This blog rarely gets political, but a new retail-related bill that passed a House of Representatives vote last week is worth your attention.

According to an article in The New York Times, the Energy and Tax Extenders Act of 2008 would let retailers write off their remodeling costs over 15 years instead of the current 39 years. The bill would apply whether you owned or leased your retail space.

I’m on the side of the National Retail Federation (NRF) on this, and I encourage you to support the bill as well. As the NRF says, “the shorter period will help boost the economy by encouraging more store and restaurant owners to re-invest in their businesses.” The bill also would provide tax incentives for those retailers who go green, which is even more reason to get behind it.

The Senate is supposed to consider the measure next week. If you agree that its passage is a great way to assist retailers and stimulate the economy, contact your state senator’s office to let them know how you feel. It’s easy to do on the Senate’s web page that provides links to each senator’s “contact me” page. Just fill in the form fields and off your message goes. Democracy in action, courtesy of the Internet Age.

I’ll be watching the news next week to see how the bill fares. If you’ve ever wondered about how you senator feels about your business, this is the time to find out. And all it takes is a few clicks of your mouse.

Apple keeps topping itself in the retail arena. They just opened their biggest store anywhere, this time in Boston, according to Boston.com (free registration may be required). When you can get the mayor and news crews to attend a media preview, I would say you’ve done a great job.

I’ve been to the Apple stores in San Diego, San Francisco and Los Angeles, but it looks like the Boston space outdoes them all at 20,000 square feet. The circular see-through staircase is a real eye-popper. On the third level, Apple seals the deal for me with an entire floor devoted to customer support and education, mostly at no cost.

The article’s author points out that only a primarily single-brand store can afford to offer such intense attention to customers. The big-box stores can’t because their staff would need to be educated in many brands, and couldn’t appear to push one brand over another.

How can you apply so much customer-focused attention in your store? Even though you’re not the size of an Apple Store, you can train your staff to really know the merchandise, and to be really helpful. In San Diego, I’ve been to the lesser-known Sony Style store in the same mall as an Apple Store. While the products at Sony Style range from MP3 players to laptops to HDTVs, the sales floor was nearly devoid of customers each time I visited. The sales staff was hardly as enthusiastic as Apple’s, and I left feeling I hadn’t enjoyed the greatest customer experience.

Don’t let that happen in your store. A little education on product and customer service can go a long way. Look where that took Apple. I can hardly wait to see what they do to outshine the Boston store.

Thinking of relocating your store or opening a new one? If you live in a typical U.S. city, take a look at the neighborhoods where consumers are deciding to live. There’s Lincoln Park in Chicago, SoHo in New York and East Village in San Diego. More and more, it seems like residents want easy access to shopping.

Civic officials in Hilltown, Pennsylvania, are studying whether to allow a mix of commercial, residential and retail in an area that would look like more like a 19th century village. Retailers in downtown Syracuse, New York, are eagerly awaiting new housing that will bring more customers who like to walk to shopping from home.

While suburban living is far from dead, the high cost of commuting is causing many empty-nesters and baby boomers to reconsider their living situation. A relative of mine used to pay about $375 a month for his 80-mile round-trip commute. Now it’s more like $615. Since he lives near downtown San Diego, he’s considering looking for a job there and moving nearby. Even with the relatively high cost of housing downtown, he figures he can use the gas savings to pay for a new mortgage. Plus he’ll save money on auto upkeep and insurance. That, and he’s looking forward to walking to the new supermarkets and specialty shops popping up all the time.

I encourage my retail customers to analyze the housing trends in their community when it comes to opening or moving a store. Just having low rent isn’t always the best reason to choose a location. Yes, it might cost a little more to move into the heart of the city. But if a significant number of people are moving there as well, your customer base is already off to a good start.

It’s easy to find out where the live/work/shop hot spots are. Set up search agents for “downtown residential,” “retail shopping trends” and similar terms on your daily newspaper’s website. Also check municipalities’ websites for postings about building permits to see where new businesses are heading. You might find yourself among them soon enough.

You recycle at home, take your own shopping bags to the grocery store, and maybe even ride a bike when you would rather drive. At night you sleep soundly wrapped in organic cotton sheets woven on a handloom at a Third World collective farm.

The dangerous side effects of our reliance on petro-energy, pesticides, and non-renewable resources are well documented. Runaway global warming could lead to the deaths of millions by starvation, malaria and a host of other tropical diseases. Pesticides poison groundwater while the rampant clear-cutting of forests tips the first domino in a complicated chain-reaction of environmental degradation only charted by a supercomputer.

The growing awareness of the fallout from environmental damage and pollution has made all of us “greener” consumers, but has it made you a greener retailer? “The small retailer is just starting to discover the benefits of going green,” said Jeff Grant, president and CEO of Trio Display, an internet-based store design and fixture company. (www.triodisplay.com)

“The small retailer is just starting to discover the benefits of going green,” said Jeff Grant.

