Tonys Newsletter

 For over two years, I have been involved in a TV series called ‘Feargal Quinn’s Retail Therapy’ on RTÉ.  Retail Therapy takes me all over the country bringing me face-to-face with the stark challenges that are being met by businesses in the present environment.

The retail industry is of vital importance as it is the largest employer in the Irish economy, employing around 270,000 people – yet this fact is often forgotten.

What I was really interested in when making the TV series was: ‘Would we make a difference?’  There were three challenges in this: the first was to make a good television show that would be entertaining and of interest. The second was to make sure I was of benefit to the retailers. The third was to hopefully impress Irish retailers so that they might learn from it and give us a chance to compete.

One of the main messages that we tried to put across and actually demonstrated in Retail Therapy is that businesses can succeed and are succeeding during the recession. All of the shops featured have seen a steady increase in sales with one business seeing a 100% increase in sales after just a few months. Having this confidence is vital to get the economy as a whole back on track. I hope that those watching the programme, whether they be retailers or whomever, would say ‘hey, that’s an idea. I never thought of that’.

The big problem, I found working on Retail Therapy was the way the business owners dealt with new customers: What they didn’t quite understand was that every person who came through the door could become a customer. Somebody who is just dropping in for a box of matches or something isn’t a customer, but you could make them one, by making them feel welcome and finding out what they wanted. I was in a business when filming the programme and an owner was talking to a staff member as we were walking in between them and they never even registered us or caught our eyes! I was very fortunate to grow up in a business where the objective was not to maximise the profits of this business but to make personal contact to get lifelong customers, to get people to come back year after year. It seems to me that that same rule applies to almost every business. That is what I call the ‘boomerang principle’ and it should apply to every occupation. Unfortunately, many businesses lost sight of this during the boom years.

It is vitally important for a business to be great at one thing so that customers will bypass the competition. There must be a unique selling point so that people say, “I’m going to go past that shop across the road, at the other end of town or next door, because I really want what that retailer has.” One shop featured during the first series, Green’s Stores in Claremorris run by Florence Higgins, upped its standards and the shop across the road did the same. Then another shop nearby did also and suddenly, the whole street was upgraded. It is amazing to consider that effect. I encouraged one business to take out a €10,000 loan to upgrade their premises. Business people are demoralized but they must remember that banks will lend if the project is worthwhile.

We are in a recession and business people must remember that we have no control over that. Business has taken a slump but I am very optimistic. I opened in a recession in 1960 when I was 23, so they don’t scare me hugely.  It is essential that businesses take chances and that we don’t regard as a failure somebody who has a go, but doesn’t succeed.

Businesses need to be a bit more creative, a bit more enthusiastic and get out there and do what they need to. We should be willing to recognise that entrepreneurship will have failures but be willing to say “okay, the only way you’ll succeed is by having a go”.