Misunderstanding the Unconventional Trader

“I don’t want any more customers!” 

This was the beginning of the conversation that completely changed how I thought about small business. I was months into overseeing an intensive retail recovery project in regional Victoria, with a community of traders who were considered particularly “hard to reach.” I was standing on the street chatting to one of the local project participants when another trader approached to join in the conversation. I knew his business; it was a big rambling second hand and curio shop, packed full of personality, but which by most objective measures would also be described as marginal and struggling. In fact he was exactly the sort of trader our program was trying to help. The participating trader gave him a run down of why he might want to be involved;  free promotion, attracting customers, building skills etc. He listened politely, cocking his head to one side and then, once she finished, he proclaimed at the top of his voice that he just wasn’t interested in more customers, thanking you very much. 

I was taken aback. Myself, our team at Hello City, our collaborators and Council had spent months designing, creating and delivering retail infrastructure and activations to help do exactly what this trader was telling us he didn't want; more customers. In that moment other comments and conversations we’d had with traders in the region crystallised to form an overall picture. Retail traders with bricks and mortar stores had told our team that they “weren’t really a business, they were just selling their collection”, we found traders who didn’t have email addresses, never answered their phones, had handwritten notes in their windows with opening hours that were rarely honoured.

When designing programs, activations and initiatives we’d been operating on a base set of assumptions about business owners, that they want to grow/promote their business, that they want to make more money and that they want more customers. And while these remain true for most small business owners, there is a subset of businesses with different priorities. They've been called lifestyle traders and hobbyists, but Hello City have been calling these businesses and others with related characteristics Unconventional Traders.

In our recent work we’ve observed that Unconventional Traders are likely to demonstrate one or more of the following characteristics:

• Not profit-oriented, may not seek to earn a living wage from the business
• Non-monetary returns are prioritised, such as social connection, building and sharing a collection, contributing to the community and quality of experience
• Quality of life, family, social and other personal or professional commitments are prioritised over consistent/optimal opening hours and other aspects of operation
• Customer-base is narrow, there is often no desire to promote their retail activities to a broader base. 
• Typically single-operator businesses, or staffed by volunteers, friends and family. The unconventional business is sometimes a retail/service element connected to a more conventional main business. The retail may be run by employees whose main focus in on non-retail aspects of the business
• Traders prioritise minimising day-to-day running costs over optimal business operation, overheads are often low. Traders either own their building or rely on cheap rent
• Operating processes and procedures are as simple as possible, may not be in compliance with all local and state regulations and by-laws

Some of the most charming, story-worthy retail experiences I’ve had are in the shops of these types of traders. The secondhand bookstore where you are offered coffee by an open fire, the antique wall clock repair shop where the owner firmly informs  you that many of the clocks are ‘not for sale’, the bric-a-brac store where you can’t actually find the owner to buy anything. These experiences are a world away from slick generic chain stores and big box retail, operating in a different orbit from the Apple Genius Bars and H&Ms of the world.  They’re relational rather than transactional.

As a group, Unconventional Traders are largely invisible in standard retail analysis and strategy development, and when they are seen, they’re often treated like they are a problem. Although they make a critical contribution to culture and social capital, their role in the overall economy and culture is too often misunderstood. They are seen as non compliant, “hard to reach”, non-participatory, unprofessional and unmotivated. Words and phrases like ‘low capacity’ are used broadly to describe them. But when we zoom out and shift the framework we use to understand these traders, we can begin to recognise their strengths and what they contribute broadly to the economy and community in terms of activity, culture, social connectedness and the overall experience and value of a place.

The risk of continuing to misunderstand and sideline this cohort of Unconventional Traders is that they are highly vulnerable to forces of gentrification and rising rate and rent costs.  If these businesses are pushed out; their social capital, character, point of difference and stories will go with them. This loss will have a significant impact on the economy and culture of regional Australia, in much the same way as  when artists and musicians are priced out of suburbs they have made famous such as Fitzroy and Collingwood.

How can we as a community of local and state government, consultants, strategists and business associations understand these types of traders better? How do we better understand their contribution to their communities and mainstreet ecosystems? How do we design programs, initiatives and regional events that include them? How do we bring them into the conversation?

It feels like there has never been a more important time to get our collective heads around the strengths and challenges of Unconventional Traders, with pressures from increasing land values and costs while gearing up for post pandemic events such as the upcoming Commonwealth Games.

Hello City have been enjoying ourselves picking the brains of our friends and colleagues on this subject.  A big thank you to Merryn Tinkler from Mt. Alexander Shire Council, Jacqueline Brodie-Hanns from Business Mt. Alexander, Liz Joldeski from Mainstreet Australia and Jayde Hayes from City of Knox and all the other brilliant and experienced people who have shared their thoughts and ideas so far. We’d love it if this post opened the doors for an even bigger conversation!

What are your experiences with working with or being an Unconventional Trader? What initiatives, theories or strategies are successfully supporting and protecting this cohort? How might we better understand and harness the power of Unconventional Traders in our cities, towns and villages?