In January 1987, I was invited to go to the Home Show market in Chicago. I went with Mr. Brusack, our merchandise manager, and Bill Belk, the executive vice president of Belk Stores in Columbia. We went up there to shop at an international market, mostly Housewares. It was a big deal. We flew to Chicago and landed at O'Hare. It was the dead of winter and had snowed the day before. The roads were slushy, and the wind cut right through us. To say Chicago is "The Windy City" is an understatement. They had strung rope in between parking meters on Michigan Avenue to keep pedestrians from blowing out into the street.
We stayed at the Ambassador Hotel. It was nice and right downtown. I wore four layers of clothes which didn't seem to matter. The cold was unbearable. We went into stores just to get warm. You couldn't walk more than a block without freezing to death. We took a cab two blocks. The driver drove like we were on a roller coaster. Mr. Brusack and I shared a hotel room. He smoked a lot, so I made him smoke in the bathroom with the window up to let the smoke out. I know he froze doing that, but it was the only concession I made. He was, after all, my boss.
The market was in the Merchandise Mart downtown. It was a huge facility. Mr. Belk joined us to look over what they had. He didn't allow us to have lunch, as we had to keep moving to see everything. Mr. Brusack and I snacked on candy at the vendors' booths. We came upon some old woman celebrating her birthday at a booth. We sang "Happy Birthday" to her, and they gave us a slice each of her birthday cake. It wasn't very filling, but it kept us from fainting from starvation. Mr. Belk wanted to suggest what I should buy for the stores back home. I couldn't say no to him, because he was the big boss. His name was on the side of the building. We came to a vendor of children's dinnerware. Mr. Belk had small children, and he really liked it. Mr. Brusack and I weren't as enthusiastic about it, but we listened. The plastic dinnerware had different pictures on them from balloons to Peanuts cartoons. He wanted us to buy a lot of them, and we would be the only store in our area to have children's dinnerware. (There was a reason for that). No one in Columbia wanted children's dinnerware. It was the worst buy I made while a buyer for Belk. We brought in a bunch of it. Thousands of dollars of it. It sat on the shelf for months. Even though Mr. Belk made me buy it, I was held accountable for it not selling. It turned out to be a giant fiasco, and other stores laughed at us. It went to clearance.
At one point during that day, I got lost in the large mart. I turned around and the other two were gone. Although I was a bit frantic to find them again, it did give me some time by myself to look around and get something to eat. I ran back into them later. Mr. Brusack was mad at me for getting lost. For me, it was kind of nice.
We got back to the hotel, and Mr. Belk wanted to show me some pictures. They were aerial views of some land in the northwest area of Columbia. He was also in Chicago to meet with some developers of a new mall they were planning, and he wanted my input. He said that we wanted my opinion, because I lived in Columbia. Mr. Belk lived in Charlotte. I saw pictures of two tracts of land, and he wanted me to pick which one would be a good place to put a mall. I picked the tract on the right side of a road. He told me that the other tract was bigger and could expand more with other buildings. I told him that if one comes off a road, they are more likely to turn right than left. It is just one of those psychological things about people. If you go into stores, the better merchandise is on the right side of the door. People just like to go right before they go left. Mr. Belk went to the developers that night and gave them my recommendation. They agreed with me. So, Columbiana Centre was built on the tract of land that I suggested. The mall has been a huge success for many years. Across the street on the left tract is Best Buy and Walmart. Neither one has been very successful. Both of them are harder to get to. Case closed. I think I should have a plaque on the wall of the mall thanking me for my suggestion.
I had wanted to visit the Second City improv club while up there, but I couldn't find it. After I got home, I found out that the club was a couple of blocks away from where we were. I was kind of mad about that. We flew back to Charlotte. At the end of the runway was a billboard with pictures of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker welcoming folks to Charlotte. That made me smile, because during the time we were in Chicago, the scandal between Jim Bakker and Jessica Hahn made the news. Kind of ironic.
