As the former employee of a Pagan
business that also catered to customers of a New Age and/or Occult bent, I knew
that the store I worked at was something special. With a stated goal of
providing every customer with an “Authentic Craft Experience,” the products we
offered were spiritually minded, and included resources for the beginner just
setting his foot to the path, the adept who had been practicing her Craft
forever, and everyone in between. With a high level of traffic on a frequently
traveled artery, in the largest metro area of the state, attracting customers
into the store was an important part of the business. Daily, new customers
would tell me they were just passing by, became curious, and so had turned
around to find out what the place was about. The signs outside the building, at
least, were working. But the most common response I received, “I’ve never even
heard of this place,” was more concerning from the perspective of an employee.
After all, if potential customers don’t know a business exist, if only a few of
them happen upon the physical store by chance alone, then the business is
trusting its success to the subjective opinions of the curious willing to
execute a dangerous U-Turn along a stretch of road with a mile separating the
nearest traffic signals, and luck. If a business doesn’t exist in the mind of a
consumer, if the only exposure to a store is passing it by at 40 miles per
hour, then the business doesn’t exist.
