Hunkering down not the best tactic for success
Lissa Wyman, Rug Editor -- Furniture Today, February 17, 2008
It's strange that everybody seemed pretty cheerful at the recent round of winter markets, in spite of all the gloomy news about the economy. Why the dissonance between the upbeat market attitude and the downbeat news? I asked my husband, a rug industry veteran who attended the Las Vegas Market with me, what he thought about this disconnect.
"I think everyone seemed pretty happy with the market," he said. "Of course, I don't know about the people who weren't at the market."
Aha! The answer lies with the Dog That Didn't Bark. In the Sherlock Holmes story "Silver Blaze," the dog that DIDN'T bark in the night was the vital clue that solved the murder. We can apply the same solution to our market mystery. Retailers who are afraid of the future weren't at the recent round of markets. They were hunkering down at home, howling in the night about the sorry state of the economy.
Likewise, the vendors that weren't making a lot of noise with new product didn't have much of story to tell. How could they hope to fire up retailers with only a few new items?
At both retail and wholesale, the "safe" tactic of pulling in the horns is actually the riskiest way to combat an economic downturn.
Retailers who don't attend markets are not merely missing out on new product presentations. They are passing up an important opportunity to share ideas, get advice and become re-energized by visiting wholesale showrooms.
Vendors who try to save money by holding back on new product development are also making a serious error. If they don't have fresh products, then their customers will go to the nearest competitor that does. That customer may never be seen again.
At both levels — retail and wholesale — the hunker-down attitude is a losing proposition.
There is no denying that 2007 was a tough year for the industry, and there are challenges ahead. But whether you are a retailer or a supplier, you can't stay in business by trying to sell last year's goods and using last year's ideas.
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