John’s Blog

By John Stanley It is always a challenge for me to walk past the coffee shop in our local town. The aroma of those fresh coffee beans being grinded draws me to the store every time. I then have the challenge of passing our local bakery where that aroma gets to me again. My daughters […]

By John Stanley In the last edition of G.T.N. we featured an article on Cleeve Nursery and the changes taking place. Cleeve Nursery is a small plant focused nursery; the type of retailer who has a huge opportunity to expand their market as long as they make the appropriate changes. Alan, Felicity and the team

By John Stanley I recently read an article that stated that the number of coffee shop brands in the UK had doubled to over 2,500 brand outlets in eight years. I realize we are now in the �coffee culture�, but take Starbucks out of the list and how many retail coffee shop brands can you

In May I was presenting a seminar and asked the group how they had planned as retailers to build on the World Cup fever that would spread around the world in June and July. To my surprise got some blank looks from the audience who felt it would be a non event as far as

In recent weeks there has been a globalmovement to promote brest cancer awareness. My daughter in the UK recently entered a London run for women on behalf of raising money for breast cancer research. At the Chelsea Flower Show this year pink flowers were promoted with donations going to cancer research. At a recent seminar

By John Stanley There is a change going on in the outside plant area of garden retailing. To the outsider or uninitiated it may appear that the leading garden centers are just changing the paint scheme to brighten the place up, but there is far more to the change than a lick of paint. What

This May is the longest time I have ever spent in and around Perth, this will quickly change as the rest of the year takes me around the world many times. It has given me the opportunity to ponder on the local scene and to review what is happening. Perth, Western Australia, is, we are,

By John Stanley People don’t reads signs, you heard people say it, you have had said it yourself. What is the point of putting a signage strategy in your business when nobody reads them in the first place. Let’s look at his popular myth in more detail. Firstly, all retailers have to accept that consumers

By John Stanley Stores without products how would they survive, but this is 2006 and anything goes. A few years ago I was approached by a global bank to do some consultancy; the brief was I was to design a bank that did not hold any money, a money less bank. Head office was convinced

By John Stanley Many managers have attended our seminars over the years, listened to the newest ideas, trends and innovations and yet still hold onto the old way of doing things. They can see evidence of success in the innovative businesses and yet are holding back. Some of them even watch while their business becomes