The Power Up ⎯ SN.01/EP.02
How “Community First” Lead To New Profit Channels For The Green Monkey
Some businesses are born out of a passion for the industry, while others are born from an idea. Rusty Sutton dreamed of a safe, interactive space where everyone could shop and be welcomed, six years before their first retail location at the Raleigh Flea Market. Looking around at other businesses in the area, Rusty found that this type of space was missing from the community.
By investing in a safe and inclusive space that welcomes all and an engaging shopping experience, their customers, or MonkeyFans as Rusty calls them, return on average 2.5 times a month. “Ten years ago when we started this concept with the gift shop and the neighborhood bar it wasn’t done. However, what makes us different is that we’re engaging,” Rusty shares.
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About The Business
Business name: The Green Monkey
Founded: 2013
Founder & co-owner: Rusty Sutton
Location: Raleigh, NC
Website: https://www.greenmonkeyraleigh.com
Sales diversification strategy: E-commerce, retail storefront, craft beer bar, monthly beer club membership, Monkeyverse Fellowship Hall event space
About Our Guest
In 2007, Rusty’s idea for a social shopping experience first took place at the Raleigh Flee Market where they sold gay pride, equality, and diversity-themed gifts. A couple of years later, in 2013, Rusty was presented with an opportunity to purchase the Royal Food Mart in town, along with its inventory. However, Rusty was disappointed by the compromises he had to make for this location and eventually, they lost Royal Food Mart’s customer base, along with theirs from the Flea Market.
A year later, after a heartfelt conversation with a friend, Rusty was inspired to do things his way, even if it meant going down in flames. The old inventory slowly cleared out and was replaced with their gift shop products and small craft beers. Then in 2015, Rusty had to opportunity to purchase a small tap system which finally turned his dream into reality. But Rusty didn’t just stop at opening the bar, he’s created a truly one-of-a-kind shopping experience where you can sip and shop, attend weekly and exclusive events, and form genuine connections with those around you.
To discover how Rusty creates an inclusive environment across different sales channels, listen to the whole episode on The Power Up.
Full Transcript
Sean (Thrive): Hello everyone, it’s Sean from Thrive with another episode of The Power Up, where I meet with successful small business owners and operators to learn about their business strategy so you can take their insights and level up your own business. Once your business is ready to expand, knowing where to start can be overwhelming. Our guests have some solutions for how they’ve tackled tricky problems and turned them into growth opportunities. Now let’s dive into today’s episode.
With us today is Rusty Sutton, founder and co-owner of The Green Monkey in Raleigh, North Carolina. What started as a booth at the Raleigh Flea Market in 2007, selling quirky and unique gifts, turned into a storefront location in 2013. Over the years, Rusty has created a one-of-a-kind shopping experience with a neighborhood bar so you can sip and shop, an event space called the Monkey Verse Fellowship Hall that holds live music, popups, featured artists, and more.
By investing in a safe and inclusive space that welcomes all and an engaging shopping experience, their fans, or Monkey Fans as they call them, return on average two and a half times per month.
Rusty, are you ready to get started with us?
Rusty (The Green Monkey): I’m ready.
Sean: I’d love to know more about the last line there in your bio. It says your customers return on average two and a half times a month. How do you track that kind of information with your business? Do you have any sort of like loyalty program, or how do you do this?
Rusty: Yes, it’s with our POS. We are able to track because when they become a loyalty member, we’re able to track how many times they come, how much money they spend, and actually what they’re buying. So that helps us stay in the know of what is selling, and we can compare it with our sales reports and such.
Sean: Got it. So you said you use your point of sale loyalty program. What point of sale do you use?
Rusty: We use Square.
Sean: Okay, and then what loyalty program do you use? Square’s built-in loyalty program or another?
Rusty: We use Square’s loyalty program because they’ve made it easy. The customers love it. The customers, when they check in before they order, they key their phone number in. It’s really funny because a lot of times, if we try to skip that step, they go, “Wait, I didn’t keep my phone number in.” But a lot of times, especially the regulars, we already got them in there because we know them and we just look them up. But still, they are very connected to that loyalty program.
