Optimism in business may not always be the best way to make plans.
A local supermarket decided to put in a coffee shop within their store. They made a partnership with Tully’s (http://www NULL.tullys NULL.com/), a coffee company based in Vermont. The coffee was fine. However, the location was not. Another very similar coffee shop opened in the same exact spot a few years before – and closed after about a year.
What made the supermarket decision-makers think that Tully’s would be different? I’m not sure. I suspect it was a sense of optimism. I didn’t want to say, “I told you so,” when the Tully’s shop closed. I knew it close as soon as I saw them opening the shop, maybe two years before.
The moral of the story? Think hard about why something failed. Ask all the players who were involved that you can find. Don’t repeat their mistake. Learn from that mistake and do something differently – not the same.
We have a restaurant in a really weird location in town. It’s HUGE inside with a big outdoor patio. It’s been 3 different incarnations in the 5 years we have lived here. I am not sure why no one has clued in yet. It’s just not gonna happen at that spot unless they figure out some way to overcome the location issue.
I’ve seen that happen over and over. It always makes me wonder…