Thursday, June 7, 2018
Monday, May 28, 2018
Atlanta Market
As a buyer for Belk, one went to market in Charlotte to buy merchandise for their stores. After all, Charlotte was the headquarters for Belk, and all of the vendors there were approved by the corporate office. At least twice a year, we would travel to Charlotte to buy goods for the stores. Most of those times, we would stay in motels rather than driving back to Columbia. And, most of those motels were nice, except for the one Howard Johnson's that we stayed at that was next to a biker bar. Toward the end of my tenure as a buyer, we commuted from Columbia to Charlotte for market to save money. That wasn't near as fun.
Belk did not like anyone to use unapproved vendors. As I wrote earlier, sometimes it paid off to use an unapproved vendor like Best Luggage. I understood the Belk plan to use vendors that they liked, because they wanted customers to see most of the same merchandise at each of their stores, but we found that there were other vendors out there who wanted to get noticed in the largest privately-owned department store in the world, so we went to other markets outside of Charlotte.
The first one I went to was Atlanta. We went there for their Home Show. I was in the car with our store manager, and the others went in the car with our merchandise manager. I would have much rather been with them, but I wanted to get to know our store manager. He was a man who never talked to people. In fact, you had a hard time even getting him to say hello. When he would walk by my Candy counter, I would say hello to him, and he would either grunt or never respond at all. The rumor was that he was thinking all of the time about business and had no personal skills. I just thought he was rude.
Our first stop on our trip to Atlanta was Macon, GA. Our manager wanted to visit that Belk store, because he had come to Columbia from Macon. He and I had said nothing on our entire trip to Macon, until I turned to him right outside that town and said, "So, I hear you are from Texas." I was going to talk to him about my time there, as I was trying to find common ground. He said "Yes", and that was the end of our conversation. We got to the Macon Belk, and he was treated like a rock star. He ate up all of the attention. He seemed like a different guy from the cold and boring person we knew. We left Macon and got on I-75 to Atlanta. He cut on the radio, as he was totally ignoring me, and started singing along with the R&B station. This guy was an older white man who was singing soul and hip-hop. It was as if I was in a time warp.
We got to our motel, which was near the Atlanta airport. We decided we wanted to go to an authentic Chinese restaurant. Our store manager got into a debate with the restaurant employees about the pros and cons of Communism. These employees had escaped the brutality of Communist China, and they didn't want to hear anyone praising China. We barely got out of that restaurant alive. We spent the rest of that night watching planes take off and land from the airport.
The next day, we went into the city. We had rooms at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in downtown Atlanta. It was the fanciest hotel that I had ever stayed in. The rooms were paid for by a vendor that wanted us to buy his stuff. Everyone had a private room. I wanted to steal one of the bathrobes, but I never got the nerve. I had a friend who lived in Atlanta, so I left the hotel and took the MARTA to have supper with him at his house out near Lenox Mall. I just wore jeans and an old shirt to see my friend. When I got back to the hotel, it was 10:30pm. Even though I had a room in the hotel, I couldn't walk in the front door, because I wasn't dressed "appropriately". They made me come in through the service entrance to go to my room. The next morning, we went to the market. I bought a lot of cool stuff for the store. One of the buyers bought a bunch of Chinese lace, which turned out to be a great buy for our store. It was another vendor that corporate took notice of, like my Best Luggage. That night, the vendor that paid for our rooms, took us out to eat at a very swanky restaurant in downtown Atlanta. The meal for all of us cost him around $1000. He made a very good impression on us. We didn't buy anything from him, though. We used him and abused him. Oh well. We left on a Sunday. Breakfast of cereal and strawberries in the hotel's dining room cost $15. I sat at the next table to Verne Lundquist who was in town to call the Atlanta Falcons football game. He got a full breakfast. No telling how much that cost.
Belk did not like anyone to use unapproved vendors. As I wrote earlier, sometimes it paid off to use an unapproved vendor like Best Luggage. I understood the Belk plan to use vendors that they liked, because they wanted customers to see most of the same merchandise at each of their stores, but we found that there were other vendors out there who wanted to get noticed in the largest privately-owned department store in the world, so we went to other markets outside of Charlotte.