Another thing that really breaks the ice with new people when they come in, and I think this is why they return also, is that we give every person that walks through the door, whether they buy anything or not, we greet them and give them a free gift. It’s a free Monkey Fan button, and it shows the year that they first visited. So this year, when you visit, your Monkey Fan button says 2023. That button was created by us, by a local artist in Raleigh. She gave me the idea and it’s now a bigger button. What’s really cool is Amber did it, and her and her business partner, their store is now just across the street from us.
Sean: Oh really? The artist that did the design for the pin?
Rusty: Oh, that’s very cool. It’s like one of those push pins in the back, the little metal front kind of—that’s the pin back button.
Sean: Okay, that’s great. So you do them here?
Rusty: Yes, we do them here.
Sean: I was gonna ask you, how do you, because I know some of our audience listening today, they have difficulties getting customers to sign up for a loyalty program. How have you gone about getting interest? Is it through the button? Is it through any sort of rewards program? What do you do to get folks to sign up?
Rusty: Well, we tell them we have the loyalty program. The POS alerts them to sign up for it. Another way we get them involved is we say scan this QR code, and if they join our Insider Club text, they get a $10 coupon or gift card that signs them up for the loyalty program too. We also have a lot of Monkey Fans that will tell new people, “Get your points, get your Monkey points.” So it’s based on visits and you really get it fast. Like after your fifth visit, you have $2 credit already that you can use on the gift shop, or once you reach six points, you can purchase beer or wine to go.
Sean: Oh, fun! Love to hear that. This makes me want to come and visit even more. Now, for beer and wine to go, on scanning the QR code to join the Insider Club, do you allow your customers to use that $10 coupon the same day or do they have to return to visit?
Rusty: Most of them do not use it the same day they return, but you can. As long as you get it on your phone, it’s automatically generated by Square, so Square has to send it out to you, but it usually comes within five to ten minutes.
Sean: Okay, and then texting, you said customers will get the text message. Is that from Square or do you have some other SMS provider that handles that?
Rusty: Yes, Square handles that. And then we send out, we have it automatically set up to alert them when they are close to getting a point or they have points to redeem or whatever. The great thing now is they can download Square’s Cash App and control this themselves, also set up the account, keep up with how many points they have and all that. It’s really a good program.
Sean: Yeah, that’s great. Love to hear that. Talk to me a little bit about competition. Do you only really compete locally? Do you see yourself competing nationally through e-commerce? How do you and your business partner think about differentiation in your market?
Rusty: What differentiates us is, first of all, the concept. Ten years ago, when we started this concept with the gift shop and the neighborhood bar, it wasn’t done. You didn’t see it anywhere around here. Now, you’re starting to see this concept pop up in different markets. However, what makes us different, and this is what we read when people leave reviews, is that we are engaging.
They feel welcome, they feel like they belong. And in this time, especially coming out of a pandemic where a lot of people were alone, this is important to people to have a safe space to come, be themselves, and meet the friends they didn’t even know they hadn’t met yet.
Sean: Yeah, that’s great. Do you do anything specific to proactively build that community? Like, do you host Bingo nights or something like that?
Rusty: We have one of our most popular events, which is our Wednesday night trivia, which I host. It is a little different. I do have a service that I get most of the questions from, but then I do some researching and throw other questions up there. You never know what the questions are going to be. You never know what categories you’ll have for that week. We do six rounds, and on each round, somebody comes up and spins the wheel to see what category is going to be. But there may also be some other stuff on that wheel, such as “Okay, you give two points to a team,” or “You lose two points.” Then you may have some funny categories up there, like one of our most popular categories that they love to do is sex categories, and they know nothing about sex when you start talking about medical terms.
They enjoy that. You don’t see that around.
We make sure we train our staff. Me and Drew do it because me and Drew mainly are here every day. We’re not absentee owners. That’s another way we make sure this engagement stays at a high level. We make sure when people come in, we go by them and say we are very grateful, how grateful we are for you choosing us because we understand you had a choice and you chose to come here. That personal connection. We go into many stores, and no one speaks to you anymore. We will speak to everybody and welcome everybody.
