 |
|
|
Cart Planet was incorporated in 2003 by Sigal and Joseph Sherman. Having a long track record of being involved in a nationwide cart program of over 120 carts in 2000 and 2001, the founders of Cart Planet, noticed new trends and forces affecting the specialty leasing industry. These forces included the transformation of the shopping mall customer, to a sophisticated and demanding connoisseur of high-end, department store-quality product lines. This transformation also included a growing weariness of customers of solicitation and "hard core" sales techniques by cart employees.
Other economical forces had Shopping Mall Developers require a constant budgetary increase need, to satisfy the stock market that has created constantly rising lease rates that could be sustained, only with successful cart programs.
In addition, the emergence of online retailing has created a new competitor to the traditional mall, driving shopping mall developers to provide a better, more pleasurable shopping experience for their customers, trying to create a ‘shopping ambiance’ in the mall. This ‘ambiance’ involves a higher level of customer service and visual presentation that caters to new lifestyle trends. Hence, the relatively new creation to the shopping mall world of retail "lifestyle" centers being built in large numbers in recent years.
As a result of the forces shaping the US retail markets, the shopping mall, and the specialty retail industry within it, has dramatically changed within less than a decade. The image of the 20th century cart operator launching cheap plastic helicopters in the air of the common area of the mall, hitting customers walking in the aisles, has virtually disappeared.
The founders of Cart Planet saw these changes as new challenges that present new opportunities, and... Cart Planet was formed, beginning first, as a regional operator in the Southern California, highly competitive and demanding specialty retail market. In its launch stage, Cart Planet’s management experimented on all levels of the business, including operating standards, product selection, retail concepts, and employee training, trying to mold the business, to new standards fitting the 21st century.
For example, when The Shops at Mission Viejo, a selective Simon shopping mall in Mission Viejo, Ca allowed Cart Planet to operate a Dead Sea skin care cart, with one caveat: no soliciting, the challenge was accepted. At first, the program struggled, but after a short time, the program brought in gross revenues averaging more than $50,000 per month, year-round, with no hawking.
As another example, when issues of inappropriate outfits worn by employees emerged at The Promenade at Temecula, a fine Forest City shopping mall in Temecula, Ca, Cart Planet regulated its own dress code that is strict, color-and design-specific, and more demanding of the employee than a typical shopping mall dress code regulation.
And when Cart Planet was confronted in early 2005 with an infuriated mall leasing manager that was dealing with aggravated customers wielding defective products purchased in the Christmas season, another tack was taken. Cart Planet’s management, decided to distribute only high-quality product lines, with a lifetime warranty, and to never operate holiday season concepts with untested products, that could be potentially defective.
This commitment to customer service, product quality, and presentation inevitably led the company to develop a new approach counter to the traditional "Temporary cart tenant" business model.
The term "Temporary Tenant" is used by shopping centers to describe cart operators. This term dates back to the beginning days of carts, when a short term, temporary lease of a cart was negotiated mostly with an individual displaying and selling goods he manufactured by himself, or as a "flee market" alternative. The problem associated with using this term, is that it creates a ‘temporary mindset’ for both shopping malls and operators, filled with short-term financial goals to get quick results, even if they come hand in hand with aggressive sales techniques, poor training programs, and frugal expenditures on temporary visual displays. This mindset is detrimental to the success of any retail program.
It is true that every cart operator feels the ‘temporary mindset’ pressure when signing a lease, reporting sales, choosing a product, or compensating an employee. At Cart Planet, management has made up its mind and chose to resist this mindset and become permanent retailers, adopting a ‘Permanent Mindset’.
The ‘Permanent Mindset’ justifies spending thousands of dollars on cutting edge visual displays, adopt state of the art POS systems for sales and inventory control, and build professional operating standards much like any other major retail chain.
And here is where our story ends... for now.
|
|
|
|
