Mom and Pop Stores

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7,690
Location
Outside the beltway
This is my favorite candy store. Tresa is the owner of C&H she took it over from her Mom and Dad. It's only about 35 minutes up the highway and now I look for excuses to ride the bike up there. Their in the country. She is having a bad way of it also because of the big internet stores so I been talking to her about getting her stuff on line and she is just about finished. I think she told me there will be 125 pages to go through. For antique restoration she has it all. You may find her on line , I haven't checked yet. Oh...can't for get the shop dog LOL any bonafied shop has to have a good dog.

I found her on the WW Net and if she dosn't have what you may need when it comes to hard to find items then good luck to ya

http://www.candhsupplyco.com/refinishing.htm
 

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Don't know what to think about her physical store surviving. Usually, a super-specialized store like that has built up it's inventory and customer base over a period of time and can survive only in a large population center. But on-line shopping is so much easier and faster than driving to a store like hers and browsing the shelves that she may be in jeopardy. It is sad but a fact of our times.
 
Internet is changing small business and without it many will be gone. But I have also found that a niche market can be grown on the net. You just have to get the word out you are there, otherwise they may never find you.

Best thing I ever did was creating how-to video's on building kayaks. I created a YouTube channel and kept working on videos as I came up with ideas. They don't have to be great but you don't want garbage either. Over the course of a year or year and half I have noticed I have a little name recognition on the web in the kayak building circles.

I have these how-to video's on my web site also and depending on the words you use, my web site shows up fairly high in the search engines. At least in the cirlces I run. You will not find me searching for kayak. That's the territory of the big boys, but someone that wants my type of boat will search for different words and that is the key. Knowing you clients and how they think.

Next best thing I did was Google Ad Words. Dirt cheap and it works. Took some time to figure out how to maximize my ads and not waste money but so far I am sold on it and the cost is very reasonable.

I am sure there are other ways to get the word out but this is just what worked for me so you might want to pass this info on to her.
 
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You aint kiddin, that is a heckuva candy store!
You're right though, being specialized like that going mail order/internet is the way to reach out to the client base she will need to stay afloat.
 
Looks like she is off to a good start with the on-line catalog. They need to get all the pages working though, it's confusing for a shopper to click on something and the links don't work.

On the shopping cart, the buttons are confusing. The 'adjust' button appears to be what most sites would call 'add' so I'd suggest that it be re-worded.

For search engine optimization, the robots.txt file is missing. Also, Google and other sites are now using an xml file with the list of pages to index. More can be found at the site below. Jeff mentioned some good tips. Getting links added to popular forums as ads and signature lines will help with search rankings also, not to mention great referrals such as yours. ;)

http://www.google.com/webmasters/
 
Wow, if I hadn't looked at her web site, would have thought that was my local hardware... Yates Home store.. also out in the country... edge of town really, but then even in downtown Tellico Plains, would almost be out in the country... downtown consists of about 3 blocks and maybe 10-15 buildings.... we even have a second hardware downtown...

Yate's shop dog is a little bigger than they one you showed and dark brown. You have to step over her as it's her store and she doesn't move over for customers.
 
Darren I posted up your comment to Tresa and invited her over here for a look. I hope she comes in. If you all have any additional comments post them up for her to see on her sight. She is a sweat lady and a favorite part of my day when I make the trip.
Thanks Dave

But you have not seen the outside of the store. Shelly has my camera this week but I'll get it back and get some of the yard pic's pic's next week.
 
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