Closure of longtime shops in Oklahoma City metro area leaves customers yearning for their favorites
Retail
STEVE LACKMEYER
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Published: July 26, 2009
For weeks after it closed, patrons of Taylor’s Newsstand went to the front door hoping it would open. And when Uncommon Grounds Coffee shop closed in Bricktown, some longtime customers simply went out and bought their own coffee makers.
Jennifer McCollum outside the closed Dunkin' Donuts at Classen and NW 32 in Oklahoma City Friday, July 24, 2009. Photo by Paul B. Southerland
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‘We are creatures of habit’
Vince Orza, dean of the school of business at Oklahoma City University, understands the community’s sense of loss well. The former owner of Garfield’s still is approached by people asking about the restaurants he sold a few years ago, which then disappeared from central Oklahoma.
"We are creatures of habit,” Orza said. "If you go shopping at the mall, you park in the same space and go through the same door over and over again. And if you shopped at TG&Y, you shopped there every week until it disappeared.”
Such loyalty ironically can lead to a business’ downfall.
Orza recalls a time years ago when the now-defunct Chi-Chi’s restaurant chain asked him to do a study on why customers were visiting less often.
Customers responded they liked "the No. 3.” But then they explained they came less often because the restaurants never changed, Orza said. When the customers were asked whether they liked the new menu item, "the No. 6,” they replied "no” — they liked "the No. 3.”
"It’s a Catch-22,” Orza said. "People like what you have. But they stop coming because they don’t try anything new.”
Changing tastes from one generation to another often doom beloved businesses, Orza said, but generational shifts also keep some brands thriving for decades.
General Motors, he notes, was once the standard with American car buyers.
"You had GM families, and they bought GM over and over again,” Orza said. "Finally, for some reason, one person tries another kind of vehicle. Typically it’s the kid, and they buy a Honda. And then their parents try a Honda, and the switch is made.”
But then there’s the "grandparent” factor: Orza notes that parents might not buy their kids a lot of Hershey bars, but grandparents do, managing to keep the brand healthy for more than a century.
"Their slogan is and was the ‘great American chocolate bar.’ At a time when you get chocolate from anywhere, it’s still huge, handed down generation to generation.”
How to stay successful
Similar success stories have kept Levi’s jeans, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s alive and well.
The trick, Orza said, is for a business to figure out how to change — yet maintain customer loyalty.
"With Kentucky Fried Chicken, it was a name change to KFC when people decided fried was not so good,” Orza said. "But they’re still making their money selling fried chicken.”
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