As a result of the incident involving pushing the girl in Candy, I was "promoted" to be the Credit Manager for the Belk Columbia Mall store. They had one already at the downtown store. Instead of supervising 30 people, I had about 12 to deal with. Instead of having departments spread out in the store, this was a more confined space. Within the Credit Dept., there was the switchboard, gift wrap, the cash office, layaway, and credit. I had an office that was surrounded by glass, so I couldn't go in there and hide.
The switchboard was mainly run by two ladies at various shifts during the day, but at nights and on weekends, it was run by mostly high school and college folks. The cash office had one person assigned to it. If that person couldn't be there, then it was my responsibility to do it. Gift Wrap was run by one person, which was good, because I can't wrap presents to save my life. They always turn out messy. That would allow those receiving my gifts as knowing they came from me without having to read the cards. We had a back stock room for all of the layaways, and the shelves were organized by the letter of the last name of the person that put that item on layaway. There was one woman who put everything she wanted on layaway. So, there was one shelf devoted just for her stuff. The credit area was mostly to look up credit card numbers for those folks who had forgotten their cards. We had everyone's numbers on microfiche.
There would be days that made it hard to cope. I had a pretty bad temper, but I made sure that the customers wouldn't see it. So, I would go into a stockroom and kick a box to relieve that anger. It worked pretty well, but one day I couldn't find a box. I did find a file cabinet. Rather than hit it with my heel, I hit it with my toe. I broke my big toe on my right foot. One thing about breaking that toe, it can't really be fixed, so it basically has to heal on its own. I was hobbling for several days.
Of all the places I had to oversee, I mostly enjoyed working in the cash office. You had to count the money from the registers from the day before; make up a bank deposit; and put together the money for the registers for the next day. Since you worked by yourself, you could do the work at your own pace. The one problem with the cash room was that there was no ventilation, so you got hot if you were in there too long, so most people wanted to get in there and get out as quickly as you could. Normally, it would take about three hours to do the work in there. During Christmas, it took a lot longer.
I also enjoyed working on the switchboard. People would call into the store, and you would connect them with the department they wanted. It could get kind of hairy at times, especially during sales, but the time went by fast. I had one college guy working the switchboard one day. Someone had found a wallet on the ground and had brought it to us. I asked the guy to announce that a wallet had been found. He should have asked for that person's name to call the operator. Instead, he announced that whoever lost a wallet come to Credit. We had a bit of a stampede up the escalator to claim the wallet. Thankfully, we got it to the rightful owner.
I had some good people working for me and with me. Just as with my being a Buyer, I needed a couple of people to shadow me, so I could remember what I had done from the previous day. Those two were Debbie and Denise, who were both in college. Denise was a bit more serious of the two. Debbie was incredibly fun to be around. We went out at times. She was funny and very creative. She mainly worked nights, so when I came in the next morning, I had a long letter that she wrote about things that went on the night before. A lot of the letters would just be her rambling about her life. I still have so many of those letters. We would also go through the credit card files and pick out the strangest sounding names of real people. I really liked Debbie.
As I mentioned before, we had a woman who put everything on layaway. She tried to hide her buying stuff from her husband. She had a lot of money, as her husband was the head of a big company in Columbia. She really had an addiction to shopping. If one did not pay out the layaway by a certain time, the customer was sent a letter and the item was returned to the department in the store. We kept meticulous records of how something was paid and the balance owed. One day, I was called into the head of Operations for the store. He told me that this woman complained that I stole her money by not recording her payment and returning the item to the floor. I told the manager that I had not done any such thing. The woman was threatening to cut up her charge card and tell all of her society friends that I stole her money. Even though everyone knew this woman was a little off, it was decided to remove me as the Credit Manager, after working there a year. I was sent to the downtown store to work in Stationery and Luggage, where I had been back in the mid-1970's. I was pretty much sent into exile to get me away from that woman. So, for a few months, I worked downtown. I got to see Pope John Paul II drive down Assembly Street in his Pope Mobile. He waved to me.
Friday, June 29, 2018
Thursday, June 21, 2018
Candy
One of my rules, as a supervisor, has been to not take the word of an employee. if they are complaining about another employee. After all, no one can get along with everyone, because there will always be some quirk that will not sit well with everyone. So, when I started getting complaints about a girl who worked in Candy, I felt I needed to see what was going on to make a judgement if something needed to be done.
