Savvy Shopper

From Mike Fuchs at the N&R‘s Savvy Shopper:

The economy continued to take its toll on local businesses with news that Linnea’s boutique, a plus-size women’s store in Greensboro, was closing in April.

Store owner Jody Martin, persuaded by her customers’ pleas to stay open, did manage to keep the store alive by folding Linnea’s into her already existing store, Rubenesque for Less (2912-A Battleground Ave.; 288-8772).

Rubenesque has a separate area for new designer merchandise called Linnea’s Room.

We appreciate the frequent mentions and the facts do suit the article, but the Wife consolidated her businesses for several reasons, including escaping an inattentive landlord for Linnea’s and a subpar location for Rubenesque. BTW, the Wife’s brother just returned from snowboarding in Vancouver and saw a Rubenesque plus-size boutique.

The current location of both businesses has not driven traffic like we’d hoped. Arrangements are being made to deal with that. However, the concept has worked in a financial sense. Like the vendor said about Jody in Atlanta one time:

When you put that much time and energy into something, it’s bound to succeed.

She cut her expenses exponentially moving to the current store and with another annus horribilis having come and gone, the location she has her eyes on is now much more affordable.

After all these years, she finally has the best staff imaginable. There’s no way we’re not taking this to the next level. My view of microeconomics is that microbusinesses can succeed in any economy by optimizing marketing efforts. Location is integral to that process. Given the incredibly small number of people she employs, it is also imperative that they be of the highest caliber. Finally, it remains one of the few businesses where one good customer can make your day.

Or, as I said at the outset:

If you’re not drunk, stupid or lazy, you’ll do fine.

However, that excludes a high percentage of the population.

Speaking of stupid, it can also be admitted that the concept of combining retail with consignment is flawed. There are synergies, but merchandising requires customer sequestration.

So, we chose a bad location and a flawed model in a terrible economy. Still, she prevails.