phantom tollbooths in Davis Sq. ...

[an-art-worker.livejournal.com]

apropos of nothing and not a serious proposal but I was thinking about sales taxes last night, the discussion of tolls on 93 south and something to do with all the border violence going on in the world these days. Suddenly I had this image of tollbooths/checkpoints on the roads entering Davis Sq. Weird but interesting to speculate on.

The growth in popularity of the sq. has brought higher rents and housing prices, higher prices in stores and bars and general gentrification. The city of Somerville and the property owners benefit but the residents don't. Would be interesting to have a toll that went to offset the costs of gentrification to people who actually live here.

Comments

Re: Marketing sometimes takes more than a sign

[turil.livejournal.com]

I think you may have misinterpreted what I said. I was merely pointing out that McKinnon's signs say a lot about what customers think about the place, and whether or not they bother to visit, unrelated to what their actual selection might be. See what I mean? My point was that their marketing is not as effective as it could be for bringing a variety of customers in, and that no amount of great urban planning can help a business thrive if it doesn't appear to offer the customers what they are looking for.

It sounds like you thought I was suggesting that McKinnons stop selling meat. I'm not sure why you got that impression, because I never even implied that. (A store like that isn't likely to stop selling animals for food until the vegetarian tipping point is reached in this area, which probably won't be for another generation, I expect).

Re: Marketing sometimes takes more than a sign

[komos.livejournal.com]

* An example of a business that is losing potential customers by appearing to not offer what people need is the weird grocery store McKinnons (I think). The signs scream "dead animals for sale!" to me.

&

...if McKinnons wanted my business, they could choose to market their store in a less offensive (to me) way.

You may not have suggested that they stop selling meat, but your assumption that they are a "weird grocery store" shows a fundamental misunderstanding of their function. McKinnon's is a butcher, so I'm asking how you propose a butcher, whose primary business model revolves around the sale of meat, should market its goods (in other words, meat) in a way that is inoffensive to vegetarians? Yes, their signs say a lot about what customers think about the place, but a butcher is going to have a target audience that is unlikely include vegans and vegetarians. Just as a bar isn't going to cater to teetotalers and a baker likely won't try to sell bread to people suffering from celiac disease, a butcher is not going to factor people who won't buy their goods anyway into their marketing plan.

McKinnon's marketing works quite well to bring a variety of customers from all walks of life, ranging from young professionals to working moms to the occasional chef. The things that these customers seem to have in common is that they're omnivorous and they enjoy getting a good deal on an excellent product. I've rarely gone in where there weren't lines at the checkout that were four deep, so I'm guessing that they're doing ok despite they're failure to market in a vegetarian-friendly way.


A store like that isn't likely to stop selling animals for food until the vegetarian tipping point is reached in this area

I cannot stress this enough: McKinnon's is a butcher. A butcher sells animals for food. If a butcher stops selling animals for food, it means that they've gone out of business.

As for your inability to find a vegan grocer in the area, I'm going to leave you with the same advice that you've given to me and to others in this post... "Be the change you want to be." If you need to a vegan grocery so as to avoid the offense of meat altogether, draw up a business plan, find a space in the Square, secure financing and have a go. If you're able to sell excellent produce at reasonable prices, I'll likely shop there. Of course, if you do go with this idea, having McKinnon's nearby will probably contribute to your success since the omnivores who might shop at your store won't have to be forced to choose between shopping in the Square for excellent produce and no meat and heading over to the local Megalo-mart for acceptable produce with meat.

There's nothing wrong with having a business that doesn't make everyone happy.

Re: Marketing sometimes takes more than a sign

[komos.livejournal.com]

I'm not confused. I am simply attempting to explain what McKinnon's does. They sell meat, and their signage is meant to attract people who wish to purchase meat. That they have pickles and asparagus is incidental to the fact that they sell meat. If they were really interested in pushing the pickles or asparagus, they would put signs up for pickles and asparagus. Instead, they put up signs for meat. You have said that putting up signs for meat just says to you that they're selling animals as food, and because you find that offensive, you are unlikely to go in to see what else is there. What you've not understood is that because their primary goal is to sell meat and not pickles and asparagus, having signs that push something other than meat is counterproductive to what they are trying to accomplish, which oddly enough is to sell meat.

The other examples I brought up were an attempt to illustrate just how absurd the idea that a butcher marketing something other than meat is. Does their signage affect their ability to sell to vegetarians? Probably, but since they are a butcher, it's probably safe to assume that they didn't really have vegetarians in mind when they opened.

By extension, that a butcher uses signs that advertise meat is a very good marketing technique, considering that they're in business to sell meat. Your assumption that they are losing business because they don not cater to your specialized needs is partly correct, but that business lost is so infinitessimal that it is effectively irrelevant. On the other hand, if they didn't attract their core demographic - namely, omnivores and other meat-eaters - with the promise of meat, they would lose significant amounts of business because these are the people to whom they are trying to sell. Your example began as flawed because you assumed that they were a "weird little grocery store" instead of a specialty market. It continues to be flawed because of your insistence that a handful of vegetarians never going in because they assume that they only sell meat should even cause a butcher to raise an eyebrow.

Re: Marketing sometimes takes more than a sign

[turil.livejournal.com]

I guess I give up. I'm really not interested in McKinnons at all. I was only using it as an example. I really couldn't care less what they sell or who they are. It really doesn't matter to me, and I'm sorry you've felt the need to spend so much time explaining it to me.

Re: Marketing sometimes takes more than a sign

[turil.livejournal.com]

Ok, I'm really sorry, I'm appearantly not making myself at all clear here. All I'm trying to say that regardless of what's inside a store, the signs on the outside play a big part of what potential customers think a store offers. As it turns out, McKinnons does indeed have products that I need, but I didn't know that because the signs they chose to put up in their windows. So, in this case, the "drive by marketing" (which was the subject of the original discussion) was insufficient to get a potential customer into the store.

And again, to be clear, I'm not at all saying that McKinnons should do anything different if they are happy with their level of business. Ok? I honestly don't give one diddly about McKinnons one way or another, I'm merely using the store's choice in signage as an example of how signs can affect business. I'm sorry if my choice of stores to use as an example confused you :-)