There is something electric in the moment you open your store in the morning. Those familiar faces waiting at the door are often your best customers. You may know their names, families, and health goals, but these relationships go deeper than a typical transaction and can have a lasting impact on your business.

In my last article, I looked at how businesses can consciously build their communities by keeping their goals and values central throughout the hiring, training, rewarding, and modelling processes.

 Now, I ask: how can retailers extend that same sense of community to the brands on their shelves and the brokers and suppliers who help put them there?

Everywhere I looked, there were smiling faces, excited conversations, and the easy embraces of old friends. It could’ve been a scene out of a wedding or a family reunion—instead it was one from the opening of Community Natural Foods’ new Seton, Calgary store.

I think I’ve told this story a hundred times now. Maybe a thousand.