Today I received the following email from the baby/maternity store I bought a few nursing bras from, and since I can’t get it out of my mind, I thought I’d share it with you:
“It is with a heavy heart we announce to you that, sadly, we are closing our doors.
We have loved these past 10 years of helping so many new moms and dads wear their babies safely and comfortably in a carrier, get that just right fit in a nursing bra, learn the wonders and ease of cloth diapers and exchange so many joyous parenting stories. We’ve loved seeing new moms make friends with other new moms in our classes as they started their new phase of life with baby.
But, times are changing as is the way so many people shop. We simply cannot compete with Amazon. We’ve had so many loyal customers – and we thank you all! But we’ve seen a dramatic increase over the past year of people “shopping” at our store, getting in depth service from our knowledgeable staff and then telling us they’ll “think about it” and leaving, presumably to buy online. Some even buy online on their phones right in front of us. And we have people come in asking for sling demos, getting in-store mini classes on cloth diapers and using the expertise of our staff with different products, only to tell us that they’ve come in to decide which products they want to register with on Amazon.
We’ve turned into a showroom for Amazon for so many people. When customers use our knowledge and then buy on Amazon, the sales we do have only go far enough to pay the basics: rent, payroll, lights, heat, insurance, the many City of Chicago permits for brick and mortar stores, etc. This often doesn’t leave enough to buy more inventory.
It truly breaks our heart to have to close our doors. We add to the six empty storefronts next to us and the many blocks of empty storefronts throughout the city. We hope you will support the local businesses that are left. We know we here at (store name) will.
We posted back in 2011, “We wonder what the world will be like when our children are adults – will there be any local boutiques and small retailers they can stop in and get to know, or will they live in a society where they drive to a couple of big box stores and do the rest of their shopping online.
We hope not. There’s a special quality about the makeup of a neighborhood with an assortment of eclectic shops. And there’s something very special and, well, neighborly in developing relationships with local shop owners, and giving them the opportunity to know you and your family. Local shop owners live in and care about the community. You’re helping your own local economy by keeping your neighbors employed and keeping the income from wages, taxes and rent in your own community. And more importantly, you’re ensuring that your kids get to know neighborliness in their adult world as you do.”
This email made me sad. It’s not like I’m a super loyal customer to this store – I’ve been there once and bought 2 nursing bras and have never gone back (mostly due to the fact that I’ve purchased very few maternity items). However when I was at the store, I was definitely impressed with the attention I was given and the knowledge that the sales associates had.
I went into the store specifically because I needed my boobs measured and the store was recommended by others for just that sort of thing. I thought about taking the measurements they gave me and purchasing a less-expensive bra somewhere else, but that just didn’t seem right. However, I can see how it happens.
I was in an adorable baby boutique in Portland and had the best time looking at all of the baby products. I ended up buying what I was looking for from them, but I will admit that Tim and I both whipped out our phones to check to see if the price was comparable to Amazon. Ultimately, we decided it was close enough and were happy to purchase the product from the boutique to support a local business.
But that’s the thing, I (almost) always price compare when I’m at a boutique or local business. I think some of that is normal, but I can see how it hurts small businesses who pride themselves on customer service, only to have customers use the associates’ time and then purchase the product from Amazon or another big store/site like them.
I admit that I’m not a big shopper in general. I don’t love running errands or browsing racks of items and I hate feeling like I could have always gotten a better deal. However, I do love boutique stores and it makes me sad to think that many of them will continue to go out of business.
Take book stores, for example. I LOVE bookstores. But where do I buy most of my books from? Amazon. If I find myself in a bookstore, I’m as happy as can be and will definitely purchase way more books than I should, but more often than not, I’m not going to a bookstore anytime soon and find it way more convenient to get the book sent directly to my doorstep.
My happy place is a bookstore… yet I feel convicted because I do very little to support these places.
Reading this email has motivated me to visit more boutiques to find gifts and books and things for myself, and to go a little more out of my way to support small, brick and mortar businesses, as opposed to buying everything online. It’s going to be a little goal of mine going forward, especially when it comes to purchasing books! We’ll see if I stick with it…
Are you a mostly-online shopper?
