Road Trip

I had the opportunity to make a road trip with a Service Line leader for a major health system this past Saturday. We spent almost 5 hours visiting various campuses, both in his system and outside of it, to get a feel for what was happening in the world of retail.

It did not take long for him to become "ill" as to the level of opportunity that was being missed. This was just as apparent to him at his own locations as it was the "competition". One such example was that of a coffee shop occupying a newly remodeled area of the hospital. The appeal of the space was extremely contradictory to the rest of the beautifully appointed finishes and elevations. It appeared to be assembled with recycled components from elsewhere on campus. As we inspected further we realized that the shop was serving basic food service quality coffee, served in gas station style cups and did not offer espresso, cappuccino or any specialty drinks. In addition we were watching as a very good amount of foot traffic passed by a coffee shop that was closed. This was due to the fact that the volunteers that operate most of the schedule do not work weekends.

The Gift Shop's were no less disheartening. When we approached the receptionist to ask where the Gift Shop was located, she pointed behind us about 30 feet to a small door. The signage was definitely too small and the windowless, single door was the only view into what they had to offer. I asked if it was a temporary space and she stated that it was the newly remodeled space. In this case the shop was owned by a third party, and it was painfully obvious in their product offerings.

We made visits to 5 or 6 locations in a large coverage area. In every case we were able to identify vast opportunities, many could be capture with some very simple, lower cost changes.

It is very important that any campus that has the slightest interest in developing such opportunities do so in a "phases" process. There is much time and careful planning needed in order to create the energy and opportunity. It can be very costly to jump in and over build offerings. Campus and system appropriateness must be a big part of consideration. The initial planning and information gathering could have made better use of what these other campuses are offering. The initiative for this type of retail needs to be practical and purposeful.