Specialty store buying groups set meeting to discuss collaboration
Jane Kitchen -- Kids Today, 1/6/2012 11:39:37 AM
San Antonio -- Juvenile specialty store buying groups NINFRA, Baby Furniture Plus Association, Baby News, and USA Baby, along with representatives from unaffiliated independent stores, will meet here next month to discuss possibilities for coming together to collaborate on programming and speak with a more unified voice in the wake of increased competition from both mass market outlets and the Internet.
Industry veteran and mergers and acquisitions attorney Kelly Mariotti will help oversee and facilitate the meeting, which will be hosted at ABC headquarters here, and ABC President Larry Schur along with ABC Chairman Jeff Seymour will also be present.
Two representatives from each of the buying groups' boards, along with two independent representatives, Mike Schaul of Lone Star Baby & Kids and Mark Simon of Simon's Baby Furniture, will be in attendance.
Mariotti, who is facilitating the process to unify the Juvenile Products Manufacturers' Assn. and the ABC Show which began last fall, said the idea of specialty store unification started from within more than a year ago, but came up again in the context of those broader industry discussions.
"The task group working on industry unification is taking a broad strategic look at identifying industry needs for now and for the future," said Mariotti. "Manufacturers and retailers agree that all industry stakeholders should be working together toward common goals. One area of attention they've noted is the need to support and encourage growth among the specialty class of trade."
Goals of a unified specialty store front include speaking with one voice on regulatory matters, creating programs to help all specialty stores better compete, communicating with one voice to both the industry and the public, and creating membership programs to encourage more specialty stores to get involved.
"The specialists have started the process of figuring out how they can better work together and help each other," said Mariotti. "The industry unification committee wants to support the process and help identify how the larger industry can best assist. Step one is for the specialty stores as a whole to identify their shared goals and beliefs."
This is the purpose of the February 9th meeting, but opinions vary as to what the answers to those questions are. While some feel that a unified specialty store group is needed, others feel strongly that the integrity of the existing groups needs to be maintained.
ABC, which has always included the support of independent specialty stores as part of its mission, has agreed to host the meeting.
"This type of dialogue among specialty stores is really valuable and ABC is happy to pave the way for an initial meeting," said Seymour. "I'm confident they, and we, will learn a lot."
Mariotti endorses the choice of location.
"One of the objectives of the unification discussions is transparency, and both my involvement, and having the meeting at ABC's headquarters, are testaments to the openness of the dialogue," she said.
Mariotti said she "knows the meeting will be a success" and is hopeful that it becomes the foundation for greater dialogue among specialty stores and other industry participants.
I think this is a tremendous opportunity for specialty stores to gather under one roof to try and UNDERSTAND how they fit in today's marketplace. Specialty stores are "special" and need to IDENTIFY and UNDERSTAND their target market. Competing on price is simply not sustainable. This channel need not look very far to see that independant stores trying to compete on price and selection is not a sustainable business model. SERVICE & QUALITY is what matters, and there are people who are more than willing to pay for it.
Mitchell Schwartz - 2012-01-06 14:34:32 ESTyes price collusion is always good for everyone. - in the circle -
Toy Circus - 2012-01-06 13:10:07 EST
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