The Retail Apocalypse...and...A Poem about Retail called "The Little Boutique That Lost Her Chic"

SAN MATEO, Calif. - EntSun -- Attention Business Editor: For Small Business Week (#NSBW #SmallBusinessWeek) and all throughout the year, when you do any stories about the state of retail and "The Retail Apocalypse," and the state (and fate) of small businesses, here is something that might add some interesting perspective to some of those stories. It's a poem called "The Little Boutique that lost her Chic." It's by Robert Barrows, President of an advertising agency called R.M. Barrows Advertising and Public Relations in San Mateo, California.

Barrows wrote the poem in 1978. At that time, the problem for small retail was competing with big retail. Now the problem for small retail, and even big retail, is competing with the web.

Here is the poem:

"THE LITTLE BOUTIQUE THAT LOST HER CHIC"
Copyright 1978 by Robert M. Barrows

Once upon a time on a very fancy street
lived a lovely little store with
a lot of hand-made clothes.

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Shoppers came from all around
to see the latest styles, until one day
a department store arrived and
you couldn't find a customer for miles.

Well the little boutique was quite dismayed
when no one bought what she displayed,
so she dropped the hand-made lines
and tried out all the styles of France
to see if she could sell Romance,
but you haven't got a chance when the
big department store next door just
drops their pants and quality takes
second place to price.

So the little store was all alone,
the future looking pretty bleak....

(Department store villain):  "Poor little boutique,
she's lost her chic. Now's my chance to buy them.
I'll build a great store and charge even more, and
urge all my customers to try them.
No telling the kind of profits I'll reap
when I buy in great volume and
say I'll 'sell cheap.'

The goods they don't last.
The fashions change fast, so they'll
come back for more, just
waving their checkbooks in front of my door.

Pity the others who just can't compete.
No wonder I own all the stores on the street."
###

Barrows has also written some other poems with a business theme. One of those poems is called "It used to be Made in America." You can see the poem in a book that Barrows wrote called "Crazy Robert's Poems and Potential Song Lyrics" that you can download for a dollar on Amazon.