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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2017
Small retailers aim for emotional ties big chains may lack
By JOYCE M.
ROSENBERG
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Some
smaller retailers will tug at
shoppers’ heartstrings during
the holidays, trying to create
an emotional experience or
connection that a big national
chain might not provide.
Store owners are going
well beyond the usual holiday
decorations and music. Among
their plans: Parties where the
focus is fundraising rather than
profits, events with other stores
to encourage shoppers to visit
them all, and personal services
like merchandise deliveries.
The retailers are betting that
their efforts — which for some
are a year-round strategy —
will keep customers shopping
long after the holiday season.
John Dudas, who co-owns
Carol & John’s Comic Book
Shop in Cleveland, partici-
pated Saturday in Local Comic
Shop Day, which he calls the
comic book industry’s equiv-
alent of Black Friday. People
lined up outside the store for
limited-edition comics, and
had a great time while they
waited.
“They get to hang out
with like-minded people,”
says Dudas, who estimates he
made one-and-a-half times the
sales he would see on a good
Saturday.
Creating experiences and an
emotional connection will help
customers feel like they’re get-
ting more value from a retailer
— and that they’re being val-
ued and appreciated in return,
says Syama Meagher, CEO of
the Los Angeles-based con-
sulting firm Scaling Retail.
Small and independent retail-
ers have a greater ability to
create a bond with shoppers
than larger competitors, she
says.
Meagher’s advice for
store owners: “Don’t think
about your customer as some-
one who’s going to buy
something.”
LEFT: John Dudas, owner of Carol and John’s Comic
Book Shop, poses during New Comic Day in Cleveland
on Nov. 8. Some smaller retailers will tug at shoppers’
heartstrings during the holidays, trying to create an emo-
tional experience or connection that a big national chain
might not provide. Dudas recently participated in Local
Comic Shop Day, which he calls the comic book indus-
try’s equivalent of Black Friday. People lined up outside
his store for limited-edition comics, and had a great time
while they waited. ABOVE: Christy Abulaban and Abner
Rondon look over new releases of comic books.
Dudas has more events
planned, including a sale start-
ing on Black Friday during
which he expects to sell 80,000
comic books at $1 each. And
on Dec. 16, he’ll hold a party
with artists drawing pictures
of comic book fans. But Dudas
won’t look for a profit that day
— he’ll be raising funds for a
local charity, something he does
periodically. In September, the
store had a fundraiser in cele-
bration of the 100th anniver-
sary of the birth of Jack Kirby,
co-creator of Captain Amer-
ica. These events help Dudas to
expand his customer base.
“Put yourself into the com-
munity more and the money
will come back to you,” he
says.
Independent retailers in
Portland, Oregon, take part in
Little Boxes, an annual alter-
native to shopping at big-box
national chains that offer big
discounts during the entire
Thanksgiving
weekend.
Started in 2011, Little Boxes
gives shoppers the chance to
win raffle prizes according
to how many purchases they
make at participating stores.
In its first year, there were 90
stores; this year there will be
about 250.
Debbe Hamada, whose
gift shop Tilde is participat-
ing, sees shoppers making an
expedition out of going to Lit-
tle Box stores, using an app
to help them find as many as
possible. Many people want
to support local retailers —
the event overlaps with Small
Business Saturday — and aim
to visit as many as 10 or 20 in
a day, she says.
“It’s a real experience —
people are really happy that
day,” says Hamada, whose
Black Friday sales have risen
between 5 percent and 20 per-
cent each year since Little
Boxes began. The day after
Thanksgiving has gone from
one of the slowest days to one
of biggest days of the season,
she says.
Diane Roth uses service
all year long to create a con-
nection with customers. The
owner of clothing boutique
L’Armoire in New Canaan,
Connecticut, Roth acts as
much a concierge as a retailer.
She’ll allow customers to take
several garments home to try
on — or she’ll send the clothes
to their houses. She’ll open as
early as 5 a.m. so people can
drop off unwanted items on
their way to the nearby com-
muter train station. Customers
send her photos of something
they like, and ask her to find
something similar.
