John’s Blog

Guy Topping and his team are well known as entrepreneurs in the North West of the UK. This year they opend their new garden centre, I love their points of difference. Check out this article by the local press below. A new-look £13m garden centre in Lancashire has opened – and the men’s toilets could prove to be one of its biggest attractions. Click here to read more and view

By Valerie Elliott, Consumer Editor It may be gazpacho soup without red pepper or a smaller steak on the plate. The differences may not even be discernible to diners at restaurants and pubs across the country. But “menu-engineering” is the new buzzword in kitchens as restaurateurs and chefs fight the credit crunch. They are using their culinary skills to keep prices down and reservations up. Click here to read the

We’re all been trained to believe we need to pay more money for organic food. But, according to an article in the International Express (July 2008) this is not the case today. Organic or Eco friendly fruit and vegetables are grown without chemicals and tend to be sold locally. Fuel price increases and increasing costs in farm chemicals that are hitting the majority of the farming community are not hitting

“Don’t destroy your brand credibility” In my presentations with clients I often talk about brand integrity; we discuss the fact that the brand is based on the consumer’s expectations and experiences. This was brought home to me in a very clear way recently. We were hosting a group of Canadian business people in Australia recently. For all Canadians in the party it was their first visit ‘down-under’ and they all

70percent of parents say children influence their purchases Children in seven out of 10 city households have a say in which brand of product their parents purchase, according to a study by the Bureau of Market Research of the University of South Africa. About 70percent of the parents who participated in the study said their children influenced their choices by suggesting which brands to buy. The study was intended to

By John Stanley The fun of retailing is that there are always opportunities to grow sales, even when the consumer may not like the product now that may sound like a contradiction in ideas. Let me give you an example. Heinz, the food company recently carried out a survey in the U.K. to find out which was the least liked vegetable by children in that country. Baby Boomer readers of

Around the world there is economic uncertainty, one day the stock market is up and the next it’s down. Trying to build your consumers confidence in such a difficult time is a real challenge. The key is to be topical, not typical in such a retail climate. What do I mean by that? A typical retailer will tend to do nothing and “weather the storm out”, but these are not

Shrinkage – product that disappears from your business and directly affects trhe bottom line. The UK has the highest shrinkage in Europe, costing 3.8 billion pounds or 1.34% of total sales, according to research carried out by ‘The Centre of Retail Research’. Globally, shrinkage is a bigger problem in the USA and Japan than in the UK. In Australia the latest research suggests that shrinkage is around 2% of total

Over the last few months we have been monitoring the plastic bag debate. The latest news is included below for your information. Shopping bags in the spotlight Graham Readfearn March 24, 2008 11:00pm NEVER have our humble shopping bags been the subject of such intense scrutiny. Once simply something to stuff your groceries into, the plastic bag from the supermarket – or high-density polyethylene singlet bag, to use its full

At JSA we are constantly analyzing how we can be greener in the way we run our business. We made the decision that we should move from 50% recycled paper to 100% recycled paper for the copier machine. We contacted our local stationery supplier and asked for 100% ERA (Environmentally Responsible Approach) paper. They said yes, we can do that, and we sat back thinking that we had moved the

Some ideas are so simple; you wonder why you haven’t thought of them. Mates Meats is one of our local butchers, Alison and Debby have come up with a great idea. An “Order while you shop” form that is handed to their customers. You hand this in to them when you arrive at the Shopping Centre, go and do your shopping, and then collect your meat at the end of

By John Stanley Don’t tell me consumers don’t have time to go shopping; they have all the time in the world. You just have to make sure that the time is spent in your store. The key is to split the couple up before they go shopping, it can make a huge difference. Research carried out by Mary Portas in the U.K. and reported in her book “How to Shop

33 Secrets for Driving Your Business to the next level Andy Buyting ISBN 978-0-978429-0-9 This is my type of book. I may be a bit biased though. I have known Andy for a number of years and was his consultant in developing his retail business, Green Village. As the title suggests this book has 33 valuable ideas to improve your retail business. They are all excellent ideas that will make

Easter is literally around the corner and retailers should now have their promotions in full swing. Eden Gardens in Sydney have a great promotion at the entrance to their store to remind the consumer. My local supermarket has Easter Holiday Fun and provides children with information on how to colour eggs and cook Bunny Bikkies. I am sure we will come across other ideas on how to promote Easter, if

Jennifer Schamber of Greenscape Gardens in the USA was voted Green Profit Young retailer of the Year for 2007. Some of the great ideas she has come up with were reported in the Ball Publishing Sustainable newsletter this month. They include: Be A Greenscaper Program – Seminars on how to manage water in your garden, the program looks at “ Rain Gardening” Bring Out Our Natural Beauty – This is

Valentines is now well and truly over and what have you done with that card from a loved one, did you eat it? How about getting a card that is completely different and from someone who has made Valentine cards for Prince Charles and Sting! Flo Dunlop owns the chocolate factory in the village I used to live in, Rode, in Somerset in the UK. She is the chief chocolate

By John Stanley Talk to a lot of people who have visited Disneyland in the USA and included in their comments will be how the team members at Disneyland helped to make their experience memorable. At the same time survey after survey identifies that we, as consumers, feel customer service is on the decline. This must be an opportunity for team members to help your business make a difference. As

I was recently approached, by Kerry Johnstone, Editor of Commercial Horticulture magazine in New Zealand about doing an article about me. Not about my work as such, but about my life and how I got to where I am now. So for those of you who are not aware of my path through life, here it is. I hope you enjoy it. Download John Stanley Commercial Hort Profile here …….

By John Stanley It was 1985 when Billy Ocean made the above a classic “pop” song. Okay, it may show my age, but this quote is relevant to retailing in 2008. Over the last few years retailers have experienced economies around the world where consumers continued to have more money in their pockets, it was an expanding market. But, global economies are changing and business growth is now coming from

By John Stanley The words “recession” and “change” seem to be bound around the retail world quite freely at present. But, at the same time this is a period of opportunity for small retailers to grow their business, as long as they are good neighbours. I was recently in Seattle, the home of the pioneer Neighbour to Neighbour Marketing. Jim Diers who was one of the early “movers” and the

One of the issues in the retail world at present is the food debate. Supermarkets versus farm markets, fast food versus slow food, organic versus inorganic. The West Australian newspaper did an excellent article last week on the issue and you can read their article by clicking below. Download Food Fight article here …..

Cauliflower cheese will never be the same again. Scientists have developed amazing variants of vegetable where the traditional white florets have been changed to a garish orange, purple and green. The “rainbow cauliflowers” are said to taste the same as the normal varieties, but add a splash of colour to the dinner table. Some scientists have even claimed that they are healthier for you. Andrew Coker, a spokesman for the

I spotted this last week in the Sunday Times in the UK. The two biggest publishers in Britain are to offer dozens of likely bestsellers to read on a hand-held screen this autumn in a sign that, after many false dawns, the electronic “ebook” may finally have arrived. Random House and Hachette, which together control just over 30% of the British book market, are to offer downloadable versions of titles

The independent garden centre is constantly changing as a model. Thermafor, in their latest newsletter, reveal their view of the future garden centre. I like their thinking process and I beleive this could be a great model for future discussion. One thing is for sure, the old model in garden centre design is rapidly changing.