How to become a destination store

T his evening we had Gary Grant as an after dinner speaker talking about his Christian faith. He's the founder of the chain of Entertainer toyshops which thrive as local shops despite going up against edge of townbarnsRUS.  There aren't that many independent toy shops left let alone chains of them.  Well here's one of the secrets. He doesn't open on Sundays - its against his religion. And he doesn't let his employees work on Sunday either. He thinks for families to remain families everyone needs to be home on the same day.

Interesting because there are Entertainer stores in Lakeside and the Bullring in Birmingham. Conventional wisdom says that Sunday is the 2nd best trading day of the week. A lot of landlords demand 7 day opening to make the rents. Gary's stores have to do better 6 days a week than others do opening 7.

So how does Gary get away with it? Here's the theory. He has loyal customers. Who know not to bother on Sunday. So they know if they want to buy from the Entertainer when they can go and when they can't. So he has turned the Entertainer into a destination store. Not just a run of the mill store you wander into when you can't think of what else to do on Sunday and head down to the shopping centre.  I'd love to prove it. But it does show there's life apart from workaholism and 24/7. What an intriguing way to beat the odds.

Look out for his next venture the Gadgetshop which he bought from the receivers - it relaunches next week as a pure online business.