mind fleek

Many times when a small business becomes large, I’ve noticed that they pride themselves on remaining not only close knit, but quirky and somewhat unorganized. I can see the appeal. After all, who would pick Walmart over a funky little shop with some sort of punny name? Or Outback over their favorite little hole in the wall café? Who? …me. I love big businesses. I love the knowledge that what I’m getting is the industry standard for that item; if I drive to the next store, they’ll have basically the same thing. Standing out for the sake of standing out bothers me. If your store is meant to be unique, it will happen. Forcing creativity and uniqueness cheapens it. If your “creative” and “laidback” organizational system gets in the way of progress, you should change it, even if it means [gasp!] doing what others are doing. Sometimes something is considered the norm because it works. It works well.
A store that sells nails is still a store that sells nails, whether it’s called “Nail Store” or “Naily Daily!”, whether it’s logo is (surprise) a nail, or some cute ironic cartoon of a nail. And at the end of the day, which one is going to do well? Who knows. Maybe it’ll be Naily Daily due to their fabulous customer service. Or maybe it’ll be Nail Store because people just want to buy nails without dealing with awkwardly adorable cashiers making jokes about nails in order to provide a unique experience. I’m not knocking on innovation in presentation. I am aware that people demand a business to have an image now, it's how the world is changing. I’m just saying that "down to earth" doesn't have to mean "unorganized". Be classy. Don’t let your style get in your way; it's meant to work FOR you, not against you. Be conscious of the expectations of people and how your product/company/image stands in relation to it.


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