Shownotes
Bruce’s Summer Classics Story
Bruce’s love of retail started early. [5:19] Why Bruce decided to go back into retail. [9:39] How his Summer Classics store is unique. [16:21] The planning and party – a Grand Opening success. [20:39] The advertising plan with placement and messaging. [26:57]Candle Flickering Moments
Funding the purchase of a store. [23:00] Outsourcing for delivery proved to be more trouble than expected. [24:21]Business Building Insights
A note on failure. [4:29] Two examples illustrating how connections can help advance your plan. [7:46] How to research your market before opening a store. [10:46] Setting up a retail environment that reinforces customer loyalty. [14:41] Email strategies that work. [30:46] IP targeting is an up and coming opportunity. [33:23] Retail today. It’s all about your niche. [34:34] Managing guests within your store. [36:42] Local community involvement. [38:41]Valuable Resource
Industry meetings. [37:40] Shops That Pop!: 7 Steps to Extraordinary Retail Success by Pamela Danziger and Jennifer LorenzettiA Final Word
Advice for someone considering a retail store. [40:19]Contact Links
Website Facebook Instagram Twitter LinkedInIf you found value in this podcast, make sure to subscribe and leave a review in Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts. That helps us spread the word to more makers just like you. Thanks! Sue
Transcripts
Hi there.
Speaker:You're listening to gift biz on rap episode 130 All along.
Speaker:I had really wanted to do something on my own.
Speaker:Hi, this is John Entrepreneur on fire,
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Speaker:today. If you're eight gifter Baker,
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Speaker:let's get onto the show today.
Speaker:I have the pleasure of introducing you to Bruce Erickson of
Speaker:summer classes in March of 2016,
Speaker:Bruce opened his summer classics home store in downtown Highland park,
Speaker:Illinois. Bruce chose summer classics because he has known the owner
Speaker:for over 20 years and has always admired his vision for
Speaker:the company and the industry as a whole.
Speaker:Bruce has been in the furniture industry for over 35 years
Speaker:in both retail and wholesale sides of the business,
Speaker:but he wanted in with this retail chain,
Speaker:summer classics,
Speaker:outdoor furniture stands out it's timeless yet fashionable style.
Speaker:Their designers are inspired to create sophisticated products by combining traditional
Speaker:craftsmanship, with innovative usage of diverse materials in a disposable culture.
Speaker:This makes summer classics furniture purchase the generation reus.
Speaker:Welcome to the show.
Speaker:Thank you,
Speaker:sir. You know,
Speaker:I started out in a little bit of a different way,
Speaker:and that is by having you share a little bit about
Speaker:who you are through your description of a motivational candle.
Speaker:So if you were to create a candle that represents you,
Speaker:what color would it be and what would be the quote
Speaker:on your candle?
Speaker:So the candle color is going to be blue.
Speaker:It's always been my favorite color.
Speaker:I have a lot of blue things,
Speaker:blue cars,
Speaker:blue clothes and everything.
Speaker:So it's always been my favorite color.
Speaker:It also just happens to be one of our best selling
Speaker:here in summer classics and with Gabby.
Speaker:So it's a color that I've always grown up with wearing
Speaker:and driving as a car.
Speaker:And then as far as quotes on that candle,
Speaker:when we opened the store,
Speaker:I had a good friend that gave me a plaque for
Speaker:my office,
Speaker:and it was a quote from Walt Disney and it says,
Speaker:all of your dreams can come true if you have the
Speaker:courage to pursue them.
Speaker:I really liked that.
Speaker:And I think that says a lot about entrepreneurs in general
Speaker:and about business people in general and trying to make them
Speaker:go after their dreams go after the things that they want
Speaker:to do.
Speaker:So that's what we're trying to do here.
Speaker:The quote surprises me a little bit because you are such
Speaker:an altogether guy.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I know you through the chamber,
Speaker:right? You're so professional.
Speaker:You're so poised.
Speaker:Have you ever had to call on courage yourself?
Speaker:Oh yeah,
Speaker:absolutely. And people show it and do it in different ways.
Speaker:And I think from opening the store back in my other
Speaker:jobs that I've done,
Speaker:I've been a sales rep for a company like summer classics
Speaker:and a couple other outdoor lines in the past and indoor
Speaker:lines. And I think it's always things that you have to
Speaker:draw on and courage would definitely be one of them.
Speaker:Do you feel you get more courageous over time as you've
Speaker:been successful and start to rack up some things that have
Speaker:gone well,
Speaker:and clearly you got a little bit more confidence,
Speaker:but you think it gets easier to be courageous as you
Speaker:get more advanced in your career.
Speaker:Older is another word too.
Speaker:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker:I think you learn from your mistakes and if you haven't
Speaker:failed, you're never going to succeed.
Speaker:So there's very few successful people in business or in life
Speaker:that haven't had a failure along the way.
Speaker:And so you got to realize that at some point something
Speaker:that you try something you do,
Speaker:it's just not going to work the way you want it
Speaker:to. And so you move on to different things.
Speaker:We're really interested in getting you on the show,
Speaker:Bruce, because you are running a successful retail shop and it's
Speaker:new. And I think a lot of people right now I've
Speaker:had conversations like this with my listeners that they're shying away
Speaker:from retail,
Speaker:because it seems like it's too scary now with all the
Speaker:online shopping.
