Store and Community Branding with Pine Sol?

Recently, I had the opportunity to read an article in SOHO magazine which covers Entrepreneurial Profiles, Social Media and Business. The author goes into unknown territory for many of our urban businesses with themes and terms that include branding and differentiated public presence. These ideas got me thinking about my main street, my community and my shopping experience here in the City of Milwaukee.

How many references to beer and tobacco can you count here at, "Family Super Saver, Inc."?

Getting our main street businesses to address issues such as broken and overcrowded windows, dirty and unmaintained facades and bad operational procedures is one of the most difficult challenges I face as a main street manager. These issues all play into branding not only the store but a community.

Beyond investing a dime in signage and other improvements many of our stores meet you with a smell prior to entering (how much does Pine Sol cost?), dirt and peeling paint (how much does Lysol and a bucket of paint cost?) and staff without a uniform, training in customer service and suspiciously naive command of the English language. It does not cost much to purchase t-shirts, hats or a overcoat for a basic uniform. The language issue is whole another deal.

These operational flaws would be forgiven if these spaces were clean, organized and spacious. However, many corner stores and gas stations are packed with merchandise with adult oriented products like tobacco and porn next to the candy, sodas next to beer and the chips next to the drug parapharnelia.

Beyond the inside many of these stores operate has hangouts for the locals during the warm weather months. I have had the opportunity to see large crowds congregate and grow in size until a fight breaks out. It does not help the situation that many of the onsite staff are not trained to deal with these situations and only know how to deal with people from behind a 2 inch thick plate glass window. For many years I thought that was the norm until I left my community.

This situation is exaggerated by the lack of social responsibility on behalf of these owners. In most neighborhoods in the city, "its make your money and leave". Most owners and/or staff do not attend community meetings, support community initiatives and programs or work to better the surrounding area.

As an African American male in this city I always tried to "buck" the steriod types and dress, speak and carry myself with respect however many businesses whether it is the gas station or corner store could care less about engaging in respectful conversation about their operation and/or neighborhood.

So at this point we could possibly step back and ask why? We could review the history of corner stores in our city. It could be that corner stores have always been this way or that until the clientel change the stores will remain the same.

I would rather look for solutions to deal with this problem rather percieved or real. As a main street manager I work with DNS to identify problems where I can and then work with business and property owners to correct them. I also work to change the mentality of some of my more receptive business owners. I work with MPD to schedule and attend security surveys. This free service encourages owners to deal with many of the issues discussed from a security perspective. For example, most stores will cover their windows with signage and merchandise. For a would be robber this provides great cover at night. Lights, store layouts and good customer service area also great deterents. Many experts agree that good customer service can prevent shoplifting.

DNS, and MPD are not the only agencies involved with assisting businesses in addition to the main street program that many non-profits with funding set-aside for such improvements. Nelson Solar of the MultiCultural Institute was offering a course that covered some of these topics with a grant of $8,000 at the end course. Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) works closely with the State Department of Commcerce and they offers several grants for willing and able store owners.

Many of these programs take time and are not quick fixes but work to establish healthier businesses. And that is what we want for our communities long term established businesses that are connected to their local government and neighborhood.

I work each day for a better Milwaukee and I believe in a better Milwaukee. However, it is my desire to continue to work with our businesses both gas station and convient stores to share that vision of a better Milwaukee one store at a time.