California Apparel News

A Q&A with retail consultant and author George Whalin

Independent retailers don’t need a business plan or even a lot of experience to thrive in a tough economy, according to veteran retail consultant George Whalin. What they need is to engage a fickle public with exclusive, unique product. They also need great customer service. It’s the best way to make their store the go-to place for a specific product.

Whalin found this recipe for indie retail success when researching his “Retail Superstars” book, which was published at the end of May by Portfolio, a division of Penguin Group.The book profiles 25 independent boutiques—from the seven-story-tall emporium Wilkes Bashford in San Francisco to the 1,250-square-foot boutique Wanna Buy A Watch? in Los Angeles. These stores specialize in unique, niche products such as exclusive fashions, Christmas ornaments, electronics, food and even joke novelties.

California Apparel News Retail Editor Andrew Asch recently interviewed Whalin about “Retail Superstars” and what made these stores thrive in a market dominated by major chain stores. Whalin is president of Retail Management Consultants in Carlsbad, Calif.Are there any traits your retail superstars share? It seems like they all offer a deep inventory of niche products. They all build community with customers, and they all have fun with their store design. What else do they do?

Each store is unique and different. If you can’t position yourself to be unique and different, there’s no reason for customers to visit. They will choose the big guys. They can offer the big discounts, and they have the big budgets for advertising and promotion.

If you have a special, unique store, if you sell merchandise different from everyone else, a community will grow around it. Shoppers will come over and over, year after year, and they will tell their friends about it. They feel part of the store. And if there is an interest in something, there will be a need for it. You can create a store around that interest. If there is a wide-enough customer base, it can be a destination.What else is important?

The [retail superstars] also have great customer service. They serve customers in meaningful ways that are pleasant and memorable. A lot of big stores talk about customer service. But it is more lip service than anything else. The small shops that do something better than anybody else and offer knowledgeable salespeople always will win.

The [superstars] also do a lot of little things for their customers. A Southern Season opens five minutes early in case someone comes early. Gallery Furniture delivers the day of purchase. They don’t schedule delivery when their truck happens to be in your area.

The [retail superstars] are far more flexible than mainstream retailers. They don’t have bureaucracy. But they are not little mom and pops. ABT Electronics has a sales volume of $300 million annually. ABC Carpet & Home has 400 employees. Can the success of these retail superstars be duplicated? Were there any business plans for these stores? Or was each superstar store merely the product of one owner’s obsession or retail vision?

Absolutely, their success can be duplicated. Every single one of these stores started as something way less than it is today. Jungle Jim’s International Market started as an open-air fruit and vegetable stand. Gallery Furniture started out with $5,000 of consigned furniture in an abandoned model home. The biggest surprise of all was when I asked them about business plans. They said, “What the hell is a business plan? We started because we wanted to control our destinies.” Most don’t have business plans now.Why would any of these stores fail?

If they are not truly unique and different. Another reason is they were insufficiently financed. The economy always is going up and down, and you can’t last through a downturn if you are poorly financed. All of these [retail superstars] have had their difficulties from time to time. But they’ve maintained and grown business through every sort of difficulty. Gump’s was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. But they moved down the street and started all over again. There’s always an opportunity. That’s the beauty of retail.