Speaker:So I'm going to be interested in talking a little bit
Speaker:about that in terms of what you're seeing,
Speaker:why you took that chance,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:But before we do that,
Speaker:give us a little bit of your backstory and how you
Speaker:got into the furniture business in the first place.
Speaker:Well, just coming out of high school,
Speaker:I started working in a retail store back in Des Moines,
Speaker:Iowa, and it was a ski store or ski shop.
Speaker:And then we had camping and so forth and I really
Speaker:kind of get the retail bug at that point so much
Speaker:so that when I first went into college,
Speaker:I wanted to be a dentist and went through that first
Speaker:year and was working for this guy in the ski shop.
Speaker:And like,
Speaker:I really would rather do this and spend seven years or
Speaker:eight years going through dental school.
Speaker:So I took a year off college and worked for him
Speaker:and then went back to school and got my education in
Speaker:retail management.
Speaker:So I had totally switched gears.
Speaker:So I was with him for six years and a competitor
Speaker:in the town that I was in and DeWine ran an
Speaker:ad for a manager.
Speaker:And I was kind of looking to move on this other
Speaker:store, had multiple locations through Iowa and Wisconsin.
Speaker:I applied for their job and the guy called me back
Speaker:right away.
Speaker:And he said,
Speaker:I know you I've been in and I've shopped you.
Speaker:I'd love to talk to you.
Speaker:And that store did ski business in the winter.
Speaker:And they did patio business in the summer.
Speaker:And that's how I got into the patio furniture business and
Speaker:started managing a couple of their stores and then became one
Speaker:of their buyers and was with them for about seven years.
Speaker:Then I had an opportunity with one of our reps that
Speaker:called on us to do repping through Wisconsin and Illinois for
Speaker:a company called Winston furniture,
Speaker:which at that time was a huge line.
Speaker:It still is around and does very well still.
Speaker:But at that time it was the dominant force in patio
Speaker:furniture. And we also,
Speaker:at that time picked up a small little startup company called
Speaker:summer classics.
Speaker:And that's when I first met BW white from summer classics.
Speaker:And from that point on really enjoyed working with him and
Speaker:with that company.
Speaker:And then after about 10 years of repping kids were still
Speaker:small, a lot of time on the road,
Speaker:starting to look at different things.
Speaker:And so I went back onto the retail side so that
Speaker:I didn't have to travel as much and could be home
Speaker:with my kids and see their baseball games and volleyball games
Speaker:and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker:And spent 17 years with a local retailer selling outdoor furniture.
Speaker:And they also did ski equipment and clothing.
Speaker:So that wasn't summer classics at the time then?
Speaker:No. Okay.
Speaker:So that was Williams here in Highland park.
Speaker:Oh, Williams.
Speaker:A very prestigious and well-known Store for sure.
Speaker:Yeah. And they'd been around for a long,
Speaker:long time.
Speaker:And before that as a rep,
Speaker:I knew Mark Williams.
Speaker:And so when I started thinking about getting back onto the
Speaker:retail side,
Speaker:made a call to him and we had three or four
Speaker:meetings and met with his wife and everything,
Speaker:and ended up working with them for about 17 years and
Speaker:just all along.
Speaker:I had really wanted to do something on my own and
Speaker:the time just came and saw the opportunity with summer classics
Speaker:went back and talked to Butte white again from summer classics
Speaker:and said,
Speaker:tell me about your retail stores.
Speaker:Tell me about your retail business.
Speaker:Cause summer classics over the last 10 years has opened now
Speaker:14 retail locations.
Speaker:And some of those are corporate owned and some are what
Speaker:they call licensee stores,
Speaker:which is kind of like a franchise without all the hoops
Speaker:of a franchise.
Speaker:So we had a nice conversation and it just kind of
Speaker:went from there.
Speaker:And few months after that,
Speaker:I left Williams and still had some reservations as far as
Speaker:the retail side,
Speaker:opening my own store and everything.
Speaker:But I had Talked to a couple of other people about
Speaker:maybe getting back Into repping and that was another option,
Speaker:but retail is what I want to do.
Speaker:And so about six months after leaving Williams opened summer classics.
Speaker:So you talk about the fact that you wanted to leave
Speaker:Rapping and did you have a certain territory,
Speaker:a portion of the country don't tell me you had the
Speaker:whole country.
Speaker:We had Illinois and Wisconsin.
Speaker:And we did a few things into Minnesota,
Speaker:some accessory lines and a few things over into Missouri,
Speaker:again with some accessory lines.
Speaker:But the main lines that we had were Illinois and Wisconsin.
Speaker:So through the Midwest and through the snow and all of
Speaker:that, I've been there to bruise,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:that story.
Speaker:So it's really great that you had seen both sides of
Speaker:the business and you decided that you wanted to go back
Speaker:to retail because you could stay home,
Speaker:but let's face it.
Speaker:Retail hours are heavy too.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:why did you choose that route?
Speaker:Knowing retail has its own restrictions.
Speaker:I guess You're home every night.
Speaker:That's the big thing.
Speaker:When I was repping on the road,
Speaker:usually three,
Speaker:four nights a week,
Speaker:especially during the busy time of the year.
