CGTA RETAILERS VS THE MAJORS

We love CGTA retailers. They're an amazing group of independent small-business people.  

In our opinion they are a misunderstood group.  We also sense they greatly under-estimate themselves!

Coming off the trade shows, many of the retailers we spoke with complained about the big-box stores like HOMESENSE… despite the fact they actually perform as well as HOMESENSE.

 

In this post we’ll look at how effectively CGTA retailers are competing against the majors. 

RESOUCES 

Before we look at the results of CGTA retailers vs. Chain stores, let’s take a quick glance at the resources of each.

 
 No contest here.  Independent retailers basically have no resources.   
Fundamentally the comparison is between the skills of a store owner versus a publicly traded behemoth with comparatively unlimited resources.

 

 

LONGEVITY

The retailers in the CGTA are a very stable group.  

Most of the retailers have been in business a long time.  Roughly 70% of the retailers have been operating their store for 10 years or more. Half of the retailers have been around for over 15 years!

That means they’ve been through good times and learned how to survive tough periods.  

CGTA RETAILERS HEAD-TO-HEAD VS THE BIG CHAINS

Homesense is huge, they’re Canada-wide and they have the perception of offering lower prices.  Perhaps the most remarkable statistic is how well CGTA retailers perform when we compare them to HOMESENSE.

Now obviously, we can’t directly compare a CGTA retailer to a major chain.  The average size of a major store is about 25,000 sq. ft  while a CGTA retailer will commonly be operating a store between 1,000 to 2,000 sq.ft.

However, we can measure how effectively each works with the space they have.  Sales per square foot is that measure.

Using the annual sales ranges of typical CGTA retailers we can estimate the sales per square foot of CGTA retailers to be about $255.

On a sales-per-square-foot. basis we see that CGTA retailers probably do as well as the majors!

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(Homesense data is compiled from the TJX Companies Inc. annual report.)

Despite this big competitor and others,  CGTA retailers’ continue to post consistent results. The data strongly indicates that CGTA retailers continue to prosper despite the increased competition.

The average CGTA retailer manages their store as well as Homesense.  So next time a retailer points out how hard it is competing against the chains…show them it’s actually the chains having a hard time competing against them!

CGTA retailers are more formidable competitors than they know!