According to Jeff, there are many ways to integrate green into your store. You can start with your choice of flooring. PET polyester carpet tiles are made from recycled soda bottles and are very durable. Since re-carpeting your store can be prohibitively expensive, and incredibly wasteful (unworn carpet is thrown away along with the worn carpet), by using carpet tiles all you have to do is replace the tiles in the heavy traffic areas. You save resources and money.

Simple changes to lighting can engineer big savings and save our non-renewable resources. Over ninety percent of our nation’s electricity comes from coal, gas, oil, and nuclear plants. By switching to LED or ceramic metal halide bulbs for display lighting you will realize substantial savings over the long run. But direct energy usage isn’t the only way alternative lighting saves. Both LED and CMH burn much cooler than the standard halogen display lighting, which cuts down on air-conditioning costs. Even replacing incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents helps the environment. Some estimate that replacing one incandescent bulb with a compact fluorescent will prevent a half-ton of carbon dioxide, a major culprit in global warming, from entering the environment over the bulb’s lifetime.

Energy and materials conservation in retail also pays marketing dividends. The eco-consumer—and everyone else, is starting realize the environmental consequences of the most seemingly benign purchase and the customer sees value in patronizing “green” businesses. If your business can make authentic claims as a green retailer you’ll have an advantage over your competitors.

As the relationship between our everyday actions and the health of this great big blue planet of ours becomes more and more apparent, the greening of retail only seems natural…and responsible.

Tips for the Green Retailer

1. Buy supplies made from recycled materials–bags, copy paper, etc.
2. Offer re-usable shopping bags with the store logo on them for a nominal cost or on high ticket purchases.
3. Offer a discount to shoppers who bring their own bags.
4. Recycle cardboard packaging.
5. Use dry popped corn as a packing material, and include with the shipped item a note saying it can be reused or spread out for birds to eat.
6. Always ask suppliers if they can use eco-friendly packaging. They probably are not yet, but if more people ask for it, they will see the benefit of offering it.
7. Use creative ideas for gift wrapping. Don’t automatically put a box into another box, and then wrap it. Use original packaging, use a gift bag, maybe reusable ones made from scrap fabrics.
8. Donate old and outdated merchandise to charities rather than destroying it.
9. Ask vendors what materials they will accept for recycling—hangers, crates, etc.
10. Try to offer as many “green” versions of products as possible and make sure to tout this as a feature and benefit.
11. When remodeling ask your contractor to use as much green material as possible, flooring made from sustainable woods, materials made from recycled materials, etc.
12. Install a motion sensor on the light switch in your stockroom.
13. Talk your mall owner or management to buy a baler for cardboard and plastic. The trash can then be sold to pay the cost of the baler.

Stay current and consistent with your green “strategy.” As consumers further embrace the idea, your business and our environment will reap the benefits.

Harvard Business School may not be where you learned how to run your widget shop, but its online Working Knowledge forum pages offer some lessons that can apply to whatever you’re selling.

This particular forum is about something called “deep metaphors,” which are “basic frames or orientations we have toward the world around us.” It’s pretty heady stuff but worth perusing to apply to your business. The authors of Marketing Metaphoria: What Deep Metaphors Reveal about the Minds of Consumers (HBS Press, 2008) say some pretty interesting things about customer loyalty, which is what I’m always harping about. For example:

“Connection is a two-way street, and consumers are most apt to feel loyalty to brands and companies if they feel those in charge have a commitment to them.”

To me, that means you have to show your customers that everyone in your store – from the owner to the newest salesperson – treats them with the courtesy and respect they deserve. You need to look out for their interests by offering the best merchandise at the best price. You also must maintain a regular channel of communication, whether its email blasts, online or print newsletters or occasional phone calls to say you have something on the shelves that may interest them.

“Companies must convey that they have the consumer’s best interest at heart. This is one reason consumers use their perceptions of how firms treat their employees as a proxy for how firms value their customers. As one consumer put it, ‘If they don’t treat their staff well, you can hardly expect them to care about us.’ ”

I’ve blogged frequently the importance of having well-trained staff. But I haven’t said much about how well you treat your staff. If customers see you berating, chastising or interrupting a sales associate for any reason, it makes them wonder about your skill at treating customers. Compliment your staff often for jobs well done; save any criticisms for informal, relaxed post-mortems.

I’m no Harvard professor, but I think the authors of Marketing Metaphoria have some good information for those of us down in the trenches. I would invite their critiques anytime.

When your business faces possible extinction, you better start re-evolving. That’s what Blockbuster Inc. seems to be doing, according to this article in the Dallas Morning News. With killer competition from the likes of Netflix and online movie sites such as Hulu.com, Blockbuster’s chief exec wants his store to become retail destinations—sort of like Borders and Barnes & Noble. I didn’t even realize that “Video” isn’t part of the stores’ name anymore. According to Wikipedia, it was Blockbuster Entertainment for a while, but now it’s just Blockbuster.

With features like kids’ play areas, a tech lounge, soda fountains and gaming consoles, Blockbuster is giving the concept a try at a 12 Dallas-area stores before it rolls them out at all 4,800 in the chain.