Speaker:And in the winter months,
Speaker:it's still would be gone a night or two a week.
Speaker:So just felt like I was missing out on a lot.
Speaker:So I thought going back to retail where I could be
Speaker:close to home and be home at night and have some
Speaker:flexibility as far as being able to jump away and see
Speaker:a volleyball game or something like that was something that interested
Speaker:me at that time.
Speaker:So let's take this in a direction that our listeners are
Speaker:going to be able to relate to.
Speaker:Let's take it as if you were talking to somebody who
Speaker:is considering opening up their own shop.
Speaker:So they might not have the experience that you do.
Speaker:They also might be creating something all by themselves,
Speaker:your taking summer classics and opening a store here.
Speaker:I'll be it.
Speaker:It's still yours.
Speaker:So you have all the responsibility,
Speaker:but there's the product and all of that.
Speaker:What types of things did you do when you started,
Speaker:like when you were preparing to open the shop and what
Speaker:types of advice would you have for someone who's in a
Speaker:similar situation,
Speaker:but opening something for themselves?
Speaker:Sure. Well,
Speaker:initially I sat down with the principals of summer classics there,
Speaker:BW white,
Speaker:who owns the company and then their vice-president and their sales
Speaker:manager at the time.
Speaker:And just talk to them about the whole concept.
Speaker:And then the week after I talked to him,
Speaker:I had already planned a vacation with my wife,
Speaker:or just a week off with my wife.
Speaker:We weren't really planning anything in particular.
Speaker:So I came back from that meeting and I said to
Speaker:her, I said,
Speaker:do you want to take a trip?
Speaker:And she goes,
Speaker:yeah, where are we going?
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:let's go and tour some of the summer classic stores.
Speaker:So we took a trip out to Columbus,
Speaker:Ohio, and Nashville and Louisville and St.
Speaker:Louis to see some of their stores.
Speaker:So we just did a week long road trip.
Speaker:And so those four stores,
Speaker:it was interesting because there was two licensees stores and two
Speaker:corporate stores.
Speaker:So he got to see a mix there and also got
Speaker:to see a mix in size of stores.
Speaker:So I wanted to see what it would take to do
Speaker:it and what kind of locations it should be looking for
Speaker:and so forth.
Speaker:And also the people,
Speaker:how many people would need to run it and so forth.
Speaker:And it was a great week.
Speaker:We met some terrific people,
Speaker:got a really good feel of the company.
Speaker:As a,
Speaker:I remember walking away from Nashville,
Speaker:which is an awesome little store.
Speaker:It's only about 3000 square feet with a little outside display,
Speaker:but they are right in this part of Nashville that has
Speaker:some great restaurants and coffee shops and things like that.
Speaker:And they get like 200 to 300 people through the store
Speaker:a day.
Speaker:So it's a rock and little store and to see them
Speaker:and talk to them and we walked away from there and
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:these people have definitely drank the Kool-Aid.
Speaker:So we knew coming away from that,
Speaker:that this would be something that we could bring back to
Speaker:Chicago and work in Chicago.
Speaker:And then also we went to other stores and through my
Speaker:retail years,
Speaker:I've been on different boards and so forth with the outdoor
Speaker:industry. And so I kind of got to know a lot
Speaker:of the people.
Speaker:We went to other stores here in the area,
Speaker:we went out to like Northwest metal craft and Viking ski
Speaker:shop and different places just to kind of see what they
Speaker:do and how they do it and talk to them.
Speaker:And then as we're going around,
Speaker:like in St.
Speaker:Louis went to some other stores that I knew down there,
Speaker:just to see again,
Speaker:what they do and how they do it.
Speaker:You Were doing that to really validate the idea exactly.
Speaker:To confirm to yourself that this is what you wanted to
Speaker:do. And then capturing all the pieces of information.
Speaker:You just talked about,
Speaker:like how many people should be in the store.
Speaker:What should the size store be?
Speaker:Probably display ideas,
Speaker:Advertising everything I,
Speaker:everything. Okay.
Speaker:So within a brand like summer classics is every location throughout
Speaker:the country attracting the same type of a customer,
Speaker:or are they different by location too?
Speaker:Pretty much the same customer.
Speaker:And it's one of the things that summer classics also tries
Speaker:to do as far as the look of the store is
Speaker:if you walk into our store or you walk into Louisville,
Speaker:Kentucky, you're going to get a similar feel.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:each store is different on their own,
Speaker:but in terms of a lot of the merchandising and things
Speaker:like that,
Speaker:it's the same kind of feel.
Speaker:And it definitely draws the same type of customer now.
Speaker:And in our area where we are,
Speaker:we have a little higher end clientele than maybe what Nashville
Speaker:does, but still what we're selling is the same thing.
Speaker:Okay. And I just want to make the point there that
Speaker:in addition to the types of things that you are looking
Speaker:at and considering,
Speaker:which is what somebody should also be doing,
Speaker:if they're looking at opening their own place,
Speaker:go to a competitor and see what else is already out
Speaker:there, how things are working.
Speaker:I like the overview that you gave us,
Speaker:Bruce, just all the different types of things you're looking at
Speaker:different for someone who's starting out by themselves versus you though,
Speaker:you also will need to define what is the style that
Speaker:you want to represent in your shop?
Speaker:Is it very clean and crisp?