The first one I went to was Atlanta. We went there for their Home Show. I was in the car with our store manager, and the others went in the car with our merchandise manager. I would have much rather been with them, but I wanted to get to know our store manager. He was a man who never talked to people. In fact, you had a hard time even getting him to say hello. When he would walk by my Candy counter, I would say hello to him, and he would either grunt or never respond at all. The rumor was that he was thinking all of the time about business and had no personal skills. I just thought he was rude.
Our first stop on our trip to Atlanta was Macon, GA. Our manager wanted to visit that Belk store, because he had come to Columbia from Macon. He and I had said nothing on our entire trip to Macon, until I turned to him right outside that town and said, "So, I hear you are from Texas." I was going to talk to him about my time there, as I was trying to find common ground. He said "Yes", and that was the end of our conversation. We got to the Macon Belk, and he was treated like a rock star. He ate up all of the attention. He seemed like a different guy from the cold and boring person we knew. We left Macon and got on I-75 to Atlanta. He cut on the radio, as he was totally ignoring me, and started singing along with the R&B station. This guy was an older white man who was singing soul and hip-hop. It was as if I was in a time warp.
We got to our motel, which was near the Atlanta airport. We decided we wanted to go to an authentic Chinese restaurant. Our store manager got into a debate with the restaurant employees about the pros and cons of Communism. These employees had escaped the brutality of Communist China, and they didn't want to hear anyone praising China. We barely got out of that restaurant alive. We spent the rest of that night watching planes take off and land from the airport.
The next day, we went into the city. We had rooms at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in downtown Atlanta. It was the fanciest hotel that I had ever stayed in. The rooms were paid for by a vendor that wanted us to buy his stuff. Everyone had a private room. I wanted to steal one of the bathrobes, but I never got the nerve. I had a friend who lived in Atlanta, so I left the hotel and took the MARTA to have supper with him at his house out near Lenox Mall. I just wore jeans and an old shirt to see my friend. When I got back to the hotel, it was 10:30pm. Even though I had a room in the hotel, I couldn't walk in the front door, because I wasn't dressed "appropriately". They made me come in through the service entrance to go to my room. The next morning, we went to the market. I bought a lot of cool stuff for the store. One of the buyers bought a bunch of Chinese lace, which turned out to be a great buy for our store. It was another vendor that corporate took notice of, like my Best Luggage. That night, the vendor that paid for our rooms, took us out to eat at a very swanky restaurant in downtown Atlanta. The meal for all of us cost him around $1000. He made a very good impression on us. We didn't buy anything from him, though. We used him and abused him. Oh well. We left on a Sunday. Breakfast of cereal and strawberries in the hotel's dining room cost $15. I sat at the next table to Verne Lundquist who was in town to call the Atlanta Falcons football game. He got a full breakfast. No telling how much that cost.
Tuesday, May 15, 2018
Buyer Stuff
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.
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.
Monday, May 7, 2018
Buyer
After about a year working in Books and Candy at Belk in Columbia Mall, my supervisor announced she was going to retire. She was also the store's buyer for much of the Home Store. She asked me if I would be interested in her position, and I said yes. It would be more money than my minimum wage job, and there would be more prestige. She recommended me to upper management, and I was named the new buyer for Home.
My departments were: Bedding, Bath, Window Treatments, Rugs, Housewares, Small Electrics, Luggage, Toys, Stationery, Greeting Cards, Records, Candy, Christmas, Notions and Books. A daunting task at best. I had to buy merchandise for all of these departments plus supervising all of the employees. And, it wasn't just the Columbia Mall store. It was also the Belk Downtown store.