Paige, Vicki, Michele and Lynn were my best workers on the Stationery/Candy side of the floor. All four had told me that there was a girl up in Candy that refused to ring up anything except Candy on her register. The registers were programmed to ring up anything in the store at any register. The four girls were coming to me on a regular basis about this Candy associate. The story that was the worst was two elderly ladies walking up to the Candy Department to have their cards rung up, and the associate telling them she couldn't do it, and the ladies had to walk a pretty good distance to buy their cards.
So, I left my office and went out on the floor to watch this girl in Candy. I watched as an elderly woman with a cane walk up to Candy to buy a card. I saw the associate refuse to ring it up, and I watched the old woman walk slowly down the aisle to find another register. This made me mad. I went to that associate and asked her why she had done what I had seen. The girl denied doing it. I told her that other people had seen her do the same thing, and she told me that they just didn't like her because she was black, and the other girls on the floor were white. This made me more incensed, as I didn't care what color you were, as long as you did the work assigned to you to do. She continued to deny to my face that she was doing anything wrong. I know I shouldn't have done this, but I hit her shoulder and knocked her shoulder padding awry. I was just trying to get her attention, but I went way out of control. I had never pushed anyone before (or since). So, I told her that I was going to Personnel and have her fired.
I went to Personnel and told the head of that department what had happened. He told me that she would be fired, and I left. She then went into Personnel and told him that I had assaulted her. He didn't believe her, and she was fired. However, word got out how the situation had escalated, and to keep from having a lawsuit, I was asked to leave being a Buyer. The excuse was the children's dinnerware buy from the Chicago Market that had not sold. Everything was hushed up.
The manager didn't want to lose me, so I was made the Credit Manager for the store. They called it a promotion. I really didn't see it that way, but at least I still had a job. It turned out to be a lot of fun, which I will write about later. However, they brought in a woman to take my place as a Buyer. My former co-workers didn't like her and would constantly complain to me about her. I felt it wasn't fair for her to try and fill my shoes as a Buyer, but I told them to give her a chance. The problem was, too, that the woman had no clue how to buy for those departments, so I was basically doing her job and my new one for the first three months of her stay as the Home Store Buyer. It got to the point, where I just had to tell her that she needed to do it on her own, as I had another job to do. She stayed for about a year, until one day she was driving to the downtown store along Gervais Street. She had stopped at a light at the corner of Gervais and Sumter, when a man jumped from a tall building and landed on her car. She turned in her resignation that day.
Paige, Vicki, Michele and Lynn were my best workers on the Stationery/Candy side of the floor. All four had told me that there was a girl up in Candy that refused to ring up anything except Candy on her register. The registers were programmed to ring up anything in the store at any register. The four girls were coming to me on a regular basis about this Candy associate. The story that was the worst was two elderly ladies walking up to the Candy Department to have their cards rung up, and the associate telling them she couldn't do it, and the ladies had to walk a pretty good distance to buy their cards.
So, I left my office and went out on the floor to watch this girl in Candy. I watched as an elderly woman with a cane walk up to Candy to buy a card. I saw the associate refuse to ring it up, and I watched the old woman walk slowly down the aisle to find another register. This made me mad. I went to that associate and asked her why she had done what I had seen. The girl denied doing it. I told her that other people had seen her do the same thing, and she told me that they just didn't like her because she was black, and the other girls on the floor were white. This made me more incensed, as I didn't care what color you were, as long as you did the work assigned to you to do. She continued to deny to my face that she was doing anything wrong. I know I shouldn't have done this, but I hit her shoulder and knocked her shoulder padding awry. I was just trying to get her attention, but I went way out of control. I had never pushed anyone before (or since). So, I told her that I was going to Personnel and have her fired.
I went to Personnel and told the head of that department what had happened. He told me that she would be fired, and I left. She then went into Personnel and told him that I had assaulted her. He didn't believe her, and she was fired. However, word got out how the situation had escalated, and to keep from having a lawsuit, I was asked to leave being a Buyer. The excuse was the children's dinnerware buy from the Chicago Market that had not sold. Everything was hushed up.
