Many merchants and Main Street associations are adding Pinterest to their growing list of social media must-dos. We think this is right and encourage businesses to take advantage of every channel they can to find new customers, but we also want you to know that we consciously designed Main and Me to support local independent … Continue reading
Tag Archives: BALLE
Why We Love The 3/50 Project at Main and Me
Congratulations 3/50 on 90,000 likes. 90,000!!?? A testament to your vision and the authenticity of your message. We are big supporters of the The 3/50 Project here at Main and Me. Such a simple idea, and so very wise about creating an actionable concept (3…50…) which captures the imagination and changes what seems abstract and … Continue reading
How Everyday Gift Registries Can Help Local Business Disrupt Amazon!
Amazon really put the screws to local business over the holidays last year with their Price Check app. Wouldn’t it be nice to return the favor? It turns out there is a practical and fun way to do so. The seven major U.S. holidays present an opportunity to simultaneously solve a problem shared by millions … Continue reading
How the Whole Earth Catalog Predicted the Internet
As creators of an internet start up, the Main and Me founding team tends to be connected to the internet almost 24/7. To offset the health risk of over-connectedness, some of us have formed the habit of taking a one hour walk everyday with Omar, the standard poodle disguised to look like a regular dog. It was during … Continue reading
How To Create Your Store Page, Shopper Page or Community Page on Main and Me
Putting your business, town or favorite products on Main and Me is as easy as uploading photos to Facebook. IF YOU ARE A BUSINESS OWNER: To create a store page for your local business: Use your smartphone or digital camera to snap a beautiful photo of a product or service you sell Upload photo to … Continue reading
Another Reason For Local Merchants To Hate The Internet
If you are a local, independent retailer, you may be forgiven for experiencing palpitations when Amazon announced it’s Price Check app last year. To paraphrase their press release at the time: “We’ll give you $5 if you use our price-scanning app in brick-and-mortar stores this Black Friday weekend.” As described in a Dec. 7th, 2011 … Continue reading
Neighborhood Businesses Need Discovery First, Ecommerce (A Distant) Second
At Main and Me, our mission is to level the playing field on which Main Street competes with malls, big box stores and online retail giants. As it happens, the Main Street retailers we talk to are concerned about two things: 1) how internet shopping adversely impacts their business, and 2) what in the world … Continue reading
It’s Time for Local Shopping to Disrupt the Internet.
Web and mobile shopping has not been kind to local retailers, and if the news is to be believed, the situation promises to get worse. But the internet is just a tool, as easily used for good as evil. At Main and Me, we re-purpose the same technology Amazon and Zappos use to showcase their products … Continue reading
How Shopping Locally Saves The Last Minute Shopper In All Of Us
Once upon a time there was a (husband/father/boyfriend/son) who wasn’t very good at giving (Valentine’s Day/Birthday/Anniversary/Christmas/Mother’s Day/Graduation) gifts. So he tended to either not give anything at all (downplaying the importance of “silly” holidays), or to buy some terrible gift at the last minute that his (wife/girlfriend/mother) really didn’t want, often making her more upset. … Continue reading
How Main and Me Works
The world (increasingly) shops online, but very few local independent merchants have the time or resources to a) post photos of their newest inventory to the web, and b) master the art of “search engine optimization” (in order to appear at the top of Google searches). Main and Me is a web and mobile photo … Continue reading