Nimblest retailers will trump hard times
Marianne Hassan has one rule when it comes to surviving the recession: when the going gets tough, the tough deliver personally.
Despite declining sales since November, the owner of Ottawa’s high-end lingerie boutique, BraChic, hasn’t taken the bad news lying down.
Determined not just to maintain but increase her clientele, Hassan says she’s had to become creative in running her business.
As many other small retailers in Canada, she’s reduced staff hours. But more important, she’s taken customer service to a new level. Already well-known in the community as the best place to be fitted for lingerie, the store has introduced workshops and Hassan personally delivers purchases to customers hampered since early December by Ottawa’s public transit strike.
“You trim the fat, what there is of it,” says Hassan, who opened BraChic five years ago. “Retailers need to adapt, adjust and be a bit more creative about how you go about business. We offer an essential service to women, so we’ll hold tight and see where it goes.”
Yet the ride may not be as bumpy as she expects. Despite dire forecasts from the U.S. that one in 10 businesses will close within 18 months and that the number of Americans receiving welfare has hit a five-year high, Canada’s commodity-driven base has buffered retail, says Brenda Dumont, a Vancouver-based national retail recruitment specialist.
