tanu01

A word of wisdom for newbee's. When reading these pages for advice,Check profiles.
Are you taking somones word that has just a few months in tanning or years in tanning.
You judge what you read by the experiance of the person giving it.
Flick

Sqewk

Last time I checked the profiles there was not a place that said years experience in the tanning industry. So maybe that should be added to the profiles. What do u think?

tanu01

Sorry , another site. One could always check some ones web site, If they have a nice one that would give you some clue.
Flick

Sqewk

Better yet just ask them how long

gripmarketing

Flick:

Very wise. References would be even better.

Previously on another site where I'm a mod, too a thread was discussing site selection. Having site selected for over 150 of our own retail furniture stores, which entailed selecting from 1000's of potential sites, a nationwide network of realtors and landlords, tons of experience (we hired and fired a former NTB site selector because he wasn't as good as we were at it), and less than 10% of our stores were underperformers, means we like to think we know a little something about the subject (no tanning retailer's experience to date tops this

I posted that a proposed site-targeted highly-specific and extremely detailed geodemographic study be done and listed Grip FWIW, among others, who provide such site selecting tools for retailers.

This gentleman (I use this term because on the internet even a pig in real life can be a god online)posted that you don't need to pay any list compiler for the info, you can just get it from your slanted-propaganda-to-get-any-kind-of-business local chamber of commerce (whose sole existence is to show prospective retailers that every county in America is a great place to open a salon). I pointed out that this was worthless. Chambers will just show an entire county census bureau stats (which you can get easier by going to the census bureau site) - not traffic counts and geodemographics for your single site on a particular street.

He wrongfully argued, expressed his ignorance, called me names, and of course, was very unprofessional and dead wrong!

A few weeks later in another thread, someone asked him for his phone number because they liked his party-style demeanor. It was an Atlanta phone number and knowing virtually all of the players in the Atlanta market (we are based in Atlanta), I didn't recognize the number.

After the pleasantries and introductions took place, the phone call went like this:

Gary: So tell me, what stores have you been site selecting for?

Gentleman: None. I've never done site selecting before.

Gary: What salon do you own?

Gentleman: I don't own a salon but I hope to someday.

Gary: Are you working for a salon now?

Gentleman: No.

Gary: Have you ever worked in retail before?

Gentleman: No.

Gary: What do you do for a living?

Gentleman: I work at Bellsouth.

Gary: In what department?

Gentleman: Craft.

So there you have it - a telephone installer (the guy who runs the line to your home from the pole) with no retail experience, no business ownership experience, and no site selecting experience is giving advise about how to risk your borrowed dollars.

I certainly hope no one took his advise, but who knows? I did my level best in the thread to debate the merits and let the chips fall where they may. But who knows?