Retailing 8th Edition by Patrick Dunne,Robert Lusch, James Carver

Exercise 11

The Village Center is a neighborhood shopping center that was developed and opened in 1948. Henry Prescott recently purchased an Ace Hardware store that is located in the Village Center which is the also the location of Ginger's, a women's apparel store catering to the 50 and over market. Anne, who is Henry's partner, purchased Ginger's three years ago from Ginger Barnes who opened the store in 1979 and operated it for nearly 30 years before she decided to retire at the age of 84. The Village Center has a dozen specialty stores that are mostly locally owned and operated as well as a small grocery store that one of the great grandchildren of the founding family operates. In addition there are several service retailers that include a dry cleaner and laundry, chiropractic center, local café, barber shop, two beauticians, a dentist and a branch of Bank of America. In total there are 20 merchants that are all members of the Village Merchants Association. Although most of the retailers in the center do well, there has been some concern among the merchants that a new shopping center three times the size will be opening in six months only three miles away. This new center will have a 60,000-square foot modern Kroger supermarket, as well as a Home Depot, Best Buy, Old Navy, Dick's Sporting Goods, Pier One, PetSmart, Chipolte, Cheesecake Factory, In-and-Out Burger, and 15 other mostly national retailers as well as an eight-cinema movie theatre.
Prepare a presentation or memo to the Village Merchants Association about how the merchants could collaborate to create a more customer-centric shopping experience.