Guest Editorial: Jim Crooks

August 16, 2011 by 8 Comments

Stop Competing with Us

By Jim Crooks

As independent specialty stores, we’ve survived the catalogs, malls and mega malls, outlet malls, big box stores, and now the internet. We started investing and selling on line 12 years ago along side our brick and mortar store that was founded in 1905 by my great uncle.

Our online volume peaked in 2008 and has been stagnant since. To get back in a growth mode, I’ve tried everything: investing in search engine optimization, attending the internet conferences, paying $500 a month for blog writing, all to no avail.

And then it hit me, after talking to my customers and experiencing some negative experiences in the store: vendors are selling direct online with their own sites at an amazing pace. Customers were coming in the store to find their style, size and items they wanted, then going directly to the vendor’s website to order the items online.

What to do?

I’m a very “small fish” in this world of retailing. Can specialty stores join together and do business with companies that want to partner with us? Can we make our plight known to those vendors that are selling direct, making them aware of how it’s hurting the specialty store business?

Yes we can. I have decided to try to get new vendors—and there are plenty—to commit to me that the will not sell direct through the web. They ask me to sign agreements; why can’t I ask them for this commitment? New vendors could use this as a great selling tool—to us—promising that they will not sell direct. They can still have their websites—giving product information and then directing consumers to us.

I have made stickers—to put on badges at the shows—stating “STOP COMPETING WITH US!” I’m bringing 2000 of these stickers with me to Vegas—hopefully I can pass them out to get the vendors and retailers talking.

Perhaps this will change nothing—but I’m not going down without a fight. I will still have those loyal customers who want my input in their purchasing decisions. The question is: will I have enough of them?

Jim Crooks
Owner of FL CROOKS & CO
www.flcrooks.com
Clarion, Pennsylvania

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  • Lucky Nahum

    Jim, I feel your pain and I admire your not wanting to go down without a fight. I for one, have been a miserable failure as the truth doesn’t t seem to be nearly as sexy as good old deceit. Years ago, before the Internet, I too was a retailer so it is with my sincerest admiration that I write.

    I once heard an industry “leader”, one that runs one of the “major” majors (he will remain nameless lest I be censured again), give a speech. In this speech he was chastising, warning, perhaps even threatening that vendors should remain out of the business of retailing online as this was their territory. By now I had crossed over and had become a vendor myself and I remember the utter disgust I felt the minute his words left his lips. It was really quite simple my disgust had to do with his chutzpah in asking us vendors not to infringe in his territory when he and others had already, by years, infringed on that of the vendors by manufacturing their own products. Luxurious offices were being mantained in Italy and several other countries for the sole purpose of doing business directly with the factories.

    I wrote letters to the editors of several industry publications addressing this man and this situation, but was told it was “a bit too harsh to print”. The needed open discussion never took place. By contributin or ommission we all have contributed to creating a consumer that cares not how or where his garment comes from so long as he’s getting a deal.

    So, now I find that I have “traveled” through the years of my life as the son of a Master Tailor, a retailer and a vendor to an industry that has changed to well….not such a fun place. Those that truly care for each other disappear with the passing of every funeral procession I see. The lines were blurred a long time ago and the future looks quite different from the past as most will see as a natural process.

    The solutions, if any, won’t be easy ones. The Internet is not going away, so embracing it as I see it, is a necessity. The advantage of a brick and mortar specialty store has always been two fold: product and service. The product needs to be beautiful, unique and offer a value, pretty much as always.. The service of today however, may look somewhat different than in the past, and with this in mind today’s store can’t be what it once was. Hybrids such as clothing store/cafe’s might be more interesting to today’s customer.

    I admire your tenacity and thank you for opening up the discussion that I hope the industry will take to heart.

  • Alexander Koa

    It was with particular interest that I read this editorial. Mr. Crooks and his store only need to look in the mirror. This is a brick and mortar store, does it make any sense that a vendor in California ship him a single unit of product just so FL Crook’s can then forward to an online customer in Arizona who just happens to find FL Crook’s site on google? What value is Crook’s adding to this transaction for the customer? Service? Perhaps, but if Crook’s can’t differentiate themselves online in some way other than price, then they have absolutely no business having an online store in the first place. To be angry at a vendor for selling online (provided the vendor is not undercutting on price) for “competing with the specialty stores” is specious at best. The internet is a gigantic place. Would FL Crooks be angry if the vendor opened a brick and mortar store 1000 miles away? I doubt it. So what gives on this sense of entitlement from FL Crooks? Is FL Crooks also angry at other specialty stores who sell the same product online? Assuming the playing field is level (prices) then the question becomes why would a customer choose to purchase the same item from FL Crooks vs. another specialty retailer or the vendor themselves? That dynamic is what FL Crooks should be focused on, not who is selling the product.

    I know most specialty stores don’t want to hear this but 99% of them have no value proposition for customers in an online transaction. What possible value does a specialty retail store bring to the online business? In most cases none. It is a cliche, but I do strongly believe the strength of specialty stores like FL Crooks is service, product knowledge and most importantly -location. The internet removes geography from the equation but it does not replace it. FL Crooks demand for vendors to “stop competing” with him is ignorant at best and just plain arrogant at worst.

    • Harry Sheff

      Just to play devil’s advocate here, couldn’t your average independent retailer argue that the typical vendor e-commerce site is tantamount to that vendor opening a big store down the block?

