A couple of weeks back I went to an IT Exhibition at Malta's main exhibition centre. It was a really impressive event. All Malta's main technology companies were there and I found out the whereabouts of the country's computer shops.
There was a model of the planned 'Smart City', a new technology park similar to the one in Dubai, and backed by the same organization I think.
I'm not one to go ga-ga over kids, but this tiny toddler got so excited watching his sister play a bowling game on a Nintendo Wii at the exhibition that it made me laugh and I had to take this video of them.
There are many really good things about Malta, but its Retail Sector isn't one of them. The apparent reluctance to sell anything at all constantly reminds me of Monty Python's Cheese Shop sketch. I have studied the behaviour of shopkeepers and, through reverse-engineering, have compiled the following Golden Rules of Maltese Shopkeeping, to which Maltese shopkeepers adhere religiously.
1. Don't open the shop when there are likely to be customers around.
Customers are a terrible hazard - at best they make the place untidy and ask awkward questions. At worst they can deplete the stock, cause extra administrative work and increased staffing costs. The following are particularly dangerous times - don't open the shop under any circumstances during these periods:
- Sundays. This is the day when most people don't work and have nothing better to do than pester shopkeepers with their insatiable desire to spend money. Stay closed all day.
- Lunchtimes. People, in their ignorance, seem to think that lunch times are a perfect opportunity to pop out to the shops to get a few things they need. Well, shut the shop and they'll have another think coming! Start closing up at about 11:30 am and don't open again until at least 4 pm when they'll be safely back at their desks.
- Early morning. So it's the early bird that catches the worm, is it? Not if the shops are all shut it's not. Under no circumstances open up until well after 9 am, preferably nearer 10 am, and those annoying early rising 'seize the day' types who think they might do a quick bit of shopping before work won't even be able to seize their wallets.
- After work. People come out of a long day of work stressed and wanting some retail therapy. Don't give it to them. We're shopkeepers, not therapists. Make sure you start closing up at about 6 pm to 6:30 pm and they'll be forced to get themselves some proper counselling.
- Festas (the traditional festivals). Although these only happen in any one location once per year, they could be potentially disastrous. People come from all over the country (and indeed the world) wanting to have fun and spend some money. If they see an open shop they'll no doubt go into an excited frenzy and rush in. Worse still, it might cause them to discover a shop that they weren't previously aware of and become regular customers. Make sure the shop is closed well before the festivities start.
- Saturday afternoons. By midday Saturday, most people have got on top of their weekly domestic chores and are feeling like going out shopping. Close the shop before they can.
2. Make shopping as unpleasant an experience as possible.
Avoid at all costs setting up shop in areas where there is easy parking or other enticements to the area. Huge shopping malls with their free parking, public toilets, cinemas, climate controlled and traffic-free environments, public seating areas and food halls are obviously asking for trouble. We are blessed that Malta is so bereft of them. The day Malta gets even a retail park will be black indeed. Try instead to have a small shop next to congested traffic on a narrow and decrepit road with no free parking places and no nearby toilet facilities. If there's hardly any pavement space either then so much the better.
Inside the shop, make sure that it's quite cramped and dusty, that the shelving is aluminium and antiquated, and refuse to accept credit cards. The annoyance of having to pay by cash can often be enough in itself to put the customer off, or at least stop them from returning.
Don't offer assistance gladly. When a customer comes in, try to disappear into the back of the shop, or busy yourself with something and give the impression that you don't want to be disturbed.
Try to make them queue multiple times. For example, if you have a supermarket, make them queue once at the vegetable section while everything is weighed and priced, then the same for the meat section, then again at the fish section, then again at the deli counter and finally at the checkout. Another clever idea is to have the trolleys take a coin of a different currency to the normal legal tender so that they have to queue up at the customer services desk to get one. Also, consider having a separate shop selling books and magazines so that they have to queue up there as well.
3. Avoid appealing stock.
If by some fluke a customer is not at work while the shop is open, and comes into the store, there becomes a real risk that they might buy something. The first line of defence is outdated and dull stock. There are plenty of opportunities to buy British end-of-the-line stock that no longer sells well there. These are not only cheap to buy wholesale but should discourage a customer from buying anything. If the British will no longer buy a product, then why should the Maltese?
Price is also very important. Make sure that you add between 30% and 100% to the cost of the same thing in any other country. Maltese people travel abroad often enough to make it worth their while to hold off on buying in Malta and wait until they go on holiday. Don't feel guilty about subjecting foreign shopkeepers to the distress of selling all those goods to Maltese travellers. Foreign shopkeepers inexplicably actually like to sell their stock.
4. Be fluent in the last-ditch attempts to discourage customers from making a purchase.
If the nightmare scenario happens and a customer asks to buy something, all is not lost. There are some techniques you can use to entice them to go away empty handed, however keen they might seem.
- Tell them that you've got some much better stock coming in soon and advise them to come back then. It doesn't matter if it's a lie; desperate times call for desperate measures. With luck they'll go elsewhere.
- If it's a large purchase that needs a lot of administrative work such as buying a car, tell them that the person who does the paperwork isn't in at the moment and suggest they come back in a few day's time.
- Tell them that there's no hurry and suggest that they go away and think about it more. Under no circumstances offer them a discount for a quick sale. Don't put the customer under any pressure to buy right away. Never claim that the product will soon go out of stock or that a price rise is imminent.
People don't really need the things they buy. Is that MP3 player going to avert a humanitarian crisis? Hardly. Will those trendy jeans save them from hypothermia in Malta? Give me a break. Do they need to pollute the atmosphere in that car when there is a perfectly good bus service? Of course not.
As a shop keeper you must remember at all times that people just want to waste their money and your time. Society depends on you fighting against this rampant materialistic greed.
