SEATTLE, Oct. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- The Retail Owners Institute(TM) warns that
the relentless effect of "Retail Darwinism" -- the survival of only the
fittest -- continues to drive more small, independent retailers out of
business. They fail despite having appealing stores, merchandise, employees
and customers. In fact, over a third of the retailers that file bankruptcy
even have profits!
    So why are these small retailers failing? Because they run out of cash.
They do not have financial planning sophistication. The Retail Owners
Institute(TM) (http://www.RetailOwner.com) is on a mission to change that. As the
foremost self-help resource for retailers, The ROI(TM) is empowering smaller
retailers with financial sophistication never before available. Most
important, The ROI is available virtually; any retailer worldwide has 24/7
access via the internet.

    Consider this:
    -- A buyer at Costco seeks to raise gross margins by tenths of a percent.
The small retailer may not know how to compute gross margin, let alone manage
it!
    -- A buyer at Wal-Mart will "kill" to get inventory turn one or two tenths
higher than the year before by squeezing their suppliers. There isn't one
independent retailer in twenty who even calculates inventory turns.
    -- The Gap always generates cash flow projections when considering lease
renewals. Few small retailers know how to do a cash flow.

    "Small retailers just endure the financial outcomes of their business
decisions," says Dick Outcalt, Co-Founder of The ROI. "Few independent
retailers know HOW to change those outcomes; fewer still realize they CAN
affect their own financial future. Unlike their big box or national chain
competitors, they do not know the financial implications of their decisions
before they make them. No wonder they fail!"
    Thanks to its free information, effective explanatory style, and very low
cost software packages, The ROI enables small retailers anywhere in the world
-- for the first time ever -- to generate their own fully integrated retail
financial projections. They are empowered as never before to direct their own
financial future, to do "what if ... ?" scenarios (what the big guys call
"financial modeling"). All for less than $200.
    At last, smaller retailers can financially plan as well or better than
their chain competitors. The ROI is unleashing this new "Retail Populism,"
empowering the small retailer with financial knowledge and prowess. The
relentless sweep of Retail Darwinism will continue. However, small retailers
who use The ROI can become included among those fittest that survive.

    About The ROI(TM)
    The Retail Owners Institute(TM) (http://www.RetailOwner.com) is the foremost
self-help resource for retail financial professionalism. The free intellectual
property and the Retail Strata:G(R) Financial TRAINER and PLANNER it offers
are improving the financial expertise of independent retailers worldwide.
Manufacturers, wholesalers, financial institutions, and other organizations,
as sponsors of The ROI, are encouraging their retailers to take advantage of
these resources to become financially stronger (see http://www.sponsorroi.com/).

    CONTACT:  Jana Riggan, Marketing and Communications Manager,
+1-206-623-3973 or 1-800-499-7531, or mailto:%20info@RetailOwner.com.