Speaker:Is it more friendly and country?
Speaker:Like, what is the style sounds like you already had that
Speaker:all set as you entered into summer classes.
Speaker:We did.
Speaker:Yeah. And one of the things that you see as you
Speaker:go around to different stores,
Speaker:whether it's the summer classics or other successful stores,
Speaker:is they make it an environment that you want to shop
Speaker:and you want it to be a friendly environment,
Speaker:welcoming environment,
Speaker:but just you walk in and you like,
Speaker:there's things that you want to look at when you come
Speaker:into the store.
Speaker:And that's one of the things that we try to do
Speaker:on a daily basis is make it a little bit different
Speaker:every time a customer comes in the store.
Speaker:So it's not just the same old packaged store.
Speaker:So it's always a little bit different.
Speaker:So how often do you switch up the floor?
Speaker:Well, we do two major switches.
Speaker:We do one in February when we condense down our indoor
Speaker:furniture and bring out the outdoor furniture.
Speaker:And then we do another one in September,
Speaker:mid September,
Speaker:first part of October,
Speaker:where we bring in the indoor furniture for the fall.
Speaker:Those are the two major switches.
Speaker:And then during the year we do at least two other,
Speaker:I won't say major,
Speaker:but rearranging and freshening up.
Speaker:But then on a weekly basis,
Speaker:we get different things in on a weekly basis that from
Speaker:accessories to even maybe some new styles that are out or
Speaker:things that maybe we're just waiting to come in that want
Speaker:to freshen up the store with.
Speaker:So it's constantly changing.
Speaker:And how many square feet do you have?
Speaker:We have just under 7,000.
Speaker:Okay. So it's pretty big size store.
Speaker:Sure is.
Speaker:So one other thing,
Speaker:just while we're still talking about,
Speaker:as you're analyzing and you're looking at then other summer classic
Speaker:stores and then also stores that are in the same industry
Speaker:in the local area,
Speaker:I'm sure you didn't want to just repeat what was already
Speaker:out there because we wanted to make sure that your store
Speaker:looked unique and different.
Speaker:Absolutely. What was your thinking along that end?
Speaker:Well, we spent some time with summer classics merchandising team and
Speaker:the people that buy all their accessories,
Speaker:buy all their things for their stores,
Speaker:just to,
Speaker:we sent them pictures of the location.
Speaker:They actually made a trip out,
Speaker:took a look at it to see what it looked like.
Speaker:And then we sat down with them and said,
Speaker:this is what we were thinking.
Speaker:What do you think?
Speaker:And we all kind of got our ideas together and said,
Speaker:let's do this as far as colors,
Speaker:let's do this.
Speaker:As far as paint,
Speaker:floors, everything.
Speaker:And then we went to Atlanta with them in January before
Speaker:we opened to a gift show.
Speaker:And if you've never been to Atlanta,
Speaker:if any of your people,
Speaker:if you've never been to Atlanta,
Speaker:it's a crazy market Is nuts.
Speaker:I've exhibited there.
Speaker:It's huge.
Speaker:How many floors is it?
Speaker:Well, there's three buildings and they're all about 20 stories tall
Speaker:and it's all showrooms.
Speaker:It's all showrooms.
Speaker:Yeah. And then there's temporary space and everything.
Speaker:So there are literally hundreds of people that you can look
Speaker:at, but it's nice going through with them because we could
Speaker:be a little more focused.
Speaker:So we could go into twenty-five showrooms instead of a hundred.
Speaker:So we kind of got an idea as far as the
Speaker:look that we wanted and everything and went through with them
Speaker:and just started bringing stuff in.
Speaker:And then with the summer classic side,
Speaker:we kind of broke away from some of the things that
Speaker:they do to make it a little more specific for our
Speaker:market. So it was colors that were a little bit different.
Speaker:Some of the styles that we knew would,
Speaker:whereas the summer classics,
Speaker:corporate stores,
Speaker:you will see the same groupings pretty much in each individual
Speaker:store and colored the same in each individual store.
Speaker:But we wanted it to be a little bit different.
Speaker:We wanted it to be specific for our location and what
Speaker:we knew could sell in our location.
Speaker:And how did you know,
Speaker:just from being in that business for 17 years,
Speaker:The industry knowledge,
Speaker:and then what about your customer?
Speaker:Were there any focus groups or something like that now you're
Speaker:also from the area.
Speaker:So you have a better feel for it and probably what
Speaker:to look for,
Speaker:but if someone isn't really sure about their customer,
Speaker:any suggestions on how to find out that information before you
Speaker:purchase everything or design your whole store only to find that
Speaker:it's not a connection.
Speaker:Well, I think you can,
Speaker:again, go to local competitors,
Speaker:look and see what they're doing.
Speaker:As far as customers go reach out to people,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:reach out to friends,
Speaker:reach out to colleagues in the industry,
Speaker:as far as,
Speaker:especially ones that might be local just to see what kind
Speaker:of ideas they have and things that they like,
Speaker:places that they like to shop that I think would certainly
Speaker:help people to do that too.
Speaker:What I like about what you're just saying is it's,
Speaker:doesn't have to be really hard.
Speaker:You just have to go with the right mindset of what
Speaker:you're looking for.