At the risk of every big-box retailer becoming a destination, I think Blockbuster is on the right track. At least they’re thinking out of the big box, which could help jumpstart their revival. They’ll have to really set themselves apart from the bookstores mentioned also, which also happen to sell DVDs. The concept-store photo in the article looks pretty much like any consumer electronics store’s interior.

With consumers itching to download movies from the web, Blockbuster will soon start offering an online service for that very purpose. Will that keep consumer traffic from the new stores? That chapter has yet to be written.

I wish Blockbuster all the best with their concept stores. It will be interesting to see if they’re the blockbuster idea their chief executive will be remembered for.

You don’t have to be a Gucci or Tiffany to make customers feel at home. While those high-end stores might offer champagne and caviar to their high-end customers, you can do perfectly fine with cookies and coffee.

Improving the customer experience should begin with a good look at your customer base. Let’s say you own a greeting card-and-gifts shop. You find a lot of young mothers with small children come in but tend to leave early because the kids start acting up. Do what stores like Barnes & Noble do. Set up a play area with a toy train town. Put it within site of the cash wrap so you and your sales staff can always keep an eye on the kids if the mother can’t. Make her feel secure that her little ones are always being monitored. And be sure to glue the tracks and accessories to the table so they don’t go flying around the store. Now Mom has more time to browse and buy.

It all boils down to keeping your customers engaged. Investing in things like TVs and Wi-Fi shows them that you care about their comfort, and that you’re tuned in to their lifestyle.

Visit an Apple store to see how kids have their own games area: Macs on a low table with pillows for seats and oversized mice to make it easy for little hands to navigate. Some Gymboree stores play DVDs of the latest kids’ movies, with tot-size chairs and TVs on low tables. It’s all in the back of the store, again so Mom knows where the kids are at all times. You say you can’t afford new Macs or PCs? Sure you can! Check on Craigslist.com for used machines that have enough memory to run kids’ games.

Since men are noticeably less comfortable in a women’s clothing store than vice versa, it should be easy to keep them from fidgeting—and in a more receptive mood for paying for her wardrobe! Let them know you have free Wi-Fi so they can log in while she dresses up. Promote it in your ads, emails and even with a sticker on your store windows. For those who don’t tote their laptops everywhere, set up an internet station so they can surf on your turf. Again, check around for used machines if your budget doesn’t allow for new ones.

Consider installing a gaming console with earphones so as not to bother other customers. Install cable or satellite TV so the monitor can double as an entertainment center. Keep it tuned to ESPN or CNN so guys feel like they’re not missing anything. A refrigerator stocked with soft drinks, juices and water bottles will keep guys and gals hydrated. Free snacks like cookies, pretzels and mini-candies show them you’re hungry for their business.

Speaking of TVs, with so many flat-screen versions available, you can now put small TVs in or near dressing rooms, and larger TVs in waiting areas. If you can get HDTV, so much the better.

If you can’t afford any of the above, at least provide current issues of magazines that interest your customers. Nothing turns them off more than a 5-year-old copy of National Geographic or even a 2-month-old People. And don’t let daily newspapers accumulate around waiting areas. They look messy, so customers will think your store is messy as well.

It all boils down to keeping your customers engaged. Investing in things like TVs and Wi-Fi shows them that you care about their comfort, and that you’re tuned in to their lifestyle. They will thank you with great word-of-mouth and reward you with long-term loyalty—two things that, in this case, money can buy.

I like this article for two reasons: It’s a great story about how the couple found a retail niche and stuck with it, and it’s a story that generated news about the business.

The store stocks things like table lamps made from tripods and other pieces fashioned from sturdy, leftover items found in old foundries, factories and farms. It built a reputation for offering well-made, eclectic furnishings. It has moved to larger locations twice since its inception, now encompassing 12,000 square feet of floor space. The store and its products have also earned a nice reputation in the community.

The owners were able to capitalize on the place’s popularity by convincing The Columbus Dispatch to write an article about it. What’s great is that the owners were able to provide customers for the writer to interview, all of whom talked about how happy they are with what they bought from the store.

Not only that, but the story has some great news hooks as well: The owners are high-school sweethearts who first met in kindergarten. Each item sold has its own distinctive serial number. The store is promoted as “where the Corn Belt embraces the Rust Belt.” Robert De Niro bought a table there for his new hotel in New York City.

These are the kinds of things that interest reporters and editors. All it takes is for an owner to recognize the things that turn a store into a story. If you advertise in the local media, let your ad rep know that you’d really like to see your store covered as a successful or interesting business (avoid advertorials as they have less credibility). If you don’t advertise with them, craft a short, well-written email/voicemail/phone script about your place. Find out who covers local businesses, then call or mail them. You often can find their contact information at the end of an article online or in print.

It might take a while for you to find the right words to tell the right editor at the right time. But keep at it. Sooner or later, they’re going to see that you have “the write stuff.”