What’s The Real Cost of Saying No?

My family and I just capped off our summer with a long holiday weekend on Martha’s Vineyard.  As usual we did a lot of browsing and shopping in many of the interesting stores in Edgartown and Vineyard Haven.

While I love the stores on the Island, I don’t understand the large number of NO signs in store window after store window.  It’s one after another as you stroll along the sidewalk.  No, no, no, no, no, no and of course at least one store always proclaims NO!  Now that’s inviting.

I appreciate the retailers who make an effort to frame the “no” in a positive way by inviting people to enjoy their food and drinks before coming into the store.  At least they try to turn a negative into a positive.

What I don’t get is why stores that would benefit from keeping a customer longer don’t at least let them bring drinks into the store. The rationale, of course, is that drinks spill on the floor or worse, on the products.

But what’s the real cost of saying no?  Watching the large number of people strolling down the street holding a drink and not walking into any stores I’d say it’s high.  In season it has to cost a retailer a minimum of one or two buyers every hour.

If a store is open 10 hours a day and has an average sale of just $8.00, over a three-month period the cost of saying “no” to just one buyer an hour is over $7,000.  Of course saying “yes” means that some products will get damaged but most of them can be sold at cost to a customer looking for a deal.

Retailers should try to find a way to say yes.  If at all possible allow drinks (if not food) in the store.  If you can’t go that far, maybe they could create a “parking” space in the store for people’s to park their food and drinks while enjoying the store.

The cost of telling a customer “no” is just too high in today’s competitive retail environment.

* By the way, the picture is Portobello Road, a fabulous store on Dock street in Edgartown.  I have no idea if they have a no or a yes sign, but I do remember a wonderful shopping environment with great music and some very fun and funky products.