[Stu from NYC]

Originally Posted by Marmaduke

Capitalism Works! We had a small business. WE LOVE OUR AMERICAN CAPITALISM SOCIETY.

ALTHO- We weren't crybabies! We had True Grit! Here's our story...

We had a small flower shop in North Country.

Back in the 80's, large chain grocery stores began selling bouquets, cutting into our business. Most flower shops called foul.

We studied it and knew they weren't going to cease. We saw the writing on the wall.

We understood that we needed to grow bigger and we began to cut our prices. We were not greedy, we still did fine and most importantly, we KNEW our target market. We adjusted our business plan. We expanded our target market. We fought fire with fire by lowering our prices and semarketing corporate offices for their floral needs.

Next, Lowes and Home Depot cut into our Potted plants sales at Christmas and Easter. We targeted churches and set them up. Word if mouth spread. Customer Service was our motto.

We grew bigger, we bought new locations close to the big box hardware garden ctrs., that sold dried-out flats, plants and trees . We cut into their Christmas Tree sales by hiring tractor trailers to pick up the best Christmas Trees down in N.C. and bring them up to PA.
We did the same with Pumpkins, and many other goods.

The hardware garden ctrs. were selling bagged goods. Mulch, topsoil and stone.

We imitated them and cut the prices and still smiled all the way to the bank depository!

We then invested in our own tractor trailers to buy wholesale direct and opened a bulk Mulch, Soil, Stone, Shrub and "Bagged and Burlapped tree" Garden Ctr.
We added mushroom compost, picked up directly from the mushroom mines.

We had beautiful, quality products in Fall and Spring planting seasons AND hired people ( and ) taught then how to Water the plant material, not to allow it to go bone dry.

We studied our competition. We displayed our goods in a beautiful setting and most IMPORTANT to our success, we employed FAST, COMPETENT AND SMART cashiers, who knew all the products or how to expediently defer to us who did.

Our objective was to move all product out before it perished. Two for...and three for sales made us famous and wealthy.

We loved our customers and they loved us.

No one put us under!

We CHOSE NOT
to have a "victim" type of mentality.

We Love Winners, Survivors and American Values like "work ethics."

Capitalism made us pay attention, work hard, but smart and not lose sight of how to GROW.

We were young and had no "backers", no rich parents, just the culture of American ingenuity.

Never say CAPITALISM is bad because you'd be buying your chickens from a wet market otherwise. OÍ

Love America! We Retired, still living the American Dream in our early 60's, and didn't BLAME ANYONE for challenging us.
We weren't asleep at the switch, we used our brains and brawn that God gave us.
Not a snowflake or a victim. Capitalism is NOT Evil.

Very well said and very well executed!