Nothing ventured, nothing gained

Dear editor:
Thank you for the space in last week’s paper to express my views on “shopping in Fort Frances.”
Since I work in a retail store downtown, I had lots of comments. I tried to keep count but I lost track at 200—all of which were positive to my opinion that downtown stores need to stay open later to satisfy the shopping needs of today’s consumer.
The purpose of my letters is to give ideas to the downtown merchants as to what they could do to increase their sales. I have read in the paper several times over the years that merchants are always looking for ways to compete with Wal-Mart and the Falls.
Several replies to my letter are posted on the Fort Frances Times’ website and the last time I looked, there was only one letter that disagreed with me. They said, because I work in large store, I did not understand smaller businesses.
I first worked in retail in Fort Frances 38 years ago. I have worked in stores with small staff. In fact, in 1969 when I first worked, all the stores in downtown Fort Frances closed at 1 p.m. on Wednesday and everybody took the afternoon off.
Oh, it would nice to go back to those times, but it is a new marketplace out there in 2007.
My father was a respected Fort Frances businessman. He opened his pharmacy in the Lidkea Building and later built the “Buck or Two” building, which was known as the “Clinic Pharmacy” in 1958.
My dad was in tune with the customer. I remember Christmas mornings when dad would go and open up his store, not to fill a prescription but because a customer forgot to buy batteries. Meanwhile, we waited to open our Christmas gifts.
My mom said he did it because my dad told her “They are my customers.” His customers made it possible for us to have a home, food, and presents under the Christmas tree.
Mom said the one thing my dad did not like was stores turning off their lights at the end of the business day while there were still customers in the store. He thought that was an insult to the customer.
My dad passed away in 1962, but I still have customers that often mention how they liked shopping in his store.
The letter posted online from a downtown employee to me stated:
“If they [the customer] want a more personal experience with excellent customer service, as well as people that genuinely care about a customer’s needs, than they will “make time” to come downtown.”
Why should I have to “make time” to shop downtown. Downtown stores should have “shopping hours” to accommodate the customer. There are people working 12-hour shifts that are getting off work between 6 and 7 p.m. How can they “make time” to shop downtown.
There are different ideas that the downtown stores can try to do to bring in business. How about “Customer Appreciation Days.” Why can’t the downtown stores have a 10 percent off day once a month and “appreciate” their customers.
This would be best done if all the stores did this together on the same day every month.
Why not a program like Canadian Tire money. I suggested this “loyalty program” on the Times’ website and I received a reply that asked if I was “dreaming” or just plain “mad.”
My reply to that writer was I have Fort Floral money. I checked with Fort Floral and they still give out Fort Floral money with purchases and a redeem it for merchandise. Same idea as the Canadian Tire money.
Other stores could do the same as Fort Floral or do it as a group. Customers could collect “Downtown Dollars” from several stores.
That is the idea behind Air Miles. Instead of collecting points from one store, you are able to collect from several businesses and you make your points grow faster because you have many places to collect.
Another comment I had from people who spoke to me was that they did not like the return policy of some stores. There are stores the will not refund your money, you just get a “store credit.”
I believe that if you have a receipt, you should be able to get a refund. I had many people tell me they won’t buy from certain stores because of that.
So all I am saying, it is time to look at how were are doing business and ways that might help. Some of my ideas are could be done now. But longer store hours, that would something to consider when spring rolls around.
January, February, and March are slow months for retail, so it would be a bad time launch new hours at this time.
Remember, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Don’t let the future of your business be like that of the “Rainy Lake Hotel”—an empty building.
Thank you,
Doug Jensen
Fort Frances, Ont.