In a Sacramento Bee story entitled Changing economy brings end to retailer’s 27-year-old toy story, Rita McGrath was quoted as to the closing of a long-time toy store.
“The spending slowdown is particularly hard for mom-and-pop retailers,” said Rita Gunther McGrath, a business professor at Columbia University in New York City.
“Take whatever pain the big players are experiencing and multiply it for small players,” McGrath said. “They have far less room to maneuver than a big store, far fewer assets and fewer options in case one line of business starts to fade. And their costs make it hard to match large players on price.”