I realized quite quickly that this job was going to be far more impossible than I thought. I didn't know what a "duvet" was, much less a "sham". As far as the Bed and Bath areas, I had to depend on the sales people to guide me through it. I had a little more knowledge of the other areas, and I had "bought" Luggage for Belk, when I worked in the downtown store, so I knew about that. I also knew something about Stationery, Greeting Cards, Books and Candy. However, I was drowning in the paperwork. I went to our merchandise manager, who became my retail mentor, and I told him how much trouble I was having. He hired a woman to come in and be the buyer for Bed, Bath, Window Treatments, and Rugs. That was a huge weight taken off of me.
I started with the rest of the departments and found that I had some of the best employees to supervise. I had one girl whose main job was to remember what I did the day before. With 11 departments to buy for, I often forgot one day to the next what I had done. She was my invaluable assistant. I also had employees who cared about the business. I would get samples from vendors of things, mostly in Housewares. I didn't cook, so I had no use for skillets or cake pans. So, I would use them as sales awards for my people. They loved it. I would get them presents on their birthdays and just treat them as people. I found the more I did for them, the more they did for me. Consequently, I had the lowest turnover ratio in the store. The store's average was 3 months. Mine was 2 years.
I also had our merchandise manager show me how to buy effectively and read reports. He also told me that I would not be fired for a year of buying, because I was working off of my predecessor's numbers. They sent me to buying school in Charlotte for a week of training. There were about 50 people in the class from all over the company. On the first day, the facilitator went around the room to ask how was business to each buyer. Almost everyone said business was great. When he asked how did they know, the stock answer was that their manager told them it was and for them to say that in the class. When he came to me and a buyer from Savannah, we both said business was okay but could be better. He asked us how did we know, and we told him that was what our reports said. The two of us were far ahead and the others, and the facilitator used us to teach the class.
One of the faults of the previous Housewares buyer at our store was she bought too much Pfaltzgraff 5-piece place settings. In fact, we had over 100 of them, and they were stacked to the ceiling in the stockroom. I called Pfaltzgraff to see if they would take them off of our hands, but they said no. They wouldn't let me move them to clearance, because they were very protective of their prices, so I called up a friend at J. B. White's Department Store who was their Housewares buyer. He sold them to him at cost, and they took them. It was a win-win for both of us. One thing I tried to do was to make relationships with other stores in the area. We would refer customers to them, and in turn they would do the same for us. Belk wasn't very pleased in that relationship, but it worked.
More Buyer stories coming soon.
My departments were: Bedding, Bath, Window Treatments, Rugs, Housewares, Small Electrics, Luggage, Toys, Stationery, Greeting Cards, Records, Candy, Christmas, Notions and Books. A daunting task at best. I had to buy merchandise for all of these departments plus supervising all of the employees. And, it wasn't just the Columbia Mall store. It was also the Belk Downtown store.
I realized quite quickly that this job was going to be far more impossible than I thought. I didn't know what a "duvet" was, much less a "sham". As far as the Bed and Bath areas, I had to depend on the sales people to guide me through it. I had a little more knowledge of the other areas, and I had "bought" Luggage for Belk, when I worked in the downtown store, so I knew about that. I also knew something about Stationery, Greeting Cards, Books and Candy. However, I was drowning in the paperwork. I went to our merchandise manager, who became my retail mentor, and I told him how much trouble I was having. He hired a woman to come in and be the buyer for Bed, Bath, Window Treatments, and Rugs. That was a huge weight taken off of me.
I started with the rest of the departments and found that I had some of the best employees to supervise. I had one girl whose main job was to remember what I did the day before. With 11 departments to buy for, I often forgot one day to the next what I had done. She was my invaluable assistant. I also had employees who cared about the business. I would get samples from vendors of things, mostly in Housewares. I didn't cook, so I had no use for skillets or cake pans. So, I would use them as sales awards for my people. They loved it. I would get them presents on their birthdays and just treat them as people. I found the more I did for them, the more they did for me. Consequently, I had the lowest turnover ratio in the store. The store's average was 3 months. Mine was 2 years.