Speaker:Absolutely. You're looking to understand what the market likes and accepts,
Speaker:not what you like,
Speaker:which is a common error.
Speaker:Someone will,
Speaker:in my case,
Speaker:I would be painting my whole shop yellow because I love
Speaker:yellow. What if that's not the right thing for a market?
Speaker:So really,
Speaker:and this is directed at gift biz listeners.
Speaker:Make sure if you're in this situation,
Speaker:you're really looking at what is going to attract your customer,
Speaker:not necessarily what you love.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So the shops all ready to go now,
Speaker:how do you start dealing with a grand opening and staffing
Speaker:up? What is your advice there for somebody new?
Speaker:Well, I was fortunate in that there were some people that
Speaker:I had worked with over the past 15 years that were
Speaker:also interested in coming with me and working with me.
Speaker:Then there were some other people that I knew just from
Speaker:designers and so forth,
Speaker:that wanted to be a part of it.
Speaker:So from a staffing standpoint,
Speaker:I was very fortunate.
Speaker:I didn't have to run a bunch of ads and interview
Speaker:a bunch of people.
Speaker:I can,
Speaker:I knew who was going to be coming with me and
Speaker:who was not going to be coming with me from almost
Speaker:the very beginning.
Speaker:So the staffing part for me was really easy.
Speaker:And I was very fortunate to get a lot of experience
Speaker:to come along with me that worked out well.
Speaker:But as far as the grand opening side of it,
Speaker:again, I go back to the summer classics team and we
Speaker:had weekly meetings that are weekly phone calls.
Speaker:That would take us all the way through things we had
Speaker:from signing the lease to the colors in the building and
Speaker:the paint and the floors and all that all laid out.
Speaker:And then we just put it on spreadsheets and went through
Speaker:on a weekly basis to check,
Speaker:to see where we were.
Speaker:And then it was like Brian computers and all that kind
Speaker:of stuff.
Speaker:Then the grand opening event,
Speaker:I have to credit my wife on that.
Speaker:She's a great party planner.
Speaker:And she put a lot of the things together for the
Speaker:grand opening and from entertainment to well entertainment.
Speaker:We ended up changing kind of at the last minute,
Speaker:cause BW white from summer classics offered up one of their
Speaker:guys in Birmingham to fly up,
Speaker:to sing at our grand opening.
Speaker:The guy is awesome.
Speaker:He sat there for three hours and sang all through the
Speaker:night and he's got an amazing voice.
Speaker:In fact,
Speaker:we've told him he has to go on,
Speaker:America's got talent or something like that or the voice.
Speaker:So he's really,
Speaker:really good,
Speaker:but she put together all the gift packages and stuff for
Speaker:everybody that showed up and it was a fun night.
Speaker:We probably had 200,
Speaker:250 people that night throughout the evening.
Speaker:And it was a good party.
Speaker:It was a good party.
Speaker:You are right.
Speaker:And the other thing that I think was so great.
Speaker:So kudos to your wife.
Speaker:I didn't know who planned it.
Speaker:I thought you had a professional planner,
Speaker:but you involved people from the community,
Speaker:which was wonderful in terms of the appetizers and all of
Speaker:that. But the thing that was so obvious to me,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:your store is very upscale and very nice and very polished.
Speaker:And the event was the same way.
Speaker:It was totally in line with your brand.
Speaker:So as a grand opening,
Speaker:this is the first opportunity.
Speaker:Give biz listeners again,
Speaker:to present yourself to the public.
Speaker:So you want to make sure that the connection is clean
Speaker:in terms of what your messaging is,
Speaker:who you're representing,
Speaker:who your customer is and Bruce,
Speaker:you guys landed it.
Speaker:It was fabulous.
Speaker:And I have to say,
Speaker:I loved the candle that was in the goodie bags.
Speaker:And especially because they had your initials SC and my middle
Speaker:name is Christine.
Speaker:So SC was like,
Speaker:this is why I'm saying you named them for me.
Speaker:I'm just going with that.
Speaker:That's good that people say,
Speaker:it's Santa Claus.
Speaker:Oh, there you go.
Speaker:But we'll go with Sue.
Speaker:Yeah. I can be second to him to Santa Claus.
Speaker:That works for me.
Speaker:That was fun.
Speaker:Yeah. It was great.
Speaker:Really, really great.
Speaker:Where did something go wrong there?
Speaker:What cautionary tale or something with the grand opening in specific,
Speaker:would you caution people about,
Speaker:Well, I think there's just from the whole opening thing from
Speaker:the very beginning,
Speaker:the planning of it,
Speaker:there's different things along the way,
Speaker:that challenges,
Speaker:I think first of all,
Speaker:as a new business from a personal side,
Speaker:never had a problem.
Speaker:Getting it alone,
Speaker:never had a problem going to the bank and getting money
Speaker:I would need for a home or anything like that.
Speaker:But as a new business,
Speaker:they look at you a lot different unless you put all
Speaker:your personal assets on the line,
Speaker:like everything,
Speaker:well, like if you want to mortgage your house or put
Speaker:another mortgage on your house or something like that,
Speaker:or do personal guarantees and things like that.
Speaker:And that got a little scary for a little while.
Speaker:I was like,
Speaker:wait a minute,
Speaker:hold on.
Speaker:I don't want that.
