neighborhoodiness
By annemarie on August 12, 2009 | Filed Under biz tips, faces & places
When I popped into the Home Grow-In Grocer to get my Granola Girl fix a few weeks ago I blogged about it and then thought long and hard as to whether or not it would be a good subject for one of our daily editorial. It wasn’t particularly mum and baby focused but I thought the hook of her having free fruit for kids allowed it to slip in under the wire. And am I ever glad it made the cut, as the article has garnered some seriously amazing comments from mums who were either familiar with it already, or who have checked it out in the interim. Seriously you have to check them out at the bottom of the article.
It’s got me wondering what exactly the appeal – beyond the obvious – of the Home Grow-In is. From the comments it seems to me that people are longing for a sense of community, of belonging and of being known well-enough for someone to run you a tab or know if you’re a new or regular customer. After all, even though we live in a city, many of us do most of our living in specific neighborhoods and want to feel connected and known in those communities.
So that led to further musings, as is my way, on how any brick and mortar store can inspire this kind of loyalty by recognizing their clients. Running a tab might not work for every store, but you can never go wrong with creating community and making people feel seen. And really, that applies to online stores as well. No one wants to fill in a “new customer survey” when it’s their tenth visit to a site for example.
And now I’m inspired to see how we can create a greater sense of community here at yoyomama. I’ll keep you posted.
