‘C’ in convenience store is for Community

I think the “C” in ‘Convenience Store’ stands for COMMUNITY. If our business does not cater for the community that uses it we will never achieve success.

Your local community is your lifeblood and as such you need to treat it with the respect it deserves and get involved with it. Custom will increase dramatically if you are an active member of your community.

Your shop needs to be the focal point for your community and you need to be seen to be contributing.

Here are some community ideas; but the list of things you can do is pretty much endless:

• Become an (the) information point for community news and events.
• Run a summer barbeque to say thank you to your community, may be your suppliers can help you.
• Use your customer traffic to leverage the advertising for local events and clubs at your store.
• Join community groups, Rotary, Lions or Round Table.
• Participate in local activities.
• Become a local councillor.
• Donate your time and experience where appropriate. There are likely to be opportunities to serve such as school governor.
• Install a public use defibrillator in your store. If you have a local First Responder Group they should be able to help you.

There are so many ways to be part of your community, please let me know what you do by using the comment box below.

Learn more about how to serve your community with the IAA

This post is an extract from the e-book ‘So, you want to run a convenience store?’ by Peter Lamb. It is available for free download here.