Trascrizione audio Auto-generata
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Hi there, this is chris rock three presenting assignment four for 4 22 C.
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This is my final landscape and insights.
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So what is the big idea?
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A little backstory chesterfields is a
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modern furniture store.
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Were brick and mortar and located in downtown victoria.
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We've been around for about eight years and we do
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serve customers mostly in victoria but definitely across the island.
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Um one of the things we've noted is more and
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more customers coming from Nanaimo and places north of there.
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Then I am always called the hub city for a good reason.
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It's very centrally located and it serves the communities of
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Tofino, you, Hewlett Courtney, Comox, Campbell River and more.
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It's pretty easy to get to for all of those. So
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Even though it's only got a population of around 100,000,
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it serves a much larger population.
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Um if you look at the whole island.
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So what is the opportunity,
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how might chesterfields best position itself with a new
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location in Nanaimo to serve the increasingly sophisticated furniture needs
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of those who have recently moved their renovated, required a new home.
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And when I say Nanaimo, I do mean Nanaimo and the rest of the north island,
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but Nanaimo for shorthand.
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So um
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why do I think I have the energy for this.
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Um
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I have eight years experience in my current business
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and about 15 years overall in furniture retail,
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I started my career as a
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woodworker actually,
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I went to community college for the
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fine furniture program and I was absolutely dedicated
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ah
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in becoming a furniture maker. I actually started my first business doing that
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and customer furniture is very hard and very hard to make a living at,
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but it was very fun and I would like to take it up again as a hobby when I get old.
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Um but other than that,
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um I have two business partners that have probably a
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combined 40 or 50 years of experience in this industry,
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Chesterfield's has a very unique product.
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We work with a select group of manufacturers
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and between us and the manufacturers,
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we have exclusivity agreements um to be the only
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retailer of their products within a certain territory.
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So right now that is victoria,
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but I have reached out to several of them and
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they have agreed to allow us to be the exclusive dealer
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in Nanaimo as well.
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Um and so this is real, I've actually done that um and it is approved,
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so should we decide to go ahead with this,
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we are cleared and we know that we will have
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a unique product to offer the people of that city.
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Um and other than that as well.
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Uh passion for interior design, passion for furniture. Um
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You know, I'm 45 now and
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I stumbled across something recently, I think it was in um,
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Oh,
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it was a letter to my grandma when I was 15 and
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I was in shop class and I made a piece of furniture
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and I can't even remember this, but my mom pulled it out, it was amazing
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um
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that
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I had written to grandma and said
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I made this project in shop class.
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I really enjoyed it maybe one day I'll have a career in furniture
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and my mom pulled this out about a month ago and I just thought it was amazing.
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Um and anyways, here I am, you know, 20 something years later,
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25 years later and I'm still involved in furniture.
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So there's certainly a long running passion for this
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in my life,
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alright, beliefs and values.
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Since I've had some time to practice um you know how I want
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chesterfields to come forward to appear and to to basically exist.
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Um I've been through a lot of this um one of the things that we
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really want people to feel when they come in is a warm sense of welcoming,
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welcoming um we want to be educational
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um
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you know, it's not all about selling,
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but when you teach somebody about design or teach someone about furniture history
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and show them something interesting,
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You kind of ignite something that can come back.
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So you know, when I see an 18 year old looking at a piece of furniture,
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they're probably not going to buy it,
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But I've been in it long enough that I've seen that 18
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year old come back as a 25 year old and you know,
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they have a job and they have money, so
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it all works out. Um
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we're low pressure sales, we want people to
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to really
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love what they have
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and,
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and we find letting people make the decision on their
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own with our help is something that really works well.
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We're passionate about design obviously and we really care
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about helping customers and create a sense of home.
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So the stakeholders or other trees,
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um, our main users, um I've been calling them nesters recently,
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but there's a few subgroups, um calling them empty nesters,
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new nesters and just people on the move.
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Um, so the empty nesters are the older segment there in that kind of
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60 plus or 55 plus
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age bracket.
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And oftentimes they are downsizing, sometimes they are moving to their dream home,
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but there's generally no kids left in the house and it's
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just a couple that is free to do what they want.
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Um,
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and they often,
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you know, are in a good financial position to
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spend money on the higher quality items
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and that chesterfield cells,
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New Nesters are a little bit different. They're kind of 25-55
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and they are often embarking on their first kind of like
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home interior design projects where they've somewhere along the way,
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had a passion for interior designs ignited in them
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and they're fulfilling that for the first time.
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Um they're really taking pride in their home
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and oftentimes it's their first apartment or first home that they bought.
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Uh, then there's also just people on the move.
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Um, there's a lot of new people moving to Vancouver island, especially Nanaimo,
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and I think that I've always had about a
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10% population growth over the past five years.
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And
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all signs show that that is going to continue
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for internal stakeholders.
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We've got my partners,
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I've got two other partners and we've got employees at the moment.
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We've got two employees, but a location in Nanaimo would
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Required at least two more I think, and possibly three.
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Um
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for external stakeholders, we've got our furniture suppliers,
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which are really important partners for us.
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Um we've got our delivery companies that actually take
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the product from our warehouse into the customer's home.
