Convergent Evolution in Retail
I used to work in Woodley, a small town on the outskirts of Reading in the UK. The town center has a pub, a café, a newsagent, etc. It also had something truly remarkable – two shops that combined fabric and general haberdashery with pet supplies.
I never found out exactly how this came to be. I imagine that there was a fabric shop and a pet shop. The fabric shop was struggling and decided to start selling some dog food. The pet shop responded in kind. Both businesses ended up with no real focus, chasing the competition instead of doing one thing really, really well.
Either that or there was a really messy divorce…
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(Published to the Fediverse as: Convergent Evolution in Retail #marketing #woodley #reading A brief tale of two stores that sell both haberdashery and pet food in Woodley, Berkshire, United Kingdom. )