We've put small businesses in our community in an impossible position

Reduce your expectations and shop small anyway.

Before I launch into today's post, I have an exciting bit of news. Prior to opening my shop, I worked at a Seattle-based Shopify design and development firm called Aeolidia, helmed by Arianne Foulks, an all-around amazing human and business owner whose work is about helping product-based business owners not only design and launch beautiful, high-converting websites, but, through her radically personal marketing, feel less alone in an often misunderstood space. I loved working for Arianne! We had a collaborative relationship, we launched stuff that actually achieved some goals, and it was fun to work in a space that supported independent shop owners trying to grow their e-commerce businesses. I could have done that job for years, except I had this gnawing need to launch my own thing.

Now Arianne and I are collaborating again! I'm going to be writing a series of posts for the Aeolidia blog about shop ownership, tapping into the hive mind of Arianne's super engaged audience who really want to talk about this stuff. I'm pumped. I'll still be writing here weekly, of course, but I'll also be writing some original content for Aeolidia. So I highly recommend you subscribe to Arianne's newsletter and blog not just because I'll be writing for it (I'll post links here to stuff I publish there), but because it's also an amazing resource if you're in this space and crave community.

MOST IMPORTANTLY: Arianne and I are kicking things off with a very short survey asking YOU what YOU would like to know about shop ownership. What questions do you have? What challenges are you facing? What advice would you like? I'm not an expert, but I could talk about this stuff all day—and I would love to riff on your specific situation, your questions, your challenges, your "what the f— do I do now"s. If you would like to contribute a question, fill out this survey. We will read and respond to pretty much anyone, I promise.

If you're new to Storefront Revolt because you subscribed after reading Arianne's newsletter, welcome! You can read the who and the why about me and this newsletter project here and you can read all my past posts here.

If you'd like to introduce yourself, ask a question, rant to me about your own small business situation, or would like to see me address a specific topic in an upcoming post, you can always reply directly to this email. I read every reply!

Now to the regular content…

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We got an email complaint last summer from a customer who thought someone on our staff was rude to them during their visit.

It read, "I typically have a great experience at your shop and the staff is so friendly and helpful. Today, not so much. This salesperson seemed borderline rude, short with me and what I had hoped to accomplish, and completely detached, instead focusing on social media."

While I always appreciate a customer emailing to complain instead of posting a negative review, it was the final part of this customer's message that bothered me.

"It was too bad," they said. "Although I do think some of the prices are a bit steep, I have willingly paid them in order to help independent businesses. Her attitude made me choose to leave empty handed."

And there you have it.

Your prices are too high. I'm willing to support you in spite of those high prices, but only if you maintain excellent customer service at all times.

In other words: you better be on your best behavior in order for me to shop here instead of going to Home Goods.

When you tell me that you have "willingly paid" high prices for our products in order to support independent business, what you're really telling me is that you actually hesitate to do so. You're holding your consumer choice over my head as if it is a prize I should be trying, at all times, to win.

I would argue that you, my valued customer, are incredibly lucky any of us are here tolerating the absolute pile of shit that is owning and operating a small brick and mortar business in your community just so you can have a cute boutique to wander into after brunch, whether you choose to buy something or not. That while I struggle pay my staff fairly, maintain the slimmest profit margin, and pay myself (still less than I ever made working for other people), you benefit from my being here because this storefront isn't a cell phone screen repair place, and independent businesses are an integral part of what makes each city a unique and interesting place to live—and probably has a positive impact on your home value if you're a property owner. But, you know, that sounds bitter and ungrateful, and that's about the last thing anyone who owns a small retail business (especially a woman) is ever allowed to feel, let alone express outwardly.

But I'm saying it, because I can't tell you how many times I've had customers tap me on the shoulder to say: I'm trying to support your small business, but you've made it difficult for me to do so today because [insert complaint about something we have almost no control over given the overwhelming set of constraints we operate under].

Small businesses are allowed a very narrow causeway on which to exist. We have to maintain reasonable prices, excellent customer service, consistent communication about all operations across all staff, a seamless website user experience, and near perfect inventory tracking — while keeping smiles on our faces at all times.

Okay, okay, wait, you might be saying. You mean you should be allowed to be rude and mess up just because you have the excuse of being a small business? If you're running a bad operation, shouldn't you expect customers to take their business elsewhere if you're not meeting their expectations?

Isn't that just healthy competition?

Why, yes. Yes it is! We've been told again and again that as consumers we have a choice where to shop, and that if a business doesn't meet our expectations, we can go elsewhere. Businesses that can provide low prices and great service will rise to the top. Those that can't will shutter, deservedly.

But this assumption implies an even playing field, and I think we know better.

I cannot, by any reasonable stretch of the imagination, compete with Walmart on price. Not only can Walmart negotiate bargain-basement pricing with suppliers because of its global buying and distribution power, in the time of massive supply chain disruption, they can also negotiate lower shipping container rates—and actually get their containers unloaded—because they own the means of transportation. Right now our main supplier of terra cotta pottery in Washington, a family-owned business that's been around since 1936, has hundreds of thousands of dollars in inventory from Europe and Vietnam tied up in shipping containers that the logistics companies will not prioritize because the queue to access the means of unloading it (the cranes) is unbelievably backlogged. Walmart owns its boats, its cranes, and probably its freight unloading facilities at the ports, and therefore is not only not paying the surge pricing on moving shipping containers across the ocean (up from $6-8k a few years ago to $20k or more now), but is also not paying the daily container storage fees waiting for available cranes and labor to unload them. So you can still get terra cotta at Walmart for $1.25, while our prices rise to $3 or more for the same size pot, the trickle-down effect of our supplier's additional shipping fees.