      I think Jim’s biggest argument is that vendor sites take sales away from his brick & mortar store, not that he’s having trouble competing with them online (although that’s certainly happening as well).

      • Alexander Koa

        Harry does have a point here but is it a reasonable expectation of retailer for an exclusive on a segment of product if it only represents 10% of the vendor’s line? 20%? even 99%? I.E. lets suppose FL Crooks carries Robert Graham and buys just their fancy sport shirts. Meanwhile Robert Graham has invested significantly to broaden their product line. Fl Crooks, for whatever reason “…doesn’t look to Robert Graham for swimwear, knits or whatever…” so they don’t buy those items and offer it in their store.

        Fl Crook’s demand for manufacturers to “stop competing with us” online is tantamount to saying their little specialty store should be the only and final arbiter of what any consumer sees from Robert Graham. So Fl Crooks gets to sell whatever they select is representative of their vendor while the vendor misses out on the opportunity to expose a much broader product assortment to millions of potential customers.

        I think that a vendor’s site, when done properly and not promotionally driven, can actually support a specialty store in the same way a brand’s physical store can do this . Who knows, maybe if a consumer sees a Robert Graham swimsuit online they might ask for Fl Crooks to carry it and the store might actually buy it next season….

        Frankly, I think those “stop competing with us” stickers are the height of audacity. Robert Graham must think so to as their website robertgraham.us offers the complete and entire product line. -something

  • Peter Rose

    Great letter, Jim. Great response, Lucky. The issue is indeed more nuanced than a black and white, easy to decipher picture.

    I am resigned to the reality of the situation, and have no expectations at all that vendors with e-commerce websites will suddenly shut them down. As Jim points out, that factor has to be weighed, along with all the other myriad factors that a buyer or owner has to consider when making a buying decision. For some, it will be a “No, Thank You” response. For others like me, my two best selling and biggest volume vendors also sell on line. I’m sure I lose business to them, and yes, I do think it’s wrong, but after I’ve said that, I have to just shrug it off and make sure I’m addressing all the OTHER crucial aspects of my business, and better than I have ever done before. Jeez, things have gotten harder, time-wise and mental space-wise. Can you say A-D-D?

    I do believe that if vendors set up at the trade shows and take orders from retailers that support their brands, they should at the very least do EVERYTHING they can to direct business to those stores. From said vendor’s websites, there should absolutely be a link to the website of every partner retailer, and the store locater should be enthusiastic and urgent and prominent.

    That may not be enough, but in light of the realities of the day, it may be all we can hope for. Stickers at the Vegas shows will serve well to make the issue front and center, and I thank you, JAMES, for the letter.

    Hope to run into you!

    Peter Rose

  • Lucky Nahum

    I devised a system a few years back that addressed the needs of both vendor and retailer. When I presented it to retailers most of their eyes rolled to the back of their heads as they couldn’t be bothered with this thing called the Internet (some still can’t).
    Frankly many years after the fact, today, I think it would be embraced by both sides as a very viable solution. it is vendor driven, so I offer my services to any vendor.
    If there are any vendors that would like to continue doing business with the brick and mortars of this world and maintain a highly positive and financially mutually beneficial relationship with them, please call me.

    Lucky Nahum
    585-943-0944
    Lucky@alwaysgetLucky.com

  • John Ottaviano

    Jim, we are manufacturers and we agree with you 100%. We should not compete with our dealers. We have discovered a way to capture business on the web and put money in our dealer’s pockets so they can in turn feed their kids.

    Rothco, is a leading military clothing brand. We have over 9000 active dealers around the globe. We never sell end users. However, we did notice that on the web, while consumers would leave our site and go to our dealers’ sites, it was too many clicks to find the product they were looking for. We didn’t want to sell direct but we were losing a lot of consumer business.

    Our solution is a company called Shopatron. They created an inexpensive retail site for us. The consumer clicks on an item on our site and goes immediately to the same item on our retail site.

    The beauty is that Shopatron has built a back end that allows our dealers to fulfill the orders. I won’t go into details, but we do nothing, the orders come in, the dealers ship them, and we sell more goods to the dealers. In order to fulfill the order, the dealers must have the goods in stock. This encourages the dealers to stock more and it builds tremendous loyalty. How many vendors are actually putting money into their dealers’ pockets?

    You can see this in action at our site at http://www.Rothco.com. You can find out more about Shopatron at http://www.Shopatron.com. If anyone has any questions you can email me at john.ottaviano@rothco.com.

    Jim, we will be at MAGIC in the Streetwear section in booth ST20763. Please come by and see Darin Kaye or Chuck Moore for more information on the program. We would be very happy to display your stickers in our booth.

    Good luck with your pursuit, Jim, you have our full support.

    Regards,
    John Ottaviano
    Rothco

  • Priscilla Trujillo

    Jim, I commend you for speaking out about this problem. What makes this a serious problem is that the retailers/specialty stores are required by the vendors to place sufficient upfront orders in order to have access to their stock merchandise. Therefore, the monetary investment by the retailers is substantial as is their committment to the vendor only to have the vendor then compete with them by selling on line. The vendor, due to low overhead is able to offer incentives such as free shipping, club member discounts, etc., while the retailers may not have the same ability. In defense, the retailer should search out vendors that do not compete online and place minimum or no orders from those who do. Both the retailer and the vendor will prosper because the none competitive vendor will receive the larger orders and a stronger committment to their lines. If you want to be a vendor, then support your retailers who are your bread and butter, you might start seeing larger orders in the process!

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