Watch This Space

I suppose it’s an occupational hazard, rather like a lawyer seeing the legal ramifications of everything, or a lighting technician spotting all of the shadows and glare where shadows and glare are not supposed to be, or a graphics designer noticing all of the places where the font looks really ugly. I’m a strategy scholar and for years was a management consultant working with small businesses, and I notice empty store fronts and wonder what type of business should go in there…

Last year, of course, I was speculating about the new business that might go into the corner lot in Westwood, near UCLA; today I found myself speculating about an empty store front near our current breakfast place in East Lansing. Based on the detritus visible through the window, the store was at some point an A & P market, but as we never saw it in operation, I can’t say for sure. A quick check of their website shows that the company has no presence in the area (there are no store locations within 30 miles of the East Lansing zip code, for example) and does not appear to be expanding in this direction…

In any case, it’s probably not a good place for a small market or convenience store. The same strip mall includes a Rite Aid (which sells food, beverages and sundries) and several food-service businesses, including the Grand Traverse Pie Company where we take our breakfasts. Even worse, in terms of this market segment, is the Quality Dairy location a few blocks up, which covers most of the same product categories. There are other markets in the area, as well, including two Meijer hypermarkets within a five-mile radius; clearly this is a problematic place for a supermarket. But that only considers what you shouldn’t put there; let’s consider what might actually work, instead…

The obvious choice would be a retail store of some kind; preferably something that could appeal to the huge population of MSU students living (literally) all around it. I’d like an Apple Store, since the nearest one is over an hour away without traffic, but I’m not sure there are enough people with enough disposable income in the area to make it viable. Any of the clothing store chains that cater to college-age people might be able to make a go of the location, although that would probably not do me any good personally. A store selling computer games and/or video games might do well there, if it can compete with the Blockbuster down the road and a couple of other potential competitors. Inexpensive food service might work, if you can think of a format that isn’t already available on that part of Grand River Avenue that college students would like…

Alternately, you might consider what kinds of products or services people in the area would like but don’t already have available. Students living in the residence halls need any number of house wares they may not have brought with them from home (or which their roommates may have stolen and sold for beer money); homeowners in the neighborhood might appreciate a hardware store or auto-parts supply store; people in the area who do arts and crafts might appreciate a studio providing instruction in various kinds of craft projects or a “craft mall” where you can sell your work on consignment; any number of specialty stores could work depending on the demographic (candles, aromatherapy, collectables and memorabilia, sporting goods, guns and gunsmith services, signs and banners, audio/visual services and equipment, etc.), but you’d want to be sure there were enough potential customers in the area to make it work…

I’ll keep you posted, of course. But that space was empty when we rolled into East Lansing eleven months ago, and there’s no indication that anything is going to change any time soon…