Community Relations in Retailing

The way retailers interact with the communities around them can have a significant impact on both their image and performance. Their stature can be enhanced by engaging in such community- oriented actions as these:

  • Making sure that stores are barrier-free for disabled shoppers and strictly enforcing handi­capped parking rules
  • Showing a concern for the environment by recycling trash and cleaning streets
  • Supporting charities and noting that support at the company Web site
  • Participating in antidrug programs
  • Employing area residents
  • Running special sales for senior citizens and other groups
  • Sponsoring Little League and other youth activities
  • Cooperating with neighborhood planning groups
  • Donating money and/or equipment to schools.
  • Carefully checking IDs for purchases with age minimums

Each year, 7-Eleven makes substantial charitable contributions of cash and goods to support programs addressing issues such as literacy, reading, crime, and multicultural understanding. It also donates hundreds of thousands of pounds of food to local food banks throughout the United States. Walmart, Kmart, and Big Lots are among the numerous retailers participating in some type of antidrug program. Barnes & Noble, Target, and others participate in national literacy programs. Giant Food is just one of the supermarket chains that give money or equipment to schools in their neighborhoods.

As with any aspect of retail strategy planning, community relations efforts can be undertaken by retailers of any size and format. Many retailers use cause-related marketing to differentiate themselves and their products and build customer loyalty in highly competitive markets. Retail­ers may choose a complementary nonprofit partner or charitable cause that their customers are likely to support, such as supermarkets with food banks and pet stores with no-kill animal shelters. Sometimes, the charitable organizations give retailers access to their members and the retailers donate a percentage of sales or profits to the charities.

Some cause-related marketing efforts by retailers may be met with skepticism by their cus­tomers. Research shows that utilitarian appeals made individually (such as a cashier asking a shopper to donate money to a charity during the checkout process) are met with more skepticism than more collective appeals (such as using the store’s pubic announcement system to ask shoppers to buy tickets for a walkathon or golf outing).27 Massachusetts-based Jordan’s Furniture has part­nered with a nonprofit organization to host an annual Adoption Option picnic event at its stores; families can meet children in state foster care and learn more about adopting them. The firm also sponsors clothing drives and furniture collection events throughout the year for other nonprofits.28

Source: Barry Berman, Joel R Evans, Patrali Chatterjee (2017), Retail Management: A Strategic Approach, Pearson; 13th edition.

One thought on “Community Relations in Retailing

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