This document discusses the importance of sustainability and corporate social responsibility for retailers. It argues that retailers must focus on sustainability to serve customers and foster growth. Examples provided include a clothing company that recycles used clothing and retailers collaborating to share space in shopping centers. The document stresses that retailers should enhance their local community to create a welcoming environment and increase opportunities for success.

1. Assignment 4_04 Be Welcome to Your Community
Part of being alive is consuming. We can’t help ourselves, we were built this way.
We must eat, stay warm and have a safe environment to sleep. This is nature, this is
being human. In the beginning, people gathered what was needed from nearby to
meet these basic survival requirements. For our modern world of villages, towns and
cities, retailing has become the conduit of keeping people alive when separated from
the rest of nature. Retail stores are today’s watering holes.
A modern watering hole must still be centralized to serve the most people, well
organized, to prevent contamination, and sustainable to foster an inevitable growth. A
balanced retail operation must give identical focus to all three of these responsibilities to
those it serves; however, for a discussion on “Corporate Social Responsibility” (CSR) in
retailing, I would like to focus on sustainability. Without CSR, there is no sustainability.
With CSR established as a pillar of your enterprise, there are both conscious and
subconscious efforts performed at every level of a retailing operation to reduce waste,
overspending, and even highlight areas for repurpose.
My favorite example of repurposing in the fashion retailing business is “Twillory”. [1]
“CareerGear, your re-purposed clothing will help the jobless, homeless and disaster
stricken, both at home and abroad. Past seasons’ wardrobe can go a long way, because
poverty knows no seasons.” This is not just an opportunity to help others dress for their
success, it also opens up room in the donators’ closet to refresh their look. A terrific way
to encourage sharing and fresh visits to your watering hole to sustain traffic.
This is not an idea unique to this newcomer brand, according to “The Guardian” most
non-blended fibers are easily recyclable. When finding inventory place special attention
to locating suppliers of fashions designed using 100% cotton or wool. These fibers are
the easiest recycled. Spandex is the enemy of conscious sustainability, [2] “...the
greatest challenges for textile recycling (is) finding a way to separate blended fibre
materials so they can be recycled according to their own system. It’s this difficulty that
means a T-shirt that’s 99% cotton and 1% spandex can’t be saved from landfill today.”
Planning for physical growth is another essential part of sustainable retailing. [3]
“...the retail industry accounts for about 11.7% of U.S. employment. Annual retail trade
employment averaged 14.9 million people in 2003...” Even the newest retailing
endeavor can quickly outgrow its surroundings with [4] “Great product, proximity,
effective advertising, and relationships (effective floor behavior).” “...collaboratively and
creatively break down empty [sic] big spaces into neighborhood colonnades.” Research
the community and find complementary, non-competing “neighbors” to enhance your
watering hole as a destination. If you offer formal dress, seek out a casual style retailer
or a foundations/shaper brand to help utilized the abandoned space. A care-filled
choice will be both an instrument for networking with like-minded entrepreneurs and the
community.

2. A new store both builds and joins a community. Joining a community infers the
business will enhance the community. Enhancement may not guarantee success; but
goes a long way to ensuring positive feelings about your presence create a welcoming
rather than a fear of your arrival. [5] “Retailing is selling.” “Retailing is shopping.”
This community contains your customers and every effort you make to accommodate
and enhance increases the opportunity for success. Whether the goal is choice or
exclusivity; it will be convenience, friendliness, and accessibility to my watering hole that
helps smooth the way to my becoming the next retailing winner.
[1] See Copyright 2015 Twillory, Retrieved from: http://www.twillory.com/repurpose/
[2] See February 26, 2015 “The Guardian” “Waste is so last season: recycling clothes in
the fashion industry,” by Hannah Gould, Retrieved from: http://www.theguardian.com/
sustainable-business/sustainable-fashion-blog/2015/feb/26/waste-recycling-textiles-
fashion-industry
[3] From “Retailing in the 21st Century,” by Chris Thomas and Rick Segel, p.1
Copyright 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
[4] See January 18, 2015 “Clothing Colonnades for 2015,” by Diana Dendy, Retrieved
from: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/clothing-colonnades-2015-diana-dendy
[5] From “Retailing in the 21st Century,” by Chris Thomas and Rick Segel, p.4
Copyright 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.