jwurunner - 4:56 pm on Dec 3, 2011 (gmt 0)

The solution is to sell things that the others including all your competitors and Google and Amazon, Wal-Mart, Sears, Costco, Home Depot etc can't get.. Or that they don't want to get involved with, or are so unique / unusual that the others leave the niche* to you.. *One can make great deal of money by being in / manufacturing / selling / providing, "niche" products and or services..

Unfortunately, it isn't as easy as that. There are a limited amount of products in our industry and it has matured to the point where most new innovative products fail. Customers are not looking for new items. The 90% of stuff that everyone carries are sold in support of the 10% that require a well trained staff. Our issue is we get the 10% but then the customer goes and buys the rest from the big box sites.
One of issue that upsets us the most, is we actually do more volume then the some of the big box sites but they pay significantly less cause of who they are. We also need the product more than the supplier needs us and they know it.
Now with Google playing their new game, it is only going to be harder for us smaller guys to survive.