problems/ questions

1. what works in a small poor county?

2.where can i find a cyber forum about brick and mortar stores?
not about start ups,
not about stay at home moms,
not about go girl,
not about web selling..
i need this for brainstorming and for sharing the thrills and chills of retail....im considering gift beat...but figure its more mall oriented than we are....im on www.giftshopforum.com , very nice and growing, but so far not much talk from stores like ours...also they have a great online magazine....,
im on www.small-business-forum.net , which is great for web and the tekk side but no stores like us..
..im on www.makeminepink.com , which is great for pretty sites..and web ,and pink encouragement, but not much for brick and mortar
, i used to be on country business but it changed so much and lost most of its conversations....
im on prim and rustic on delphi, so great for for cyber country...
im on victoria, but not many stores... lots of neat sites tho...
i dont want one with recipes , crafts or pushy christians,i love old fashioned christians like my devout grandfather , but i dont get the new ones, they can be kind of scary....im not against recipes or crafts either,...but not what im looking for in cyber business chat..

3.how to be a better destination store

4.where would be the best place to put effort and money to promote our wholesale?

5.what to stock that isnt cheaper at the big chains?

6.how should a store like ours use the internet ?

7.how to navigate thru the current economic turmoil?
8. how to be more useful to our customers?
these are the subjects i like to talk about and explore......any ideas ? you can comment easily here....i would really like to hear some discussion on any of these brick and mortar issues....private or not... ..if you are on a forum that discussed this kind of stuff please tell me where....