Small businesses fight back against big box stores

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, October 24th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: mom and pop in a big box world.

Most every business used to be a small business, but as communities became more mobile, corner shops gave way to shopping malls and megastores. Yet, small businesses can—and do—still thrive.

BROWN: I talked to two “mom and pop operations” about what it takes to survive when they’re not the only store in town.

AUDIO: [DOOR OPENS/ BELL RINGS/CUSTOMER ENTERS] Hello, how you doing…alright how ya’ll doing? [DOOR CLOSES/BELL RINGS]

It’s a busy Friday afternoon on the corner of Pecan and Plum.

AUDIO: [DOOR OPENS, BELL RINGS]

That’s the intersection where Lois Grocery sits. A small, brick one-story building in an inner city community. 55-year-old Eric Thompson was a toddler when his mother, Lois, opened the popular neighborhood store in 1970. But today Thompson says running a small business and competing with much larger stores with the same inventory is challenging.

ERIC THOMPSON: I can’t sell at the same price as the big box simply because they’re larger so they're able to buy larger quantities from vendors and they’re getting better pricing.

And some of the vendors that serviced his mother back in the day have dropped him.

THOMPSON: Their focus was big box. The mom and pops wasn’t their focus.

BARISTA: Caroline… Celeste…Danny…

20 miles southeast of Lois Grocery, dozens of men and women lounge on plush sofas, chit chat around tiny tables and operate their smart devices from bar stools. Provision is a 5,000 square foot hybrid market in an affluent coastal neighborhood.

AUDIO: [COFFEE BEING MADE]

William Hanes and his wife opened Provision in 2020, in the middle of COVID.

WILLIAM HANES: Four months later Hurricane Sally came through which was terrible.

Hanes says surviving a global pandemic and a major hurricane seems minor compared to the current challenge he’s facing as a local small business owner.

HANES: I was getting asked on an almost daily basis how I felt about Starbucks coming to town and it felt a bit like people expected me to cower in fear, which I get. But I started thinking how do we flip the script on this because I don’t want to take this posture of oh we’ll see. Give me a year and I’ll tell you how it goes kind-of-a- thing.

CLASSROOM: What we’re going to do next week is we’re going to talk about the market size…

Stacy Wellborn understands the tension small business owners like Hanes and Thompson feel trying to survive in the shadow of big box stores. Wellborn is an assistant professor of business, marketing and entrepreneurship at Spring Hill College. She’s teaching the next generation of business owners how to survive and thrive in that tension.

WELLBORN: I believe being an entrepreneur major prepares you to do anything in business. What I am trying to teach these young people is a way of thinking and a way of problem solving.

She says those skills can be used in any business environment, small or large.

WELLBORN: Recently I’ve been doing some housework. If I want advice, I’m probably going to go to Blankenship's Hardware because they’re locally owned, I know they’re in that business. They know the business, they can answer my questions and give me advice. If I go to Lowe’s, I pretty much can walk in, get what I want, check myself out and leave. I can go to Lowe’s without even talking to a human. Those serve two different purposes for me. So that’s how I think they’ll coexist.

But how do small business owners compete with the big box stores?

WELLBORN: Small businesses have to get behind the idea that they’re not going to compete on price. They’re not going to compete on product selection. What they can compete on is relationships and experience.

That’s encouraging news for both Eric Thompson and William Hanes.

AUDIO: [SOUND THOMPSON ON MEAT CUTTING MACHINE]

CUSTOMER: Let me get uh…four dollars worth of that hog head cheese.”

Back at Lois Grocery, 8x10 photos of Thompson's mother, known as Ms. Lois, line the shop's front walls. Reminders of who she was and what she meant to the community. 47-year-old Tremeka Ellis.

TREMEKA ELLIS: I’ve been coming here since I was a little girl. Ms. Lois was like a second mama. Yes, I still come here. Even though she’s gone. I was so glad they opened back up.

When Ms. Lois died in 2020, a heart-broken Thompson closed the store. It didn’t reopen until 2023. That’s when Thompson’s wife Felecia remembered the meals Ms. Lois prepared and served from the shop’s tiny kitchen.

AUDIO: [FISH FRYING]

Today she’s frying up a plate of fish, shrimp and fries to go. Just like Ms. Lois did.

AUDIO: So we’ll have the plates on the table….

Back at Provision, William Hanes is also seeing a relational return on investment in his community.

COMMERCIAL: Hey guys I wanted to jump on here and answer a question I’ve been getting on an almost daily basis for months, which is, what do you think about Starbucks coming to town? To be honest, I think David is greater than Goliath…

Earlier this month, Hanes launched the David is Greater Than Goliath social media campaign. Local customers were encouraged to visit the competition and make a purchase. Then use their receipt to redeem a free coffee from Provision and post about it on social media. And the response?

WILLIAM HANES: It’s been unbelievable. Not so much in terms of people bringing in receipts to get free drinks, but more the community just rallying around us and saying, we’re going to support them. It always feels good to have a rallying cry and that’s what I wanted for our team and for our town was like we’re not going to just sit back and be scared and be victims. We’re going to do something about it.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Myrna Brown in Mobile and Fairhope, Alabama.

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