As a Belk store buyer, I had a little freedom into what to buy for my departments. The corporate office had guidelines into what to buy, and they bought goods that would be advertised in mailouts and special yearly sales, but we could buy merchandise that would be sold in the stores on a daily basis and be advertised in our local newspapers. The concept was to tailor the merchandise to the individual markets.
I had a steady stream of vendors coming into the store to pitch their wares to me. Some vendors were slick, but I came from a sales background, so I knew their tricks. One vendor brought in water purifiers. I asked her where she sold the most, and she said at the beaches. I didn't buy any from her, as she was too honest with me. Another vendor wanted to sell me some vibrators. A great idea for sore muscles, but we were a family store, and I just didn't like the connotation, so I passed on her. I did buy some picture frames from a guy who drove a Gremlin. I felt he needed the money. One thing I did, when I didn't know how well something would sell would be to give the vendor a certain amount of money and a purchase order form. They would fill out the form with their best selling product. If the product didn't sell, I wouldn't reorder from them. It was in their best interest to pick some good stuff for me. One vendor brought in some baby seals plush toys. If we sold them, a portion of the sale would go to the World Wildlife Fund. That seemed like a good idea and would make great advertising for the store. That was until I asked the vendor how much of the $19.99 seal would go to the fund. They told me 5 cents. I didn't buy the seals.
In the Gifts Department, I tried to find items that had been advertised on TV. I watched a lot of infomercials. My goal was to find something like what was advertised and bring it in to sell. My crown jewel was Tummy Toners. This was an item that had stirrups for your feet and a handle, separated by a tight spring. One would pull up on the handle and the exercise would work on one's abs. I found a vendor who sold them for $5/each. I bought 100 of them and retailed them at $19.99 as seen on TV, and then put them on sale for $12.99 or $9.99. We sold out of the first 100 in a day. I had to reorder. In all, I bought 10,000 units and sold them all within 6 weeks. I was reordering them on a daily basis in increments of 1000 per order. We had to stop selling them though when a man, weighing more than the recommended weight for the use of the item, pulled up on the spring and the plastic stirrups broke, putting a gash in his leg. He tried to sue the store, and we agreed to stop selling the Tummy Toners, but we had made a lot of money for the store.
Another success story was Jelly Belly jelly beans. I worked off of the fact that Ronald Reagan loved them, so I used that in the promotion. We sold more Jelly Bellies than any other Belk store. I got exclusive Jelly Belly fixtures, and I was written up in their corporate newsletter. The company also sent our store some artwork made from jelly beans. They were framed and we had to have security there every day they were on display. The "pictures" included the Mona Lisa and the Statue of Liberty. We were the only store in the Belk company to show them at that time.
With my successes also came gambles that didn't work. One was the Snuggies Bear. It was used in the TV advertising for the fabric softener, so I bought 200 units for the Toy Department. They sat on the shelves. No one wanted them. I ended up having to mark them down to clearance. It took a year to sell them out.
I did have one success story that was my favorite. It was called Best Luggage. A couple of guys from Miami came to see me one day. I had one of the best luggage departments in the company, and my sales had been noticed by this company. They imported cheap luggage from overseas. The one item that interested me was an attache case. It was made of a wood frame with a leather exterior. It also had a brass combination lock. If I bought them in bulk, they would cost us $12/each. I bought 25 and spread them out between our two stores. They came in black and brown. We sold them at a retail price of $99.99 and a sale price of $49.99 or $59.99. We sold out almost immediately. I reordered 100 units and used them as a doorbuster. They blew out. They sold better than Samsonite or American Tourister. The Belk corporate office took notice of them, and they bought from Best Luggage for all of the Belk stores. It was a huge success for a small company, and I would like to think I started them on the path to success.
I got numerous sales awards from Belk, and I was named the Best Buyer in our store. My merchandise manager also took notice and thought we should do something that no other department store had done. A videotape rental business like what Blockbuster was doing. I researched it and found a company that would be our distributor. We put together some rules concerning what kind of tapes we would rent. We would major on new releases and family films. One could use their Belk charge card to rent the tapes. After a certain number of rentals, we would sell the tapes and make back the cost of the tapes. With about a week to go before we were to launch this new rental department within our store, my merchandise manager was forced out, and they brought in a new guy who had no concept of how to be creative. He nixed the video rental department, and I had to cancel all of the orders. We also had a Madame Alexander doll show planned, with the VP of the company flying down from New York. Invitations had been sent out to many doll collectors in a five-county region of South Carolina. That show was nixed, and I had to cancel the VP's trip and all of the dolls coming with him. I had to send out notices to all of the collectors. It killed our doll business. The new merchandise manager wanted us to buy lean. We lost a lot of customers, and I was not able to buy things for the store like I once did. Life became hard.
On Mondays, Mr. Belk would come down from Charlotte to go to the Columbia Rotary Club meeting. He would come by the store and access everyone's performance. He would fire on Mondays. So, every buyer would come in on Mondays and take everything personal off of their desks and put them in a box. When Mr. Belk left at 4pm to go back to Charlotte, and he hadn't fired you, then you could unpack your box and put everything back on your desk. That was the pressure we were under with the new supervisor. I did get to go on some nice trips, while I was a Buyer, which I will write about next.
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