5 ms·

> Social-media messaging would only muddle the company’s effort to sell its massively popular corporate brand as a neighborhood secret. I think this is key. Be

> Social-media messaging would only muddle the company’s effort to sell its massively popular corporate brand as a neighborhood secret. I think this is key. Being "local" is important. I saw this in the comic/gaming shop I volunteered in. We had a web presence and facebook page, but no one used them except for memes and news links. The money was made with people coming into the store and impulse-spending during a Friday Night Magic tournament or RPG sessions. Conversations and real-life interactions with people are why these shops have survived the move to online and big-box outlet stores. I've recently become aware of how problematic the lack of "local" news is in my community. Our local papers have vanished, so that we rely on a patchwork of blogs and government facebook pages to know what's going on--but those get drowned out in the ocean of other national-news posts and facebook filters. My wife and I have made it a point to always attend our town hall meetings each month so we can know what's going on in our neighborhood. Our local government is getting away with some pretty outrageous things now because social media fails to inform local citizens about what's going on. People have strong opinions about national politics, but have no idea how their local politicians are bringing down their quality of life. Local is important, it's what's going on around our immediate area and it's where we can make the biggest difference in the world. Unfortunately, the World Wide Web has us so focused on global oftentimes that we are ceding our localities to other to our own detriment.

haimez 11y ago
So far we've got social and local, and everyone knows how important mobile is. SoMoLo.
cookiecaper 11y ago
Agreed, and the lack of local content is something that has been noticed by media companies. AOL spent tons of money trying to address it with Patch. It'll be cool to see someone else tackle it one of these days, and hopefully it'll eventually stick. May be a good vertical for something like Nextdoor.
rdtsc 11y ago
We shop there. I obviously don't think it is local. I've been to huge Trade Joes with large multistory parking garages nearby (in LA), I've been to them in other cities, by where I live etc. What they have going for them in an image of a healthy, wholesome, quality foods for reasonable prices. I think initially they started to appeal to the Whole Foods crowd who couldn't quite afford the prices. It is interesting that a lot of the food at TJs is not organic. But by clever marketing, using brown paper bags, imagery/graphics with a turn of the century feel to them, they impart the idea that there they are healthy, natural and good for you. In reality it probably is not no better or worse than the food you'd get a Kroger, Giant, Safeway or other such traditional grocery stores.
- bunnymancer 11y ago
  TJs is a blessing for a vegetarian though, as they have a variety of options places like Target and GEagle doesn't offer. Even more so when you're in Ohio...
  - jamisteven 11y ago
    People buy groceries at target? wtf
    - softawre 11y ago
      My wife shops there so she doesn't have to go to Walmart.
      - jzymbaluk 11y ago
        Isn't that Target's slogan? "Target: It's not Wal-Mart!"
    - ksenzee 11y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_Corporation#SuperTarget https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_Corporation#SuperTarget
    - 11y ago
mrgoldenbrown 11y ago
I'm a little surprised at the neighborhood secret idea. The TJ's I know are all characterized by large crowds, cars circling the parking lots looking for parking, and a weekly mailer. Secret is never a word I would have used.
yannis 11y ago
But perhaps they are missing an opportunity to become a "hub" of their communities and replace the now mostly gone local newspapers.
cdr 11y ago
> I think this is key. Being "local" is important. I saw this in the comic/gaming shop I volunteered in. We had a web presence and facebook page, but no one used them except for memes and news links. The money was made with people coming into the store and impulse-spending during a Friday Night Magic tournament or RPG sessions. Conversations and real-life interactions with people are why these shops have survived the move to online and big-box outlet stores. I'm not sure you've thought this through. How are you getting people in to a game shop to spend money? (Or: a game shop is not analogous to Trader Joes.) 10 years ago I ran the Magic events for a large game shop and also the corresponding part of their website. The events mostly ran at break-even to get people into the store to spend money. And the website - specifically the event calendar and email list - was incredibly successful at getting people to come to events. Game shops should absolutely have as much social media and web presence as possible, tuned towards raising awareness of events. And also possibly raising awareness of their electronic shopfront, if that's something they do - another thing that was a nice extra source of revenue even 10 years ago.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

haimez 11y ago

So far we've got social and local, and everyone knows how important mobile is. SoMoLo.

cookiecaper 11y ago

Agreed, and the lack of local content is something that has been noticed by media companies. AOL spent tons of money trying to address it with Patch. It'll be cool to see someone else tackle it one of these days, and hopefully it'll eventually stick. May be a good vertical for something like Nextdoor.

rdtsc 11y ago

We shop there. I obviously don't think it is local. I've been to huge Trade Joes with large multistory parking garages nearby (in LA), I've been to them in other cities, by where I live etc. What they have going for them in an image of a healthy, wholesome, quality foods for reasonable prices. I think initially they started to appeal to the Whole Foods crowd who couldn't quite afford the prices. It is interesting that a lot of the food at TJs is not organic. But by clever marketing, using brown paper bags, imagery/graphics with a turn of the century feel to them, they impart the idea that there they are healthy, natural and good for you. In reality it probably is not no better or worse than the food you'd get a Kroger, Giant, Safeway or other such traditional grocery stores.

bunnymancer 11y ago
TJs is a blessing for a vegetarian though, as they have a variety of options places like Target and GEagle doesn't offer. Even more so when you're in Ohio...
- jamisteven 11y ago
  People buy groceries at target? wtf
  - softawre 11y ago
    My wife shops there so she doesn't have to go to Walmart.
    - jzymbaluk 11y ago
      Isn't that Target's slogan? "Target: It's not Wal-Mart!"
  - ksenzee 11y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_Corporation#SuperTarget https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_Corporation#SuperTarget
  - 11y ago

mrgoldenbrown 11y ago

I'm a little surprised at the neighborhood secret idea. The TJ's I know are all characterized by large crowds, cars circling the parking lots looking for parking, and a weekly mailer. Secret is never a word I would have used.

yannis 11y ago

But perhaps they are missing an opportunity to become a "hub" of their communities and replace the now mostly gone local newspapers.

cdr 11y ago

> I think this is key. Being "local" is important. I saw this in the comic/gaming shop I volunteered in. We had a web presence and facebook page, but no one used them except for memes and news links. The money was made with people coming into the store and impulse-spending during a Friday Night Magic tournament or RPG sessions. Conversations and real-life interactions with people are why these shops have survived the move to online and big-box outlet stores. I'm not sure you've thought this through. How are you getting people in to a game shop to spend money? (Or: a game shop is not analogous to Trader Joes.) 10 years ago I ran the Magic events for a large game shop and also the corresponding part of their website. The events mostly ran at break-even to get people into the store to spend money. And the website - specifically the event calendar and email list - was incredibly successful at getting people to come to events. Game shops should absolutely have as much social media and web presence as possible, tuned towards raising awareness of events. And also possibly raising awareness of their electronic shopfront, if that's something they do - another thing that was a nice extra source of revenue even 10 years ago.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]