This Episode: Do Politics Belong In Retail?
In today’s Real Retail TV episode, we dive into a hot topic: Should retail entrepreneurs voice their political views or stay quiet during these divisive times? It’s a crucial discussion for anyone in the retail business, and I’m excited to share my thoughts with you.
P.S. The Retail Success Summit is just around the corner! If you haven’t registered yet, there’s still time. This year’s event is shaping up to be our best ever, with fresh speakers, panels on hot topics like AI, and so much more! Click the button below for more details. Can’t wait to see you in Grand Rapids, MI, on July 29th and 30th!
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Hey. It’s Bob Negen. And in this episode of Real Retail TV, we’re gonna talk politics.
But before we start talking politics, let me just encourage you. If you haven’t registered for the Retail Success Summit yet, now is the time to do it. We are approaching.
We are approaching.
It’s less than two weeks away right now.
So excited about all of the speakers, everything that it’s it’s I think it’s probably gonna be our very best retail success summit ever, and we’ve had a lot of really, really great ones. And don’t forget, you get a thousand dollar money better than money back guarantee. If you come to the summit and at the end of day one, you aren’t thrilled thrilled with what you’re learning. If you’re not one hundred percent confident, you’re going to make your money back ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred times.
Just come see somebody on our team, and we’ll give you all of your money back plus one thousand dollars. So you take no risk by coming, but the upside, it ain’t gonna break you, but it might make you. So register today.
So let’s talk politics. And when I say let’s talk politics, I’m not here to an end to endorse a candidate, a movement, or a philosophy.
I’m here to talk about politics as a noun.
A noun is a person, place, or thing.
Politics is a thing.
And right now, we are in the heat of a very, very divisive election cycle.
And you certainly here in the United States, you certainly have a right, and it is a right to say what you want and to support who you want. That is your right. And, if you choose to exercise it, good on you. But what I wanna say to you as someone who cares about your success is the minute that you put that you plant your own personal political flag in your store, you are going to immediately and very, very quickly lose about half of your customers.
Now you might be in the business, that will if you do that, you will attract more customers and not lose any customers.
But for most independent retailers, if you’re trying to support a broad diverse customer base, the name of the game is to keep your nose out of politics.
Don’t talk to people about it when they’re in your store. Deflect it tact Make sure that your team members don’t talk about it on the floor. You know? Leave it alone.
Leave it alone.
It will be better for your business, and I think it’ll also be better for your sanity.
So, again, it is your choice. So, one request.
If you, in the comments section down below, please don’t put anything political.
You can agree with me. We can talk about how politics affects your business, but I don’t wanna hear an endorsement of a candidate. I don’t wanna hear endorsement of a philosophy.
I don’t wanna hear an endorsement of a movement. Why? Because we wanna keep the politics out of whiz bang retail training.
So thank you for that. And, again, if you haven’t registered for the summit yet, do it right now. I would love to see you in Grand Rapids.
“So keep your mouth closed, smile, and comment / discuss only outside the business walls.” Nicely said!
You said it perfectly. Good vibes and politics seldom overlap.
Totally agree, we have a sign in the shop: ALL COMMENTS GOOD OR BAD ON ANYTHING SCUBA, SNORKELING OR ANYTHING THERE RELATED ARE WELCOME BUT PLEASE NO POLITICS OR RELIGIOUS CONVERSATIONS IN THE DIVE SHOP THANK YOU
Thanks Jim!
Thanks Lori!
Agree, when we took over our store 12 years ago, it was a politic hotbed of exclusionary conversation. We instituted a ‘no politics’ policy. We say, “let’s talk hobbies which we all have in common” and it has been a success. We lost a couple of customers who just couldn’t stop and that was fine.
Thanks for your comment Patti. It’s ok to lose a couple of customers every once in a while!
Thank you SO MUCH for saying this. I couldn’t agree more!!
You’re welcome! We’ll miss you at the Summit!
We stay away from politics and religious issues. The customer may rant. We just listen and try to change the subject.
Well done Barbara!
We agree with your position. Though we have always had a policy of not discussing politics with our customers, COVID became a political hot button regardless of what we did / did not do. Our position was to follow the state mandates and the CDC guidelines to keep our staff and customers safe. There were people (customers and non-customers alike) who ranted from either side about what position we took. Learning for us: You can’t win and you may lose. So keep your mouth closed, smile, and comment / discuss only outside the business walls. Those who said they would never be back, did eventually return. And that policy has been working well for all of our staff during this election season — so far!