I am a tiny business competing in the landscape of global capitalism. To add to the unfairness, Walmart receives tax breaks and taxpayer subsidies estimated at more than $7.8 billion a year. And that's just at the federal level! City and state governments also offer tax incentives to corporations (Amazon, most notably) so those companies will locate in their communities. It's assumed that the boost to the local economies will more than pay for those tax breaks, but statistically, they don't.

Airlines get bailouts. Car manufacturers get bailouts. Farms get subsidies. Large corporations get tax breaks and municipal incentives.

I got a $9,500 paycheck protection loan that covered two weeks of payroll.

I don't think we are yet at the crossroads where small business cannot reasonably compete with larger companies to the point of not being able to exist without grants and subsidies, but it's not out of the realm of possibility. Just as global capitalism has squeezed American workers who work full-time but still rely on welfare programs (many of them work at Walmart!), the concentration of wealth and influence at the top has effects on small retail businesses, most notably in the realm of consumer expectations and behavior. You want an example? Start with my customer's email.

Small businesses owners take on a massive amount of risk, often at the expense of their physical and mental well being, to open shops susceptible to disruptive market forces over which they have very little control and very little financial support in navigating. I am arguing that this is all okay, we are willing to do it! All I am asking in return is your commitment to spend your dollars locally so I can grow my business, and pay my people, and pay my fair share of state and local sales tax that funnels back into our community. If you do that, small businesses will not require government subsidies to survive in the face of uncontrollable market forces. We can actually run functional, sustainable businesses based on our sales alone (take that, high-growth digital startups)! But we have to have the commitment of local support on the consumer side without asking small shops to adhere to a higher set of standards than we require of the retail giants that offer competing products in the same geographic location.

We know that massive retailers have huge advantages over small shops, but even as we acknowledge that, we expect small shops to go above and beyond to win our support and differentiate themselves in the "customer delight" department.

Competing in the customer delight department with our adorable punch card, January, 2020.

I knew this was the case when I opened Fernseed in 2019, and I intentionally created incentives and experiences to allow us to compete on delight in order to set our shop apart from the big box stores. While these incentives (a potting service, more in-depth plant knowledge, a frequent buyer card) do delight the majority of our customers, we still get negative feedback when those things don't go according to customer expectations.

Take this feedback from a 3-star Google review of our shop:

Made two visits- the first was to purchase some plants for my significant other. That purchase included a couple of sick plants that the lady admitted were likely to die. (I took the chance that we could help them as we have with countless other rare plants) My significant other has a degree in horticulture and saved one of the two. We returned a few weeks later to inform that one was not making it, the other that survived is thriving magnificently! We were hoping for at least a discount on another purchase, but that did not happen. We also overheard one of the employees giving the wrong advice for a plant that another customer was purchasing- then witnessed the employee repot that plant in a vessel not designed for the plant it was about to house. So, not sure how much legit knowledge these employees have, nor am I convinced that they are supporting their own product without any post-purchase care.

All-in-all, they have “okay” selection, some steep pricing and so-so customer support/service. I wouldn’t depend on their undereducated advice.

Nice people, none the less.

The expectation in this review is that we support our product with post-purchase care, offer in-depth horticultural advice, or at the very least, discounts on future purchases for customers who purchased plants from us that failed to thrive. This is not something anyone expects from Lowe's! I am operating in the same landscape as Lowe's with an even more extraordinary set of constraints, and way fewer resources, and yet the assumption is that because we are a small business selling plants and not a big box store, we are somehow responsible for a higher level of product knowledge and service even when it is operationally challenging and eats into our bottom line.

When we wield our consumer power, we have a much greater impact on small businesses. We actually have the power to put small businesses out of business on our communities based on our consumer choices.

Let's look at it this way. Fernseed's average daily sale is around $43. Our average daily ring on a Sunday in July of 2021 (when this negative customer interaction occurred) was $2,837. So this person's purchase was potentially about 1.5% of our sales that day.

That a big percentage! By comparison, a single Target location might ring $70k in sales on a Sunday with an average cart value of around $120 (I'm totally making this up, anyone know if it's at all accurate?). If a single customer leaves empty handed citing poor customer service, that's 0.1% out the door.

But our community has very little consumer impact on Target. Because we know this, we don't even bother demanding a better experience; we know we won't get it. We don't expect the Target staff to answer in-depth questions about electronics or organic grapes. With small businesses we know our choice has an impact, so we wield it. At the same time as we say we value independent business, many consumers cut those same businesses almost no slack when it comes to things like price differentiation, in-depth product knowledge, and customer service. While many independent owners open shops because they care deeply about the products they sell, that in-depth knowledge can't always be passed along to every person on staff, especially when retail businesses experience, on average, 65% turnover each year. Some of our employees know a lot about plants, some know more about arranging flowers. Some I hired because they had a resumé that demonstrated a track record of showing up to thankless jobs. In this volatile landscape, I hire people not because they know the precise soil moisture level required to keep a calathea happy, but because they know what to do when the power goes out and the toilet overflows.

As a business owner navigating staffing constraints during a global pandemic, I recognize that what I would like to present and what is possible are often two different things. So while I would love to provide Tiffany's-level customer service to everyone who walks in the door to make a $43 purchase, it's a work in progress. I feel like I'm being asked to paint a Monet with Crayola watercolors sometimes, and I'm surprised that more people don't inherently understand those constraints.

We have to change this culture of expectation if we want small businesses to thrive in our communities. We have to understand the extraordinary pressures they are facing, the enormous financial risks and emotional burdens, and the mind-boggling lack of support.

I would argue that we have to continue to shop at small businesses in our communities even when they're having an off day, or several of them in a row, because who isn't right now? If you want to keep small shops in your city or town, then shop small anyway. It is truly a revolutionary act to do so.