Whether you’re new to the gift basket industry or a veteran designer, you’ll either be: 1) the new competition that existing retailers watch, or 2) a veteran retailer watching the new competitor.

How to Start a Home-Based Gift Basket Business includes a chart to document everything you find out about the town newbie. Here are nine ways designers tell me they spy:

1. Call to ask theme questions or to learn if the phone is manned by a live person or machine.

2. Enter the store posing as a customer (supermarket executives do this all the time at new supermarket openings).

3. Send a friend or family member into the competitive shop for a look around.

4. Attend the grand opening or open house event.

5. Pay a college student to monitor the store’s walk-in traffic on a weekday and weekend day.

6. Visit the county clerk’s office to review the store’s recorded vital statistics (this public record is open to everyone).

7. Learn (by phone, review of public records, etc.) if the store has a Web site, and review the online location.

8. Set up alerts in Google and Yahoo! to learn if store management releases grand opening news to the media.

9. Monitor your local newspaper for new store announcements.

Above all, I endorse respect for other people’s property while completing your research. No questions outside of what a customer would ask, no hidden cameras, no sabotage.

This past summer, a rivalry ensued between two ice cream truck drivers who sold their frozen products to the same community. One accused the other of assault and showed police where the competing driver allegedly hit him in the head.

It was all a hoax.

The injured driver hit himself in the head to try and remove his competition through arrest. He was charged with issuing a false report and paid a stiff fine. None of us need to go that low when competitors come to town.

Curiosity about a new store is natural. You want to know why an owner chose to open in your area and will do what’s possible to learn the truth. How do you complete your espionage?

Related Article: Competing with the Real Competition

Shirley George Frazier

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