‘Customers
feel like
they’re part
of the story.’
Zachary Quinn
small-business owner
“I have a lot of executive
women customers who don’t
have time,” Roth says. “I’m
like a personal assistant.”
These services have helped
Roth be less dependent on hol-
iday shopping — unlike many
retailers who expect to make
up to half their annual revenue
between Thanksgiving and
Dec. 31. But Roth will have
some events for the holidays,
including bringing in a jeweler
to help customers learn more
about pieces they own, what
Good night, night: Light pollution increasing
By MARCIA DUNN
Associated Press
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.
— The world’s nights are get-
ting alarmingly brighter —
bad news for all sorts of crea-
tures, humans included.
A
German-led
team
reported Wednesday that light
pollution is threatening dark-
ness almost everywhere. Sat-
ellite observations during five
Octobers show Earth’s arti-
ficially lit outdoor area grew
by 2 percent a year from 2012
to 2016. So did nighttime
brightness.
Light pollution is actu-
ally worse than that, accord-
ing to the researchers. Their
measurements coincide with
the outdoor switch to ener-
gy-efficient and cost-sav-
ing light-emitting diodes, or
LEDs. Because the imaging
sensor on the polar-orbiting
weather satellite can’t detect
the LED-generated color blue,
some light is missed.
The observations, for
example, indicate stable lev-
els of night light in the United
States, Netherlands, Spain
and Italy. But light pollution
is almost certainly on the rise
in those countries given this
elusive blue light, said Chris-
topher Kyba of the GFZ Ger-
man Research Center for Geo-
sciences and lead author of
the study published in Science
Advances .
Also on the rise is the spread
of light into the hinterlands
and overall increased use. The
findings shatter the long-held
notion that more energy effi-
cient lighting would decrease
usage on the global — or at
least a national — scale.
“Honestly, I had thought
and assumed and hoped that
NASA’s Earth Observatory/Kyba, GFZ
Photographs of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, taken from the
International Space Station on Dec. 23, 2010, left, where
residential areas are mainly lit by orange sodium lamps;
and on Nov. 27, 2015, right, where many areas on the out-
skirts are newly lit compared to 2010, and many neighbor-
hoods have switched from orange sodium lamps to white
LED lamps.
with LEDs we were turning
the corner. There’s also a lot
more awareness of light pol-
lution,” he told reporters by
phone from Potsdam. “It is
quite disappointing.”
The biological impact from
surging artificial light is also
significant, according to the
researchers.
People’s sleep can be
marred, which in turn can
affect their health. The migra-
tion and reproduction of birds,
fish, amphibians, insects and
bats can be disrupted. Plants
can have abnormally extended
growing periods. And forget
about seeing stars or the Milky
Way, if the trend continues.
About the only places with
dramatic declines in night light
were in areas of conflict like
Syria and Yemen, the research-
ers found. Australia also
reported a noticeable drop,
but that’s because wildfires
were raging early in the study.
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Researchers were unable to fil-
ter out the bright burning light.
Asia, Africa and South
America, for the most part,
saw a surge in artificial night
lighting.
More and more places are
installing outdoor lighting
given its low cost and the over-
all growth in communities’
wealth, the scientists noted.
Urban sprawl is also moving
towns farther out. The out-
skirts of major cities in devel-
oping nations are brighten-
ing quite rapidly, in fact, Kyba
said.
Other especially bright
hot spots: sprawling green-
houses in the Netherlands and
elsewhere.
Photos taken by astronauts
aboard the International Space
Station also illuminate the
growing problem.
Franz Holker of the Leibniz
Institute of Freshwater Ecol-
ogy and Inland Fisheries in
Berlin, a co-author, said things
are at the critical point.
“Many people are using
light at night without really
thinking about the cost,”
Holker said. Not just the eco-
nomic cost, “but also the cost
that you have to pay from an
ecological,
environmental
perspective.”
