by I hate writing obituaries. And yet, five minutes ago, I found myself having to write one.
I guess the silver lining on that cloud, if there ever truly is one, was that I wrote not about the death of a person, but about the death of another retail chain — Conn’s and sister company Badcock Home Furniture & More.
Truth be told, I wrote of the news of Conn’s beginning store closings in more than 550 stores across Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
According to the liquidators, B. Riley Retail Solutions LLC, everything is going, from existing inventory right down to the store fixtures and equipment.
I’ll let pundits way smarter than me follow up with why Conn’s failed.
But I will share one thought with you: Conn’s implosion could mean lots of pick-up business for retailers that had competed with them.
And with business less than robust now, who wouldn’t want to pick up some easy business?
Ah, but not so fast. I have seen similar situations during my tenure writing about our sector. Years ago, as the uncrowned “Prince of Particleboard” ( I covered the ready-to-assemble furniture category), I watched as some of that sector’s heavy hitters fell by the wayside.
The remaining players initially thought that business would undoubtedly come their way, but guess what? A bit of it did, but nothing equal to the volumes the failed companies had been generating.
You are probably wondering why, and from where I sat, here is what I saw: The remaining companies did little to reach out to the consumer to at least buy share of mind and, hopefully, subsequent share of market.
So, consumers being consumers, did what they do. … They bought other categories such as home electronics, appliances and other things. I still believe that before you capture the consumer’s disposable dollars, you must capture the consumer’s interest and attention.
Much more recently, we reported on the slew of store closings at Big Lots. Big Lots sold lots of furniture, and, on paper, those sales should go somewhere.
But to whom, and for what reason? I know they say good things come to those who wait, but trust me, that doesn’t work in our sector.
While I believe Conn’s and Big Lots are going to leave dollars on the table, one can’t wait for them to fall into your waiting hands.
Find ways to engage shoppers who may have been planning to shop them and share your story of why they need to shop you now.