I also had our merchandise manager show me how to buy effectively and read reports. He also told me that I would not be fired for a year of buying, because I was working off of my predecessor's numbers. They sent me to buying school in Charlotte for a week of training. There were about 50 people in the class from all over the company. On the first day, the facilitator went around the room to ask how was business to each buyer. Almost everyone said business was great. When he asked how did they know, the stock answer was that their manager told them it was and for them to say that in the class. When he came to me and a buyer from Savannah, we both said business was okay but could be better. He asked us how did we know, and we told him that was what our reports said. The two of us were far ahead and the others, and the facilitator used us to teach the class.
One of the faults of the previous Housewares buyer at our store was she bought too much Pfaltzgraff 5-piece place settings. In fact, we had over 100 of them, and they were stacked to the ceiling in the stockroom. I called Pfaltzgraff to see if they would take them off of our hands, but they said no. They wouldn't let me move them to clearance, because they were very protective of their prices, so I called up a friend at J. B. White's Department Store who was their Housewares buyer. He sold them to him at cost, and they took them. It was a win-win for both of us. One thing I tried to do was to make relationships with other stores in the area. We would refer customers to them, and in turn they would do the same for us. Belk wasn't very pleased in that relationship, but it worked.
More Buyer stories coming soon.
Friday, April 27, 2018
Fajardo
Early in 1984, my church was approached by our Home Mission Board to take some people to Puerto Rico to do Vacation Bible School in three locations on the island. The places were San Juan, Ponce and Fajardo. We decided to also take our One Voice singles choir and do a musical in Spanish in a park in San Juan. As we made our plans, it was also decided to send some guys down there to do construction on a church.
We chose the musical "Celebrate Life", which was already translated into Spanish. Many of us, including me, did not know any Spanish, so we took a two-month crash course in the language. They told us that they still spoke Spanish in the outlying areas of the island, but English was spoken in the tourist areas. That wasn't entirely true, but we learned some phrases and words that would get us by. We performed the musical in a Spanish church in Columbia as practice, and it was well-received. I did a lot of research on Puerto Rico and prepared the choir in some facts before going. We were to be there from the end of June until just after the 4th of July, so they told us it would be hot and to wear wide-brimmed hats. They were not kidding. It was hot.
We flew down to Puerto Rico. While over the ocean, the pilot announced that we were in the Bermuda Triangle. I got kind of scared and was relieved when we got through it without incident. When we landed in San Juan, it was hot. We stayed overnight in San Juan before moving out into the countryside. My assignment was at Fajardo, which was on the eastern side of the island. Fajardo was a mixture of poor and very rich people. The poorer people lived near the coast, and the richer ones near the marina. I did not do puppets at this VBS, because we decided not to after the fiasco of the previous year in Smyrna. Instead, I helped in games and crafts. We met at a church, which was at the preacher's house. The "church" was in his garage. He backed his car out of the garage, and we put down carpet squares to cover the oil spots on the cement. There was an altar at the back of the garage. One day, he was pulling his car back into the garage and broke the altar. We fixed it for him. Our games were played in his backyard and in a field nearby. All of this had to happen before noon, because the heat became unbearable in the afternoons.
We stayed at a hotel in downtown Fajardo. It looked like it was out of a Hemingway novel. A tree grew up in the lobby, and the two-stories of rooms surrounded the tree. The hotel was across from the post office and near the water. There was also a chicken slaughter house across from the hotel, and we woke up every morning to the sound of screaming chickens and that smell. Some would say it was "quaint". I wouldn't say that.
Our afternoons were free. One afternoon, we went to the rain forest. That was pretty and very cool. Coming out of the heat into the cool was delightful. Another afternoon, we went to the beach. Another cool day. Still another afternoon, some of us went to Ponce to visit those folks. It took three hours to drive that distance because of animals in the road mostly, which made for slow going. One night, we went to the richer part of the area for dinner. It was quite a culture shock from where we were staying. We also went to a larger church on Sunday morning. They didn't have air conditioning, so they opened windows to try and get a breeze going. It didn't work too well, and I just about passed out.