Speaker:I want as my business,
Speaker:this Is the difference between being an employee and an Owner.
Speaker:It is,
Speaker:and I've never been one to carry a lot of credit
Speaker:cards. And one of the banks or my bank that I
Speaker:was dealing with at the time,
Speaker:they said,
Speaker:just go get a credit card.
Speaker:That's your line of credit right away.
Speaker:And I'm like,
Speaker:really? I said,
Speaker:you guys can't just do something unless you jumped through all
Speaker:kinds of hoops.
Speaker:And again,
Speaker:put a lot of personal things on the line.
Speaker:It's hard to get that money up front.
Speaker:So like going to Atlanta and buying accessories,
Speaker:a lot of people don't want to give you credit right
Speaker:away because you haven't been in business.
Speaker:You don't have a store yet.
Speaker:So you're buying it on a credit card.
Speaker:So that was a little bit different nerve wracking.
Speaker:I'm sure they're wracking.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:But that ended up being fine.
Speaker:And that was the way to do it,
Speaker:to get it open.
Speaker:And fortunately we were successful and those things all get paid
Speaker:off as you go.
Speaker:So that was one thing.
Speaker:And then setting up for us,
Speaker:we do deliveries and we sell furniture.
Speaker:So it's got to get delivered to a home.
Speaker:That's been probably one of our biggest challenges and jumping into
Speaker:it. We thought it'd be easy.
Speaker:We didn't want to have our own delivery team just from
Speaker:a warehousing and delivery team expense and so forth.
Speaker:And some of the other summer classic stores use local what
Speaker:they call white glove delivery companies.
Speaker:And so that's what we checked into.
Speaker:And we thought we found somebody that was really good.
Speaker:And they did a lot of deliveries for some of the
Speaker:big guys around town,
Speaker:the Creighton barrels and so forth.
Speaker:And so we thought,
Speaker:well, this guy could be good.
Speaker:Well, we found out that once you get rolling and then
Speaker:you start getting busy and may and June that they don't
Speaker:have the capacity to keep up.
Speaker:And then it was just scramble mode.
Speaker:And it was myself and Mark,
Speaker:who's my operations manager going and renting a truck and doing
Speaker:deliveries. That's not something I planned for No wear every hat
Speaker:though, if it's your business,
Speaker:if you need to jump in,
Speaker:it's gotta be you Separate class access and award that they
Speaker:give out every month called whatever it takes.
Speaker:And that first summer was a lot of whatever it takes
Speaker:to get it done.
Speaker:So finding the right delivery service to work with one that
Speaker:had the capacity and one that your customers were happy with,
Speaker:when that we were happy with,
Speaker:when that treated the product,
Speaker:like it should be treated when it's delivered,
Speaker:was a lot of searching and went through a lot of
Speaker:different avenues.
Speaker:But finally,
Speaker:we've settled in,
Speaker:on a couple of different ones that we use right now.
Speaker:So finding those kinds of things that was tough at first,
Speaker:I mean outsourcing for all different types of services,
Speaker:some people who are listening do do deliveries.
Speaker:If there are florists or gift baskets or something like that,
Speaker:maybe not as big and bulky as yours are,
Speaker:but all different types of services that you outsource.
Speaker:I think your story brings to point that you might not
Speaker:get the right person at first and that's not a failure.
Speaker:I think it's kind of a process to get to who
Speaker:you are outside.
Speaker:Suppliers are going to be who are in sync with your
Speaker:business, but then when you find them,
Speaker:boy, do you want to treat them well?
Speaker:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker:Right. You want them to be loyal and dedicated and stay
Speaker:because you don't want to have to replace that once you
Speaker:find it.
Speaker:Well, you want them to be part of your team.
Speaker:You want them to convey the type of message that you're
Speaker:delivering in the store to the outside part of the business
Speaker:as well.
Speaker:So you want them to be just like a regular team
Speaker:member for you.
Speaker:Oh good.
Speaker:Because they're really An extension of your brand,
Speaker:for sure.
Speaker:They definitely are.
Speaker:So moving On to a little bit of a different area
Speaker:of business that is now you're open.
Speaker:How are you continuing to attract new customers into the store?
Speaker:So we do a lot of different types of advertising and
Speaker:we do some of your traditional newspaper and magazine and things
Speaker:like that.
Speaker:We've put a lot this last year into TV,
Speaker:which has been very good for us actually.
Speaker:And mostly cable.
Speaker:And then we do a lot of direct mail and then
Speaker:we do email blasts,
Speaker:but then we also do Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and
Speaker:all the social media ones.
Speaker:So we have a pretty big presence on those sites.
Speaker:So you're everywhere.
Speaker:You're in everything we are.
Speaker:Yeah. Including traditional media.
Speaker:I was reading an article just the other day about social
Speaker:media is the bright and shiny new object that everyone's gravitating
Speaker:to. It's not whether you're going to be on social media
Speaker:to which platforms are you going to use?
Speaker:It seems like it's just an obvious,
Speaker:which in some cases I would say yes,
Speaker:but you're pointing out that it's not necessarily to the exclusion
Speaker:of some of the other traditional types of media.
Speaker:Right. I mean,
Speaker:I'm still one of those guys that reads the paper every
Speaker:day. And so they have a newspaper ad once in a
Speaker:while. I don't think hurts.
