The Limits of Bricks and Mortar for Small Is Good Markets
November 30th, 2005
John, Luke, and Mark,
We’ll reply in two parts. In this post we address our concern about too tight a focus on bricks and mortar storefronts. In a second post we’ll address the apprehensions folks have about the challenges of doing NED On-line.
We are not saying that there is no place for bricks and mortar in the NED vision. Rather, physical storefronts need to be a supplemental embodiment of the NED vision rather than its necessary foundation.
We think there is essentially agreement that NED needs to be realized in both bricks and mortar storefronts and as an on-line marketplace/community. We do, however, want to take a moment to make it clear why we want to be sure that the NED vision is not too dependent on a physical storefront strategy.
Although we risk being wrong by presumption as we don’t have explicit knowledge of each of your personal circumstances, it sounds like a number of folks contributing to this thread live in metropolitan areas where physical shopping is readily accessible and full of choices. This is simply not the daily reality for a vast number of folks in the world outside these metro areas.
We spent the last two years in remote northcentral Montana, and last year we relocated to Fairfield, a small (but unusually creative and active) town of less than 10,000 people in rural southeast Iowa. We have a Walmart on the edge of town, and a couple of chain supermarkets. But other than that it’s local merchants that meet our needs. It’s a one or two hour trip to an urban area to get anything close to a major mall, or to find a selection of the retail chain stores that many folks in metro areas take for granted.
This is not a case of better or worse lifestyles. It is just an indication of the range of differences (and therefore the range of opportunities) in which the NED vision is being formed.
Even if wildly successful and the NED network/chain were to grow to many hundreds of storefronts, there is little chance that there will be one in our town or in any of the thousands of rural small towns and distressed urban communities that might want one.
So please do not be overly focused on urban/exurban bricks and mortar as a context for the NED vision. The danger is that this focus could skew the perceived demographic of the NED customer base. And this skew could warp the NED vision into becoming the very thing to which it is trying to be a counterpoint.
–Sohodojo Jim and Timlynn–
Entry Filed under: Entrepreneurial Community Ecosystems, Inprosumerism, NED - Philanthropic Franchise
The Limits of Bricks and Mortar for Small Is Good Markets
November 30th, 2005
John, Luke, and Mark,
We’ll reply in two parts. In this post we address our concern about too tight a focus on bricks and mortar storefronts. In a second post we’ll address the apprehensions folks have about the challenges of doing NED On-line.
We are not saying that there is no place for bricks and mortar in the NED vision. Rather, physical storefronts need to be a supplemental embodiment of the NED vision rather than its necessary foundation.
We think there is essentially agreement that NED needs to be realized in both bricks and mortar storefronts and as an on-line marketplace/community. We do, however, want to take a moment to make it clear why we want to be sure that the NED vision is not too dependent on a physical storefront strategy.
Although we risk being wrong by presumption as we don’t have explicit knowledge of each of your personal circumstances, it sounds like a number of folks contributing to this thread live in metropolitan areas where physical shopping is readily accessible and full of choices. This is simply not the daily reality for a vast number of folks in the world outside these metro areas.
We spent the last two years in remote northcentral Montana, and last year we relocated to Fairfield, a small (but unusually creative and active) town of less than 10,000 people in rural southeast Iowa. We have a Walmart on the edge of town, and a couple of chain supermarkets. But other than that it’s local merchants that meet our needs. It’s a one or two hour trip to an urban area to get anything close to a major mall, or to find a selection of the retail chain stores that many folks in metro areas take for granted.
This is not a case of better or worse lifestyles. It is just an indication of the range of differences (and therefore the range of opportunities) in which the NED vision is being formed.
Even if wildly successful and the NED network/chain were to grow to many hundreds of storefronts, there is little chance that there will be one in our town or in any of the thousands of rural small towns and distressed urban communities that might want one.
So please do not be overly focused on urban/exurban bricks and mortar as a context for the NED vision. The danger is that this focus could skew the perceived demographic of the NED customer base. And this skew could warp the NED vision into becoming the very thing to which it is trying to be a counterpoint.
–Sohodojo Jim and Timlynn–
Entry Filed under: Entrepreneurial Community Ecosystems, Inprosumerism, NED - Philanthropic Franchise
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