One afternoon, I stayed in the hotel room. I wanted to go to Burger King and order in Spanish. I practiced all afternoon to order a hamburger, fries and Coke in Spanish. I got it down and went to BK to give them my order. When I successfully completed it, the cashier asked me something back in Spanish that I didn't know. They all laughed and said "Gringo" to me. I found out later that she asked if I wanted Ketchup with my fries. I was embarrassed.
They gave us a van to ride in, while we were there. As we were coming back from the rain forest, the brakes failed. Our driver had to crash into a mountainside to slow down. The other side of the road was a drop off into a valley. When we got down the hill, the van was dented but we were still alive.
On July 4th, we were to sing "Celebrate Life" in the San Juan park. When we got there, we found no one had showed up to hear us. It turned out that the mission folks in Puerto Rico had failed to advertise our concert, so we sang to a handful of tourists that happened to be in the park. They didn't speak Spanish, so the concert was rather awkward.
The Saturday before we left to go home, some of the group wanted to go over to the Virgin Islands to shop. A girl and me wanted to go into San Juan and experience the casinos. You were supposed to be a guest at the hotel to use the casino. I made up a room number, and they let us in. I first went to the slot machines and won around $400. I then went to the blackjack table and lost it all. I started cashing in some traveler's checks for more chips. I was losing those and realized I needed to quit. I needed money to get home.
About a month after we got home, our Fajardo group wanted to get together to share our pictures and to party. I really wanted to go, but I was working that night at Belk. I went into my supervisor's office and asked her if she needed me for anything. She said no, so I clocked out and went to the party. The next morning, I came into work. My supervisor came over to me and said, "Don't you ever do that to me again." I never did. But, I had a good time at the party.
We chose the musical "Celebrate Life", which was already translated into Spanish. Many of us, including me, did not know any Spanish, so we took a two-month crash course in the language. They told us that they still spoke Spanish in the outlying areas of the island, but English was spoken in the tourist areas. That wasn't entirely true, but we learned some phrases and words that would get us by. We performed the musical in a Spanish church in Columbia as practice, and it was well-received. I did a lot of research on Puerto Rico and prepared the choir in some facts before going. We were to be there from the end of June until just after the 4th of July, so they told us it would be hot and to wear wide-brimmed hats. They were not kidding. It was hot.
We flew down to Puerto Rico. While over the ocean, the pilot announced that we were in the Bermuda Triangle. I got kind of scared and was relieved when we got through it without incident. When we landed in San Juan, it was hot. We stayed overnight in San Juan before moving out into the countryside. My assignment was at Fajardo, which was on the eastern side of the island. Fajardo was a mixture of poor and very rich people. The poorer people lived near the coast, and the richer ones near the marina. I did not do puppets at this VBS, because we decided not to after the fiasco of the previous year in Smyrna. Instead, I helped in games and crafts. We met at a church, which was at the preacher's house. The "church" was in his garage. He backed his car out of the garage, and we put down carpet squares to cover the oil spots on the cement. There was an altar at the back of the garage. One day, he was pulling his car back into the garage and broke the altar. We fixed it for him. Our games were played in his backyard and in a field nearby. All of this had to happen before noon, because the heat became unbearable in the afternoons.
We stayed at a hotel in downtown Fajardo. It looked like it was out of a Hemingway novel. A tree grew up in the lobby, and the two-stories of rooms surrounded the tree. The hotel was across from the post office and near the water. There was also a chicken slaughter house across from the hotel, and we woke up every morning to the sound of screaming chickens and that smell. Some would say it was "quaint". I wouldn't say that.
Our afternoons were free. One afternoon, we went to the rain forest. That was pretty and very cool. Coming out of the heat into the cool was delightful. Another afternoon, we went to the beach. Another cool day. Still another afternoon, some of us went to Ponce to visit those folks. It took three hours to drive that distance because of animals in the road mostly, which made for slow going. One night, we went to the richer part of the area for dinner. It was quite a culture shock from where we were staying. We also went to a larger church on Sunday morning. They didn't have air conditioning, so they opened windows to try and get a breeze going. It didn't work too well, and I just about passed out.