One of the first things that people know, and this is a thing that our Monkey Fans have caught on to and have been doing for years, they will yell out, “Welcome to the Green Monkey, y’all,” because that’s what the staff and the owners say. That’s one of the first things we train our staff to do: how to greet the customer. One thing we never ever do is say, “How may I help you?” because that’s an outdated term. They don’t know what we can help them with. We have to make it easy for the customers to talk to us. How we do that is by welcoming them and then asking, “Is this your first time?” Most of the time we know, but we still ask, and we say, “Well, we have a free gift for you today. Thanks for coming in. Now look around and I’ll be right back with your free gift.”
You see them tense up when somebody starts walking toward them, but once we say, “You’re getting a free gift,” you can see their tension just relax. That makes them feel comfortable to share things with us and to talk back. We can get a conversation going back and forth. The more you can learn what they want, the more you can show them what you have that will fit the need they’re trying to solve today.
Sean: Yeah, that’s great. Love to hear that. One of my questions was going to be: a lot of our audience out there, business owners have a tough time because no one loves your business more than you do, right? Sounds like you’ve done a really good job training your staff on how to love your business as much as you guys do, which is usually a really tough thing to do.
I’m curious, you guys have such a wide variety of products. How do you go about purchasing, procurement, and product assortment? What’s that thought process like?
Rusty: That was something that took years of practice. We were not good at that at the beginning because we bought what we wanted. I think a lot of people do that. They start buying what they want, but that’s not the point. Now, after so many years in business, we have data, and the Monkey Fans’ dollars tell us what they want. We also send out surveys to them asking about current products and if we have different products we want to bring in, what would you like to see more of?
Sometimes the surveys don’t tell the truth. I’ve learned that over the years. We’ve gotten in stuff where they said they wanted it, but they may like it, they may want it, but they may not be willing to pay for it. The price may be a little too high or whatever. Sometimes you have to take your gut feeling.
I always go to this story where we have our virtual assistant, Denise. She’ll go to the markets with us, because we like them, Drew and I, and then Denise, because you don’t need two males shopping for a gift shop. You still need Denise, you need a female. We had this narwhal, a stuffed narwhal. It was weird-looking but cute. It was for Valentine’s. Denise and Drew both were against that totally. I said, “I don’t care, I’m doing it.” I got it and sold them all out within two weeks.
So you have to follow your instincts sometimes and understand your customer. What is it that nobody else is going to carry? What is it that nobody else has? Then you’re going to build that over the years. You can’t always do this if you just open, but over the years, stick to your brand. What do you want people to think of you when they think of your brand? Our brand is The Green Monkey. We want them to come here and get all the Pride stuff they want, but other stuff, such as quirky little books, quirky greeting cards. We have an older crowd, 30 to 55 is our sweet spot, and they like a little nostalgia, a little retro.
One of the hottest hat brands we have right now from Peter Grimm is their Peanuts collection. Anything with Peanuts right now is just flying off the shelf for us, and we really haven’t done that much licensing brands because we stick with more of the smaller stuff. But this just flew off the shelf. Sometimes you have to trust yourself.
Sean: Yeah, absolutely. Just go with your gut. That’s great.
You did open a new location and move physically just a few weeks ago. So a big thing, you know, some business owners are looking at opening a new location, a second or third location, or just moving their headquarters location. That can be a crazy, daunting process for a lot of people. They’re worried about losing customers, losing the charm of their existing location, all those things.
How did you guys do that? Talk through your thought process because you didn’t open a second location, you just moved your headquarters location but still have one. I think everyone would love to hear about this.
Rusty: Well, let me tell you this: nothing ended up being the way I thought it was going to be. Nothing prepared me for this. However, one thing I learned when we went from the flea market to our first brick and mortar, which was the one we just moved from, is that people do not read or remember. You have to stay on top of their mind.
