Monthly Blog - April

Things have really kicked off at the ReStore! Most of the work at mentorship I have done within the month of April have been concentrated on my Independent Component #2, which focuses on the training of employees. This has been a very insightful month in which I have worked with awesome people to learn one of the more dynamic aspects of store management: the focus on employee preparation. I've had the pleasure of training three volunteers in different aspects such as proper equipment usage, ReStore policy and mission statement. and customer service skills.

Aside from what I've done for my Independent Component #2, I've learned one of the most important aspects of store management which has to relate to the pricing of products and what the value is of merchandise. Stores in general, when they are starting out, usually have a rough idea on what they want to charge for their products, but don't actually know what the optimal costs are for making money. There are four aspects that I have learned that goes into the process of putting a price tag on a product.

• Quality: Obviously, whenever anyone shops, they want a product that will last them and be able to use that piece of merchandising to get their full money's worth. This is important because higher quality products should be better showcased and higher priced to make more sales. It is important that store put a huge focus on their more durable, reliable, and well polished products
• Brand: Brand significantly jumps up the price-tag on products. Even if two products are the same, the one associated with the more well known brand will tend to standout and appeal to customers. 
• Area of Sale: Your area tends to speak volumes on what your customers want/need. Smart retailers tend to do lots of research both within the area and in the aspects of human psychology to have a better idea of what consumers want. Example: if the area you are selling within has lots of teenagers walking the streets, smaller businesses would be smart to do their homework and cater to that particular demographic.
• The Approach: The most common methods for a small business to approach their pricing of products are the following:

  The income approach, which emphasizes your past, current and projected revenue and cash flow.

  
  

  The market approach, which derives value from historic sales of similar businesses

  
  

  The asset approach, which takes into account the fair market value of a similar businesses products.

• Buyer's Demand: Supply and demand is simple to understand. If your area has a need of something, it would be smart to capitalize off of that situation. 

To put the above elements into a specific example, take for instance this Craftsman Tool Box. Right off of the bat, Craftsman is seen as an extremely reliable tool, hardware, and work wear store. To further emphasize this, Craftsman are advertised of having a life time warranty with most of their products, labeling just the confidence the corporate higher ups have with this product. This gives the product more value within our ReStore.