How about closing down your business for a few hours so you and your staff can go spend their money with a direct competitor?
That’s what the owner of a Durham, North Carolina BBQ restaurant, The Original Q Shack, decided to do last week. Staff from about a dozen other restaurants also came. Their destination was another Durham restaurant, Bullock’s BBQ. The announced reason was to help out a respected colleague who had suffered a business setback: After Bullock’s food came under suspicion of causing salmonella poisoning a few weeks ago, business dropped about 80%.
Not far behind the announced reason was another motivation: Protect the image of Durham restaurants at a time when people are again getting financially comfortable with eating out. The Bullock’s event was organized by the marketing director of the Durham Convention and Visitors Bureau. He’s a former restaurant operator himself.
I’ve seen reports of the event in three newspapers and on the websites of two TV stations. People learned that Bullock’s has been in business for well over half a century, is operated by the son of the founder, has never received a food sanitation grade lower than A, and has hosted celebrities like Dolly Parton, Garth Brooks, Kris Kristofferson, and quite recently, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. The message was clear: Durham dining is good enough for all these people, so it’s good enough for you, your family, and your friends.
If the misfortunes of a competitor are due to incompetence or evil, distance yourself and show you are a responsible, conscientious retailer. When those misfortunes are due to circumstances outside the control of your competitor, it’s ethically right to help them out. And when it’s a matter of heading off dangers to your retailing image, helping out the competition is also good business.
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