Speaker:I don't think it's something that I want to do on
Speaker:a weekly basis.
Speaker:But for me,
Speaker:it seems to have drawn in some of our business.
Speaker:We do usually a coupon or something like that with it
Speaker:that we can monitor that business.
Speaker:We do the same thing like on our Facebook and everything
Speaker:else that we do is we almost everything else that we
Speaker:do has some type of thing that they click on or
Speaker:they cut out or whatever,
Speaker:bring into the store and say,
Speaker:Hey, I saw your coupon for 20% off or whatever the
Speaker:price or whatever the thing is,
Speaker:How you can track it back.
Speaker:So, you know,
Speaker:what's working and what's not exactly in terms of the messaging
Speaker:on your promotions.
Speaker:Are they always priced discounts or specials,
Speaker:or how do you approach that?
Speaker:So we do a fair amount of promotions,
Speaker:especially in the patio side of the business.
Speaker:We don't do quite as much on the indoor side,
Speaker:but on the patio side,
Speaker:we do a fair amount of promotions through the spring and
Speaker:into the summer.
Speaker:But at the same time with like we do some Chicago
Speaker:magazine and modern luxury.
Speaker:And with those they're more image ads or not sales or
Speaker:anything like that.
Speaker:Sometimes we'll put a coupon on it just to,
Speaker:again, track to see if it's coming from Chicago magazine or
Speaker:modern luxury.
Speaker:But other than that,
Speaker:you get to have a little mix.
Speaker:I think of some of the sales side of it.
Speaker:And some of the image side of it,
Speaker:just to keep you out there in front of people.
Speaker:Do you say that?
Speaker:Because I think a lot of people think that to attract
Speaker:people, you always have to be discounting your product.
Speaker:And if you do that,
Speaker:I actually just had a conversation about that with my assistant
Speaker:the other day,
Speaker:you train people not to shop with you,
Speaker:you have something on sale,
Speaker:right? So you have to be really careful not to set
Speaker:that kind of an idea in your customer's mind.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:if you have certain products or promotions,
Speaker:as you're talking about Bruce,
Speaker:then yeah.
Speaker:Maybe a discount or you're combining things together to reduce a
Speaker:price. Cause it makes sense.
Speaker:But not just to,
Speaker:like I was saying,
Speaker:train a customer that yeah.
Speaker:They were going to have sales.
Speaker:So I'm just going to wait until next week.
Speaker:Maybe it'll be on sale.
Speaker:Okay. So you're doing TV direct mail,
Speaker:which is where I come from.
Speaker:That was my whole corporate life emailing.
Speaker:Let's talk a little bit about that.
Speaker:Even though people hear all the time you email is like
Speaker:the one thing you absolutely own when you have your customers,
Speaker:emails, prospects,
Speaker:emails, you're always able to reach out to them,
Speaker:even social media.
Speaker:You're not because if Facebook just hides to change the way
Speaker:they run their platform,
Speaker:yet again,
Speaker:you don't get to know who all your thousands of followers
Speaker:and people who like your page are the only way you're
Speaker:able to approach them is through that medium or Facebook ads,
Speaker:which is them,
Speaker:but emails are yours.
Speaker:So how are you attracting and growing your email list?
Speaker:We do it in a couple of ways.
Speaker:One is if they are in the store,
Speaker:we have different things throughout the year that if they purchase
Speaker:something, we almost always get their email so that we can
Speaker:stay in contact as far as the delivery and things like
Speaker:that. We'll have giveaways.
Speaker:We just finished up one for the Gabby side of the
Speaker:business, where we are giving away my Gabby gift certificate worth
Speaker:$500. So you come in,
Speaker:you sign up and we capture your email.
Speaker:At that point,
Speaker:we do the same thing in the summer.
Speaker:We do some kind of summer classics giveaway.
Speaker:We do a backyard makeover.
Speaker:That's a $10,000.
Speaker:Make-over Winning that next summer,
Speaker:by the way,
Speaker:I'm just letting you know right now.
Speaker:We'll keep that between us right now,
Speaker:nobody else.
Speaker:But that's another way that we capture them.
Speaker:And then we do have an email signup list here in
Speaker:the store.
Speaker:So if people want to be part of it,
Speaker:they can sign up for it.
Speaker:In some of our catalogs are handouts that we give out
Speaker:has a website that you can go to and you click
Speaker:on that and you enter your information and we'll capture it
Speaker:there. If they go on our website,
Speaker:we have again,
Speaker:another place that you can log in and put in your
Speaker:email address.
Speaker:And so we capture it there.
Speaker:So we try to do it mostly through those means Everywhere
Speaker:you can,
Speaker:you try to do it.
Speaker:And how often do you communicate through your email list?
Speaker:Probably about once a week.
Speaker:So sometimes it's once every two weeks,
Speaker:but depending on what's going on and so forth,
Speaker:it's usually about once a week.
Speaker:So I try not to do it any more than that.
Speaker:Sometimes we'll divide them out between our normal retail customer and
Speaker:our design business.
Speaker:So sometimes people might be on both lists and they get
Speaker:double blasted.
Speaker:But for the most part,
Speaker:it's just once a week or a little less.
Speaker:And so you are a single location,
Speaker:I'll be at you're part of a bigger entity.