One afternoon, I stayed in the hotel room. I wanted to go to Burger King and order in Spanish. I practiced all afternoon to order a hamburger, fries and Coke in Spanish. I got it down and went to BK to give them my order. When I successfully completed it, the cashier asked me something back in Spanish that I didn't know. They all laughed and said "Gringo" to me. I found out later that she asked if I wanted Ketchup with my fries. I was embarrassed.
They gave us a van to ride in, while we were there. As we were coming back from the rain forest, the brakes failed. Our driver had to crash into a mountainside to slow down. The other side of the road was a drop off into a valley. When we got down the hill, the van was dented but we were still alive.
On July 4th, we were to sing "Celebrate Life" in the San Juan park. When we got there, we found no one had showed up to hear us. It turned out that the mission folks in Puerto Rico had failed to advertise our concert, so we sang to a handful of tourists that happened to be in the park. They didn't speak Spanish, so the concert was rather awkward.
The Saturday before we left to go home, some of the group wanted to go over to the Virgin Islands to shop. A girl and me wanted to go into San Juan and experience the casinos. You were supposed to be a guest at the hotel to use the casino. I made up a room number, and they let us in. I first went to the slot machines and won around $400. I then went to the blackjack table and lost it all. I started cashing in some traveler's checks for more chips. I was losing those and realized I needed to quit. I needed money to get home.
About a month after we got home, our Fajardo group wanted to get together to share our pictures and to party. I really wanted to go, but I was working that night at Belk. I went into my supervisor's office and asked her if she needed me for anything. She said no, so I clocked out and went to the party. The next morning, I came into work. My supervisor came over to me and said, "Don't you ever do that to me again." I never did. But, I had a good time at the party.
Monday, April 16, 2018
Jelly Beans
I was looking for a real job after leaving White Oak. There was a lot of retail experience in my background, so I succumbed to applying for those kind of positions. One job I applied for was a customer service post. I went to the interview in my three-piece suit and found it was a call center, and everyone was wearing jeans and t-shirts. I was WAY overdressed.
I did not want to work in another mall. I really can't say why other than it seemed rather confining. You worked and ate in the same place. However, I had to find a job soon, so I went to Columbia Mall. Since I had worked for Belk a couple of times before, I went into that store with the hopes that they would let me fill out an application and thus fulfill the requirement for getting unemployment funds. They saw my application, and I was hired to work in the Books and Candy Departments.
I had a lot of experience with Books, having worked at both Belk and Sanger Harris in the Book Department. I did not have a lot of experience with Candy, except for eating it. I expected to spend most of my time in Books, but I found myself most of it in Candy.
We had a really good Candy Department, selling boxed as well as loose. We had Brach, Sweet Shop and Godiva, and we also sold nuts. For the boxed area, it was mostly Russell Stover. We also sold Jelly Belly jelly beans. When I was hired it was just before Easter, and folks were buying jelly beans. We had a machine that would weigh the candy. All I had to do was to punch in the price per pound and then weigh the candy to the desired ounce or pound. The bad part about all of this was that I was not trained on my first day about how to use the machine. A man came in and wanted a pound of jelly beans. They were $3.99/pound, but I punched in $.39/pound. He got a whole big bag of jelly beans and was very excited. After that sale, they showed me how to work the scale. The next day the same man was back. He ordered the same amount, and I punched in $3.99/pound. This time he got a handful of jelly beans rather than a big bag. He got very angry. I told him the jelly beans had gone up in price. He never came back.
I also had a theory that I had to know what the candy tasted like in order to sell them, at least that was my rationale. The store didn't want the employees to eat the candy for free, but it made sense to me to be honest with the customers when they asked if it was any good. I especially like Maple Nut Goodies and Chocolate Covered Peanuts. Both were by Brach. I really didn't care much for the more expensive candy, although Godiva Truffles were good.