Kyba and his colleagues
recommend avoiding glar-
ing lamps whenever possi-
ble — choosing amber over
so-called white LEDs — and
using more efficient ways to
illuminate places like parking
lots or city streets. For exam-
ple, dim, closely spaced lights
tend to provide better visibility
than bright lights that are more
spread out.
The International Dark-Sky
Association , based in Tucson,
Arizona, has been highlighting
the hazards of artificial night
light for decades.
2017
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they’re worth and how they
should be worn. She’s also
creating a gift section with col-
lectibles and other merchan-
dise she doesn’t usually carry.
“It gives people another
reason to shop,” Roth says.
Pigment, a gift shop in San
Diego, provides activities for
its shoppers — some tied to its
merchandise, and some just for
the fun of it, operations manager
Tiffany Moore says. It starts
outside the store, where a wall
painted in graduated shades of
pink is a favorite spot for people
to take photos of themselves.
Inside Pigment, there’s a photo
booth where shoppers can take
pictures to immediately post
online. People are having a
good time, and the photos help
increase the store’s social media
presence, Moore says.
“People who are shopping
already notice the photo booth
and say, ‘This is cool,’” she
says. “Others know it exists
because a friend posts a photo
on Instagram and they say, ‘I
want to go to that store.”
On some Saturdays, as
many as 100 people might
get photos taken, Moore says.
Meanwhile, other shoppers
might be potting plants — the
store’s merchandise includes a
large selection of plants, and
customers can select their own
and a container, get free potting
soil and a trowel and create
their own arrangements. Pig-
ment also holds workshops to
teach calligraphy, wreath-mak-
ing and other skills.
Some online retailers look
for ways to create an emo-
tional experience even with-
out a physical location. Love
Your Melon advertises on its
website that it donates half the
profits from its sales of woolen
beanies and other clothing,
and gives surprise gifts to its
big shoppers. The company
donated more than $400,000
from last year’s Thanksgiving
weekend, and this year’s goal
is $1 million, including Cyber
Monday sales, to be given
to pediatric cancer research,
owner Zachary Quinn says.
People posting comments
on the Minneapolis-based com-
pany’s Facebook page mention
that helping children with can-
cer is one reason why they’ve
bought from Love Your Melon.
“Customers feel like they’re
part of the story,” Quinn says.
SELF-HELP GROUPS
Al-Anon (Astoria) — 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Peace Lutheran Church,
565 12th St.; 12 p.m. Wednesday,
First United Methodist Church,
1076 Franklin Ave. For informa-
tion, call 503-325-1087; 7 p.m.
Thursday, Crossroads Commu-
nity Church, 40618 Old Highway
30, Svensen. For information, call
503-458-6467.
Al-Anon (Clatskanie) — 8
p.m. Monday, Faith Lutheran
Church, 1010 N.E. Fifth St.,
Clatskanie. For information, call
503-728-3351.
Al-Anon (Nehalem) — 7 p.m.
Monday, Riverbend Room, North
County Recreation District, 36155
Ninth St. For information, call 503-
368-8255.
Alcoholics
Anonymous
— To find a meeting in Clatsop
County, call 971-601-9220, in
Tillamook County, call 503-739-
4856, or go to www.aa-oregon.org
Celebrate Recovery — 6
p.m. Thursday, The Table Church,
852 Broadway, Seaside. Faith-
based 12-step program designed
to help anyone struggling with
hurts, habits and hangups, in-
cluding drugs and alcohol, anger,
co-dependence, domestic abuse
or sex, food or pornography ad-
dictions. Being religious not re-
quired. Free dinner and child care
provided. For information, call
D.B. Lewis at 503-741-5977.
Men’s Sexual Purity Recov-
ery Group — Tuesday nights.
Part of the Pure Life Alliance
(www.purelifealliance.org)
in
Portland. For information, call
the confidential voice mail at 503-
750-0817 and leave a message.
TOPS (Take Off Pounds
Sensibly) (Astoria) — 5 p.m.
weigh-in, 5:30 p.m. meeting Tues-
day, First Lutheran Church, 725
33rd St. For information, call Tri-
sha Hayrynen at 503-298-9058.
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