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We've got freight companies
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that bring the product from the manufacturer's warehouse
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to us here in
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Vancouver Island,
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of course, you've got the landlord,
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um
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and then other kind of adjacent businesses,
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architects and interior designs often specify products from furniture stores.
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So it's important that we reach out to them and make sure
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we're aware of each other and see if there's ways that we can help each other.
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And finally, of course, there's the competitors.
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So
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um, Nanaimo
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does have plenty of furniture stores.
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I don't think there's anything quite like
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chesterfields or else we wouldn't go there.
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Um
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but I think we can find a unique place amongst them.
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And then for the the greater the external ones,
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there's the city of Nanaimo of course,
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and the general public out there in the city of Nanaimo
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seems to be on a good track with their new mayor.
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Um
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Looking at the history of Nanaimo or the recent history,
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it seems like that is quite chaotic
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& Dysfunctional Council for about 10 years. Um
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Since the new mayor has been in place,
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it sounds like it's been a lot steadier and there's
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been lots of growth and they are looking for investment.
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So a bit more on chesterfields ideal customers I mentioned
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on the previous slide um kind of the age groups um
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but a bit more about them and more about how
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they relate to the problem that we want to solve.
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Um
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I've reached out to a few people that I would
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say our definite um candidates for being chesterfields customer.
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Um These are people in and I'm Nanaimo who have moved their either recently
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or have lived there for a while but have acquired a new home.
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Um And I have asked them questions about what
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they go through when they are searching for a
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piece of furniture or they know that they have to furnish a new home
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and of course everybody goes to the internet first,
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they do look around at the stores
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that are there,
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but the ones that I talked to
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find that there's a bit of a gap for
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high quality
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and modern furniture
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and that is the gap that we want to fill.
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Um And this applies to the empty nesters and the new nestor's
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um Empty nesters are more likely to do a home completely filled.
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Um Starting from nothing but new nesters are more likely to start out with say a sofa.
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Um And then they'll kind of add a few pieces as they go.
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The interesting thing about Nanaimo and his demographics is that
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for the first time in a very long time,
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their
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largest
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age group for growth is that new nestor's age group.
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Uh huh.
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This age group is particularly interesting because maybe they
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don't spend as much all in one go,
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But
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they could be repeat customers for quite a long time.
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So if you imagine someone who's 25 and got their
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first condo and they won their first really nice sofa.
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You know, they may have that for six or seven years
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and get married
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and move into a new house and if they've had a
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good experience once hopefully they will keep coming back again.
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Um I have seen this happen at Chesterfield's in victoria and
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I do think it would happen in Nanaimo as well.
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So the new nesters can be very valuable customers over a long period of time.
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So keeping them happy and making them have a
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good experience from the first time you meet.
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It is a great idea.
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Alright, so a little bit of better competitors.
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Um The landscape in Nanaimo is kind of full of
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big box stores and kind of chain stores
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sort of like urban barn lazy boy.
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And these all have their um certain appeal.
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Um But I think chesterfield is a bit more personal
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and has a higher quality product.
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Um Hartman and Coat is an interesting company that's been
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around in Nanaimo since 1967 and they're locally owned,
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they do some of their own upholstery
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and do some, they worked with a couple of manufacturers to
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um but their look is definitely a little bit more
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traditional and we're aiming for something a little bit more modern
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and of course there is Article dot com,
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Article is a online only retailer and they definitely appeal to
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a lot of the people that we are aiming at.
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But one of the disadvantages that we think we can, you know out form
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on them is having an actual showroom.
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So
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we have a website which supports the showroom
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and the idea behind the website is people can
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get pricing and see the stuff they want to see from the comfort of their home,
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but then they can actually come into the showroom and
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touch it and feel it and sit on it.
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Um
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Online shopping is great but it's still really hard to pick a sofa like that.
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Alright, so storms um
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The things that I'm
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sort of worried about is the state of the
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economy and the inflation that is happening right now.
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Um
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It is a little bit worrisome to see the interest rates go up and I'm worried
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that it might impact people's buying power when
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it comes to larger purchases like furniture.
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Um
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The economy still seems to be doing fine and hopefully the inflation won't go too
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high and hopefully the rising interest interests
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will kind of stifle that a little bit
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but it's certainly something to be aware of.
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So um when we think about the cacti or other models um One
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of the things that um I am concerned with it would be just um
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the population and I'm not completely responding to
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the kind of high end modern furniture.
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Um And a little bit weird that some part of the demographic might find it,
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you know high end and pretentious.
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Um You know also the younger demographic may be more inclined to just buy online.
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Ah That is something that obviously we want to compete with.
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But something like article is very very good at.
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Um So catching up to that may be difficult for us.
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Um Some customers may prefer to stick with the tried and true local companies.
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Um Hartman and Co.
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Is a great example of this and they obviously have quite a lot of longevity so it'll be
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interesting to see how we can fit in next to them and um I'm always happy to send people
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to other businesses if I feel they're better suited for it. So
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maybe that'll work for us.
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All right now the roots.
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Um Speaking with real people, it's been a great insight for me.
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Um Even talking to people just about Nanaimo,
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fuck me