No honest, we maintain everything else really well

When I was in the "rag trade" (wholesale garment business) there were a couple of lines that we told to our customers. If the samples were a bit lacking in quality the story was, "It's only a sample, production will be much better". If, on the other hand, the samples were great we'd tell the retailers that, "Production will be just as good".

I don't know how many of the retailers bought these stories. The reality was that the samples were usually a pretty good indicator of the quality of the finished goods.

Lots of other businesses also "telegraph" their quality to customers and prospective customers. Movie studios use the trailer, which can either be a teaser to get you to come and see the movie, or give away the entire plot and include the best scenes and all of the good jokes.

For retailers, a sign outside their premises tell the public what to expect inside. But what if the sign is just about falling over and obviously in need of maintenance.

Earlier this week I saw this sign in front of a Jugo Juice location in downtown Vancouver. The obvious lean on the sign does not give me a lot of confidence about the level of quality in the shop. Will it stop from being a customer? Well, no. I am not really a juice shop sort of guy. But it may affect other people. (And yes, I did look at the sign holder and the angle is not a funky design, the base of the sign holder is coming loose.)

These days can any retailer really afford to send a negative message to their prospective customers? Not if they want to stay a retailer, and not end up as a statistic.