So in February of 2022, we started looking and actually saw this building in 2022. I started promoting that we were moving then, even though we did not have a location yet. I told everybody, “I think we have the location, I know the location we’re supposed to be at, but I can’t tell you anymore yet.”
You start promoting the moment you know you’re going to move, and you let your people know. That’s one thing we did. We started when we finalized the lease here back in October of last year. The first thing I did was put an announcement in social media ads and just targeted a five to ten mile radius around this address.
I used people’s pictures, not pictures of product. I used pictures of people having fun. One thing I believe now, I heard it at a conference last year, is if you give someone a good time, they’re going to remember that and they’re going to come back. So what we want to see is everybody having a good time here and how special it is here for these people. I don’t know if it’s special or not, but I know people tell me that it’s special and that we do our best to make sure you leave a little happier than when you came.
So we wanted to show people having fun here, and that seemed to work. We have good follow-in, we had a great grand opening weekend, and the numbers are looking good now.
Let me tell you the horrible part because the joke around here now is I’m never moving again. I’m either going to sell the place, or we’re just going to stay in here forever. I know we’re staying here for 10 years because I have a five-year and a five-year lease.
Sean: That’s great. What were some of the biggest challenges you faced during the move? Any tips for other business owners who might be considering relocating?
Rusty: Oh man, the biggest challenge was the timing. We had to coordinate the move so that we didn’t lose too many days of business. We closed the old location on a Sunday and opened the new one the following Friday. That was a tight window. We had to pack everything up, move it, unpack, set up the new space, and make sure everything was ready for customers.
Another challenge was communicating with our customers. We had to make sure everyone knew where we were going, when we’d be closed, and when we’d reopen. We used social media heavily for that, plus signage at the old location.
Also, the new space was bigger, so we had to rethink our layout, product placement, and even staffing. It was a lot of work, but worth it.
Sean: Sounds like a big undertaking. Did you do anything special for the grand opening?
Rusty: Yes, we had a big grand opening weekend with live music, giveaways, and special promotions. We wanted to make it a celebration for our Monkey Fans and the community. We also invited local artists to showcase their work in the new event space. That helped bring in new people and made the event feel lively and welcoming.
Sean: Awesome. You mentioned the event space earlier, the Monkey Verse Fellowship Hall. Can you tell us more about that and how it fits into your business model?
Rusty: Sure! The Monkey Verse Fellowship Hall is our event space inside The Green Monkey. We use it for live music, pop-up shops, art shows, workshops, and community gatherings. It’s a way for us to support local artists and creators, and it gives our customers more reasons to come in and spend time here.
It also helps build community, which is a big part of our mission. People come for the events, discover the store, and often become regular customers. It’s a win-win.
Sean: That’s a smart way to diversify and create a unique experience. How do you find the artists and performers for these events?
Rusty: Mostly through word of mouth and social media. We have a network of local creatives who reach out to us, and we also actively seek out new talent. We like to keep the programming fresh and diverse. It’s important to us that the events reflect the community and provide a platform for emerging artists.
Sean: Very cool. Now, thinking about the future, what are your plans for The Green Monkey? Any new projects or expansions on the horizon?
Rusty: Right now, we’re focused on settling into the new location and continuing to build our community here. We want to enhance the event space and maybe add more programming. We’re also looking into expanding our online presence and e-commerce capabilities to reach more people beyond Raleigh.
Long term, we’re open to opening another location, but that’s down the road. For now, it’s about making this space the best it can be.
Sean: Great to hear. Before we wrap up, what advice would you give to other small business owners who want to build a loyal customer base like you have?
Rusty: I’d say focus on the experience and the people. Make your customers feel welcome and appreciated every time they come in. Listen to them, engage with them, and build relationships. Also, don’t be afraid to be yourself and show your personality through your brand.
And finally, be patient. Building a loyal customer base takes time, but it’s worth it.
Sean: Awesome advice. Rusty, thank you so much for sharing your story and insights with us today.
Rusty: Thank you, Sean. It’s been a pleasure.
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