found it endearing.  Hey, how many times can you go over the weather in Syracuse and try to make it exciting.   Or Los Angeles, where it seldom changes.   Tough work when you are half-asleep, the coffee is just out of reach, and you are trying to be friendly.

So let’s see what happens?   There is an example here how you can take something that is original and in the religious belief you are being cost effective cut the guts out of it.   too many layoffs will cause such an overload.  He can be original when you are struggling just to keep up with your duties?    I hope the Weather Channel doesn’t rain on its own parade.

But who knows what will happen now?   May be it becomes little more than a bloated  version of the local news and weather.   Just another blah-blah spot on the television.