People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
-Maya Angelou
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Author Archives: skittel
In retail history
On September 15th, 1924, Horace Saks and Bernard Gimble open Saks 5th Avenue next to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.
Walk it around
Passing through Nordstrom today, I spotted a cosmetics saleswoman finishing up with a customer.
The Nordstrom employee stepped around from behind the counter and handed the bag carefully to the customer. Handing over the bag she said, “Thanks for shopping with us today. I hope to see you again soon. Enjoy your day” speaking in an earnest and sincere tone with a smile on her face. Well done!
That is just one of the little things that you will see at Nordstrom that exemplifies their incredible service.
Recommended reading – Hiring Squirrels
Peter Smith shares what he has learned, sometimes the hard way, in Hiring Squirrels 12 Essential Interview Questions to Uncover Great Retail Sales Talent. He offers sound advice on attracting, interviewing and selecting the best possible salespeople for your retail store.
The book opens with his own personal tale of managing at Tiffany’s, yes, that Tiffany’s. With great bravado, he stepped into an underperforming store with the idea that he knew exactly what to do to turn the store around. You will have to read the book yourself for the rest of the story, but this simply tale was what hooked me into reading the rest of the book. (I will be honest, I do not always read every chapter of the business books I buy.)
The key I took away from this opening chapter is that good retail managers recognize the individuality of the salespeople they employ. Just as all customer are unique people, so are our employees. Successful managers know what characteristics to look for and nurture in potential sales people.
In retail history
On Sept 10th, 1907, the Nieman-Marcus Department Store opens in Dallas Texas.
The opening was a bit of a talent train on competing department stores in Dallas. Herman Marcus left his job as buyer at Sanger Brothers joining his sister Carrie Marcus Neiman and her husband A.L. Neiman, former employees of A Harris and Co., to open a luxury department store catering to the tastes of oil-rich Texans.
Neiman Marcus enjoyed instant success. Their initial inventory, purchased by Carrie on a single trip to New York City, completely sold out in a few weeks. It appeared that the recently rich Texans were starving for goods not normally available in Dallas.
In 1914, a fire destroyed the store and all of its inventory. 17 days later, a temporary store was open and by years end, Neiman Marcus opened a new flagship store. In 1927, Neiman Marcus premiered the first weekly fashion show in the US. The store continues to operate under its original name and is still headquartered in Dallas.
The poor backpack
Not the poor backpack
There it sat, right in the middle of the aisle, the poor backpack. It had fallen from an overstocked fixture and now it sat in the middle of the main aisle circling the store. I am not sure how long it had been there when I spotted it.
Being small, the pack did not block traffic and was easy enough to walk around or step over. I figured that if it was still on the floor when I got to it, I would put it back on the fixture.
As I stood watching, I noticed two employees walking up the aisle towards the backpack. Ah, I thought, I won’t have to pick up the pack, surely one of these two employees will. I was wrong. In fact, one actually stepped over the pack and continued up the aisle.
In retail history
On September 6, 1916, Clarence Saunders launched the self-service grocery store revolution in the United States by opening his Piggly Wiggly store, at 79 Jefferson Street in Memphis, Tennessee.
Customers entered though their characteristic turnstile at the entrance and then selected goods for themselves from the shelves and paid cash. The store was the first grocery store to use check out aisles in the front of the store, pricing on all items on the shelves and later developed the first shopping carts to aid in shopping. Piggly Wiggly created elaborate aisle displays and arranged the store so customers would travel down all the aisles and view all the merchandise.
Saunders was granted a patent in 1917 for the “Self-Serving Store” concept. Self-serve became so popular that throughout the 1920s & 30s, many grocery and other types of stores converted to self-serve.
In retail history
World’s 1st ATM
As of September 2nd, 1969, the people of the United States no longer had to spend their lunch hour waiting in line or rushing out to the bank before the 5 o’clock bank closing to get access to their hard-earned cash for shopping.
Chemical Bank debuted the first automatic teller machine (ATM) at Rockville Center, New York. The world’s first ATM was installed by Barclay’s in North London on June, 27th, 1967.
There are now over 425,000 ATMs in use in the United States.
In retail history
Using money that he had received as an inheritance and savings from his job as a tutor, Irishman Alexander Turney Stewart opened a small shop selling Irish fabrics and lace along with domestic calico at 823 Broadway in New York. The date was September 1st, 1823. From this humble start, Stewart was to build a commercial empire and amass a fortune equivalent to $90 billion in today’s dollars.
With early success in his first shop, Stewart built a larger building across the street in 1846. The building eventually became known as the Marble Palace due to its unique Tuckahoe Marble facade. To keep up with business, the building was expanded in 1851, 1852 and 1871. This was the birth of the modern department store.
If I were to buy furniture today…Part 2
Chilton Table in Spalted Sugarberry by Room & Board
As we continued through Room & Board, I was feeling less and less inclined to spend any money there and was anxious to leave.
But then, towards the back of the store, we found ourselves standing in front of an interesting piece, the Chilton Table in Spalted Sugarberry. My wife and I looked at one another and began to talk about how we both truly admired the table. We also admitted that neither of us cared all that much for our current dining room table bought less than 3 years ago.
As we stood examining the table and discussing how a table like this would be great to have in our home, an amazing thing happened. Amazing since I had long since given up hope that anyone would ever greet us much less offer any help.
A smiling Room & Board employee stepped up to a nearby computer terminal to lookup some information. While going about her business, she turned to my wife and I and said, “Isn’t it a beautiful table?”
“It is beautiful,” my wife responded.
The Observant Customer 