The manager didn't want to lose me, so I was made the Credit Manager for the store. They called it a promotion. I really didn't see it that way, but at least I still had a job. It turned out to be a lot of fun, which I will write about later. However, they brought in a woman to take my place as a Buyer. My former co-workers didn't like her and would constantly complain to me about her. I felt it wasn't fair for her to try and fill my shoes as a Buyer, but I told them to give her a chance. The problem was, too, that the woman had no clue how to buy for those departments, so I was basically doing her job and my new one for the first three months of her stay as the Home Store Buyer. It got to the point, where I just had to tell her that she needed to do it on her own, as I had another job to do. She stayed for about a year, until one day she was driving to the downtown store along Gervais Street. She had stopped at a light at the corner of Gervais and Sumter, when a man jumped from a tall building and landed on her car. She turned in her resignation that day.
Friday, June 15, 2018
Stephen
I did a play at my church called "Let the Church Grow" in 1987. I played Stephen who was martyred. The play was written and directed by Kevin McAfee, who was on the staff of our church in creative ministries.
There is one thing I am very sensitive about when it comes to writing stuff. I don't like it, when someone alters what I have written. If you remember from my post called "Smyrna #2", you remember how mad I got about someone changing her part, after I had written it. So, Kevin had written this play surrounding the early church, and he had written a long monologue for "Stephen" to deliver. It was mostly taken from the Bible. Because of who I was (my ego was as big as all outdoors), I felt that the monologue was too long. I rewrote it and condensed it to half of its length. Kevin was not pleased. I really didn't blame him, but I did it my way anyway. One thing about a live performance: the actor can do anything and get away with it as long as it is in character, because the audience don't have the script. You can go back to my post on "Blithe Spirit" to see what I am talking about.
We were using mics for the play. I told the sound guy to cut my mic way down, because I was going to project to the back of the church, and I really didn't need a mic. He said he wasn't going to cut it down. His soundboard was about halfway back in the church's auditorium. When I started my monologue, I was shouting. I saw him rip his headphones off. It made me smile.
Another thing about the play was the makeup. Kevin wanted most of us to have beards. One of the actors grew his own. Everybody else had fake beards. Mine was black against my brown hair. I did have my hair covered, so the beard could be black, and no one would know the difference. I have the play on video, at least my part, and a close up shows my fake beard coming off from around my mouth. The fake hair got into my mouth, and I was spitting out the hair, which caused the spirit gum to start failing. There is a spot on the left side of my mouth where there is no beard.
So, I did my part. A lot of people thought I did great. I was just glad to get that beard taken off of my face.
There is one thing I am very sensitive about when it comes to writing stuff. I don't like it, when someone alters what I have written. If you remember from my post called "Smyrna #2", you remember how mad I got about someone changing her part, after I had written it. So, Kevin had written this play surrounding the early church, and he had written a long monologue for "Stephen" to deliver. It was mostly taken from the Bible. Because of who I was (my ego was as big as all outdoors), I felt that the monologue was too long. I rewrote it and condensed it to half of its length. Kevin was not pleased. I really didn't blame him, but I did it my way anyway. One thing about a live performance: the actor can do anything and get away with it as long as it is in character, because the audience don't have the script. You can go back to my post on "Blithe Spirit" to see what I am talking about.
We were using mics for the play. I told the sound guy to cut my mic way down, because I was going to project to the back of the church, and I really didn't need a mic. He said he wasn't going to cut it down. His soundboard was about halfway back in the church's auditorium. When I started my monologue, I was shouting. I saw him rip his headphones off. It made me smile.
Another thing about the play was the makeup. Kevin wanted most of us to have beards. One of the actors grew his own. Everybody else had fake beards. Mine was black against my brown hair. I did have my hair covered, so the beard could be black, and no one would know the difference. I have the play on video, at least my part, and a close up shows my fake beard coming off from around my mouth. The fake hair got into my mouth, and I was spitting out the hair, which caused the spirit gum to start failing. There is a spot on the left side of my mouth where there is no beard.
So, I did my part. A lot of people thought I did great. I was just glad to get that beard taken off of my face.
Thursday, June 7, 2018
Chicago Market
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.
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.
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.
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