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Everything is Local

A retail store or restaurant may have only one location or multiple locations, but without finding the right location, and without proper management, your business may suffer.

In retail, everything is local. You can own hundreds of stores or restaurants all over the country. Success depends ultimately on your ability to make one store, one restaurant successful hundreds of times. And in retail and restaurants, nothing is more important than location.

Say your company has eight restaurants in a market, and five are successful. My son, who is in the commercial real estate business, would tell you that real estate may not be your only problem, but it certainly is one of them. With five successful stores, obviously the market has accepted your brand. But you have three other locations that aren't working. The problem is either store management or store location, and most likely the latter.

Chains use all kinds of sophisticated data to predict future store locations. Yet, there’s no telling how much Brooks Brothers sales suffered after it moved its Memphis store to an ex-urban mall before moving back into town. In a chain operation, whether dry goods or food, management and location are really the only two things you can change. And you can’t manage your way out of a bad location.

The biggest barrier to entry by new fast food brands in almost every city today is finding available fast food locations.

To ask Mr. Malmo your own marketing question, visit to http://askmalmo.com.

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