I did not want to work in another mall. I really can't say why other than it seemed rather confining. You worked and ate in the same place. However, I had to find a job soon, so I went to Columbia Mall. Since I had worked for Belk a couple of times before, I went into that store with the hopes that they would let me fill out an application and thus fulfill the requirement for getting unemployment funds. They saw my application, and I was hired to work in the Books and Candy Departments.
I had a lot of experience with Books, having worked at both Belk and Sanger Harris in the Book Department. I did not have a lot of experience with Candy, except for eating it. I expected to spend most of my time in Books, but I found myself most of it in Candy.
We had a really good Candy Department, selling boxed as well as loose. We had Brach, Sweet Shop and Godiva, and we also sold nuts. For the boxed area, it was mostly Russell Stover. We also sold Jelly Belly jelly beans. When I was hired it was just before Easter, and folks were buying jelly beans. We had a machine that would weigh the candy. All I had to do was to punch in the price per pound and then weigh the candy to the desired ounce or pound. The bad part about all of this was that I was not trained on my first day about how to use the machine. A man came in and wanted a pound of jelly beans. They were $3.99/pound, but I punched in $.39/pound. He got a whole big bag of jelly beans and was very excited. After that sale, they showed me how to work the scale. The next day the same man was back. He ordered the same amount, and I punched in $3.99/pound. This time he got a handful of jelly beans rather than a big bag. He got very angry. I told him the jelly beans had gone up in price. He never came back.
I also had a theory that I had to know what the candy tasted like in order to sell them, at least that was my rationale. The store didn't want the employees to eat the candy for free, but it made sense to me to be honest with the customers when they asked if it was any good. I especially like Maple Nut Goodies and Chocolate Covered Peanuts. Both were by Brach. I really didn't care much for the more expensive candy, although Godiva Truffles were good.
Wednesday, April 4, 2018
CIA
As I was looking for steady employment after leaving White Oak, I came upon an ad in the newspaper from the Central Intelligence Agency. They wanted interested people to come to a local hotel about possible employment. Having worked for a week with them in Israel in 1973, and with the Dept. of Commerce in 1980, I thought I might have a chance. It would require moving to the DC area which also enticed me, so I went.
There was a woman handling the meeting who worked in Human Resources for the CIA. She did not sugar-coat the work they were offering. She said that she lived in West Virginia and drove into work in Washington every day. She said it was important not to live near where you worked for fear that someone might follow you. She also said that one would need to park far away from the Langley headquarters, and a bus would take you to work. They were afraid of car bombs. She was deadly serious. She also told us that we couldn't tell anyone what we did. We would have to make up a cover story that was a lie. No family or friends could know. When asked what I wanted to do with the CIA, I said either analyst or courier. I felt with my knowledge of several European and Middle East locations, I could easily do either one. So, she gave me an application to take home and mail back in to them. She said not to lie about anything on the application, because they would know.
The application was 30 pages long. It started at birth and went up to the present time. They wanted to know who my friends were at my earliest memory; where did I live; friends from school and where they lived; any experience with drugs or alcohol; any political party affiliations; any subversive activities; and much more. It was quite extensive. It took me a week to fill out. Much of it I didn't know, as this was many years before Google, so I couldn't find out where my early friends lived now. When it got to the part about alcohol and drugs, I had to be honest, and I was. I also shared my experiences in Israel with the CIA, and my anti-war activities.
I sent it back, and I waited. A few weeks later, I got a letter back from them that said that I was not chosen for a position, because of some past experiences. I wrote them back to ask them if it was because of the anti-war activities, as I would renounce all of that if it would help. They wrote me back and thanked me for renouncing that stuff, but they said that the decision was also based on what happened in Israel in 1973. They felt I could be blackmailed by a foreign power for what I did in the past. They weren't kidding. Much like they weren't kidding when they threatened to revoke our passports in Israel and send us home, if we did not comply to what they wanted us to do back then. I kind of wanted to be a spy, but it was not to be.
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