The New York Times has an article about how some small retailers are seeing their size as a selling point.

In today's marketplace you need to have your own niche. That niche is what will give you an advantage over the big retailers. You can carry items that would not be carried in bigger stores. This year with the Chinese toy recalls smaller toy stores have used that to their advantage pointing out that they have better quality products than the big box stores.

Customer service is another important aspect of this. As a small business you can provide much better customer service than the big box stores or even any chain stores. I recently saw were someone went into Abercrombie and Finch to look for something for his children. He walked through the entire store and not one employee greeted him.

There is a garden center in our community that shows someone asking an employee at a big store about a product and they just stand there with a blank look on their face, then talk about themselves. This is a perfect example of how you have an advantage in today's marketplace.

As a small business owner, you can have the advantage.