Saturday 17 May 2008

Presentation vs. Perception-Part 2

I was walking downtown at a festival with my sister-in-law when she said, "Holly, let's go into this store so you can tell me if I should buy this wrap or not." I said, "Kelley, we are not going in that store, it's an old lady store, and you aren't an old lady." Then I looked down and saw that she was wearing a fanny pack (note: just because it is "Coach" doesn't mean it's cool), and agreed that we could go in the store. (Another note: I'm not making fun of my sweet sis-in-law behind her back...I told her to her face not to wear a fanny pack). Anyway, we walked in the "old lady" store, and I immediately saw about five things that I LOVED for myself. So I walked back outside to look at the store that gave me the impression that it was an "old lady" store. I have lived her over 4 years and have NEVER walked into that store for that reason. I realized rather quickly that it was the way the window was dressed. So I offered the owner of the store a few friendly suggestions of how she could make the window look better to draw more people in. Some of my suggestions were less mannequins in the window, better lighting, new or newly painted trim, and some nicely draped fabric behind the clothing (instead of the pegboard behind it). She gladly welcomed my suggestions, but said since she doesn't own the building, she wasn't willing to put money into it to make it look better. WOW! I couldn't believe that a business owner wasn't willing to invest literally a few hundred dollars to double her traffic.

I think so many people have this same problem with their bodies. They don't want to spend the money to make themselves look nicer. It's not worth it to them. We aren't talking like $5000 like on "What not to Wear." We are talking about a few hundred dollars. We don't own our bodies, right? They are on lease to us by our Maker. Shouldn't we take care of them both inside and out, and present them well?

1 comments:

Jill Ann said...

Crazy stuff. I cannot imagine being a small business owner in todays market...and not wanting to continuously improve. Go figure. Guess she didn't need the money.

Hey - maybe you could also offer up merchandising suggestions to small businesses on the side! I have one in particular that needs mega mucho help. Email me offline if interested.