Lunch Duty Rap - Week 2, War of the Gift Shops

It never fails that what ultimately saves my magazines is the ever-present and vicious competition among local consignment shops in Tifton.

It was drilled into me over and over in my economics classes that competition is good for local economies. Of course, there's all kinds of data to prove it. I've always understood it from a consumer's point of view. More competition means better prices for consumers and less chance of the formation of monopolizing and price-controlling businesses. But I never thought about how beneficial competition is for local advertising, as well.

Tifton has an abundance of small consignment stores, or gift shops, spread throughout the area. They specialize in Vera Bradley, host bridal registries and sell myriad interior decorating essentials. I can think of at least six stores off the top of my head, but I know there are many, many more. Currently, all six of those stores advertise with me and continue to advertise. Know why? They all secretly, or not-so-secretly, want to best each other.

When I started working on the magazines, only three of the shops advertised with me. As an experiment, I presented my magazines to another store and slyly mentioned the fact that some of the other shops were advertising with me. Immediately, the shop bought the back page to two of my magazines, our most expensive positions. Score one for Kelly.

Today, I visited another gift shop and the owner agreed to start advertising and get in on the action, also giving me the lowdown on all of the other shops she's in competition with, a.k.a. ammunition for future sales.

So without the graphs and microeconomic equations, I can personally vouch for the fact that competition is good not only for consumers but also for advertising. And we need all the economic stimuli we can get, even if it means getting my hands a little dirty in some small-town drama.