The
headline in the local business press seemed ominous: Flooring Retailer Shuts 5
Stores, Lays Off 25. News of this sort
can be unsettling to retailers who run much smaller operations. If an
eight-store flooring chain with nearly $20 million in sales is floundering,
where does that leave the single-store mom and pop shop? Many specialty store
retailers seeing news like this will undoubtedly take a hard look at their
balance sheet. Is it time, they may ask, to cut prices, lay off staff and talk
to the kids about the virtues of community college?