SMALL

Photo by Jagosaurus

When I moved to Deephaven, it was so the kids would have an idyllic cocoon of quiet streets to play in, a lakeside beach to walk to, and a private-like award-winning neighborhood school.  Everything we needed was up at the corner.  Grocery store, food co-op, gas station, drug store, bank, and other businesses.

As a single mom and homeowner, I was especially grateful for Deakyne’s Hardware.  Home Depot was a fifteen minute drive up the freeway.  At Deakyne’s, the owner was behind the counter, and he always knew exactly what I needed to fix my leaky faucet or fertilize my lawn.  Crammed to the gills with everything from window screens to vacuum bags to hose nozzles, the tiny store is small, personable, and convenient.  Whereas a visit to Home Depot often is a struggle to try to find someone to help you, the employees at Deakyne’s go out of their way to assist.  Since every project I ever tackled has involved more than one visit, I valued Deakyne’s very much indeed.

I thought of Deakyne’s when I read a blog post by Jon Mells on the Triiibes network entitled, “The trillion dollar crisis response:  keep it real.”  Jon observed that recent economic woes have raised the demand for a return to the principles of honesty, trust and transparency.  There’s nothing more honest than wheelbarrows and bags of grass seed piled out front in summer, and snowblowers and antifreeze in the winter.

Deakyne’s keeps it real.  They know what concerns people in every season.  They recognize the fear of the unfamiliar – especially for a single woman.  Deakyne’s is small and close.  I mattered to them and they mattered to me, even over a 40-cent bag of nails.  They believed in me and helped me vanquish my fears.  They honestly pointed out less-expensive alternatives, and I trusted their judgment.  There they were right there on the corner of Minnetonka Boulevard and S.H.101, in front of God and everyone.

Small is the new real, you might say.  I’d respond by saying that small has always been the real.  Small is authentic, plain-spoken and unpretentious.

Small is the sturdy and the reliable.  It’s exhilarating to visit a big box store with all the choices and variety.  But depersonalizing the shopping experience to larger scales often leaves behind the reassurance we find in the familiar.  There is an alienating effect that big organizations incur by size.  Though many of them work hard and spend considerable money to counteract it, they fall short on the personal and respectful.

Small companies value their customers and keep things personal.  Small communities value their members, and members value personal aspects in the relationship.

Howard Lindzon has recommended that companies keep themselves “too small to fail.”  Companies should be like Deakyne’s:  unassuming, helpful, optimistic, friendly, knowledgeable, confident and eager to help.  I went home from Deakyne’s with a new washer or a screen repair kit knowing that I’d received valuable, common-sense advice and method of use or install.  Deakyne’s kept it real for me.

Seth Godin has said you can’t fail by acting small if your precepts are staying close to the customer, close to the product, and close to each other.  Deakyne’s is a fixture in Deephaven, at that corner for decades and dedicated to serving the community by building one.

Trust is borne out of expertise and atmosphere.

As a customer, I wanted to help Deakyne’s help me, and I sought the relationship by eschewing one with Home Depot.  I knew Deakyne’s employees would allay my fears, support a successful outcome and provide solutions to get me where I wanted to be without robbing me blind.

I don’t live in Deephaven any more.  I wish fervently for a small, neighborhood hardware store, but we shop at the Home Depot because it’s close.  The customer outcomes at Home Depot are hit or miss, even with Pete’s knowledge of DIY.  Home Depot just isn’t as real as Deakyne’s. Jon Mells says, “act real, be sincere and authentic, do what you say you’re going to do.”  It’s hard sometimes for employees of Home Depot to do that.

Even though our reach is global in many ways, we want to buy local, eat local and be personal.  I’d rather support 70% market share in Deephaven than 30% in the metro at large. This thinking allows businesses like Deakyne’s to anchor their communities.

Historically, people under economic duress seek a new landing, back to simplicity and the known. They contract into the safer familiars just as supply-driven markets do.  Businesses that are “too small to fail” can overcome the paralysis of fear and the stigma of defeat that run rampant in times of uncertainty.  All they need to do is be straight up and do what they promise.

Small is real.

Tagged as: Business and Economy, Do it yourself, Hardware store, Home Depot