Speaker:Do you have somebody within your own individual team who works
Speaker:with all of your promotions?
Speaker:Not here at the store?
Speaker:No, I do that through summer classics and it's one of
Speaker:the things that actually kind of sold me on it was
Speaker:they have a great marketing team.
Speaker:So I pay them a very small amount of money per
Speaker:hour to work at promotions that are geared more towards our
Speaker:location, but they're a great team of people.
Speaker:And so I usually just tag onto what they're doing as
Speaker:a corporate store.
Speaker:And then we add a few of ours along the way.
Speaker:Lucky you.
Speaker:Yeah. And that's a big time saver and a big money
Speaker:saver for me.
Speaker:So that again was one of the enticements of doing the
Speaker:summer classic story.
Speaker:Sure. Plus you also then have the expertise and the experience
Speaker:of all the stores,
Speaker:anyone who's participating,
Speaker:then you're kind of edging your bets about what's going to
Speaker:work because people have already done these types of promotions before
Speaker:you have a little bit more intelligence of what's going to
Speaker:work and what's not.
Speaker:Yeah. In fact,
Speaker:now we're doing some IP targeting,
Speaker:which basically is big brother watching.
Speaker:And so when you go into a certain area,
Speaker:a certain area around our store,
Speaker:there might be an ad that pops up on your phone.
Speaker:If you come into our store,
Speaker:there might be an ad that pops our coupon that pops
Speaker:up on your phone.
Speaker:And we're doing that now because two of the other stores
Speaker:tested that over the summer and had great success with it.
Speaker:So there's some that I could have it set,
Speaker:not from the company that we're using,
Speaker:but some of the companies,
Speaker:you can have it designed so that if they walk into
Speaker:your competitor,
Speaker:one of your ads pops up no way.
Speaker:Yeah. Ours is not that way.
Speaker:So we're not quite that big brother-ish,
Speaker:but it's a whole new form of advertising.
Speaker:That's working really well for a lot of people.
Speaker:And it just kind of keeps you out there in front
Speaker:of you.
Speaker:Yeah. That is very cool.
Speaker:Some people freak out a little bit about that type of
Speaker:thing. The messenger bots are now showing up to a lot.
Speaker:So it's interesting.
Speaker:It keeps changing.
Speaker:And along the lines of that,
Speaker:let's talk about change.
Speaker:What do you think of the whole retail world these days
Speaker:compared to 20 years ago?
Speaker:I think you have to find your niche.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:20 years ago you could open a storefront and most people
Speaker:were pretty successful with it.
Speaker:But now with internet,
Speaker:there are some products that will just be sold on the
Speaker:internet and be very hard to compete with there's other products,
Speaker:which I think we have in the furniture side of the
Speaker:business that are very difficult for a lot of people to
Speaker:pull the trigger on the internet.
Speaker:Most people like to sit in their furniture before they buy
Speaker:it. There's companies that are making it more easy on the
Speaker:internet to do that as far as their returns and things
Speaker:like that.
Speaker:But I think a lot of our clientele still feels like
Speaker:they need to come in,
Speaker:sit on the furniture,
Speaker:pick the fabrics that they want and customize it to their
Speaker:tastes. You can't get that on the internet yet.
Speaker:But I think the other thing,
Speaker:and I mentioned it a little bit earlier.
Speaker:We want the place to be an experience to shop in.
Speaker:So when you walk in the front door,
Speaker:it's something that is different than other places that you've been
Speaker:even different than other furniture stores.
Speaker:And if you keep that mind in front of you,
Speaker:I think you can be successful in retail as far as
Speaker:that environment,
Speaker:something that people want to keep coming back to and seeing
Speaker:what's new and different.
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:The in store experience,
Speaker:I think that's where you win The book.
Speaker:I read just this last spring,
Speaker:it's called shops that pop and it's a great little resource
Speaker:book and it's an easy read and it focuses on a,
Speaker:probably about a half,
Speaker:a dozen businesses throughout the country.
Speaker:And there is a pet store in the East coast someplace,
Speaker:and there's a bakery and different things that they focus on
Speaker:and what makes them successful.
Speaker:The main thing that it comes down to is making the
Speaker:experience enjoyable for the customer and also having a good team,
Speaker:good team of people.
Speaker:So that keeps them coming back.
Speaker:Yeah, because if your team,
Speaker:we talked about this on a show,
Speaker:a couple of episodes back that a very fine line with
Speaker:your team.
Speaker:And I'm just talking about when a customer comes into the
Speaker:store because you can't ignore them,
Speaker:but you can't be on top of them every step of
Speaker:the way,
Speaker:either. Exactly.
Speaker:Right. You have to be intuitive.
Speaker:And how do you direct people on how to do that?
Speaker:Now you already had your team.
Speaker:So you probably knew already how they were going to work.
Speaker:But I think it's different with every guest.
Speaker:Everybody has a little different personality and a different need,
Speaker:and even been through a bunch of seminars that talks about
Speaker:the millennials compared to the wide Gen-Z and everything like that
Speaker:and how they deal differently in a store.
Speaker:And I think he just got to have a feel for
Speaker:what the customer wants and how they want to be handled.
Speaker:And I think you can read that a good salesperson can
Speaker:read that pretty quickly.
Speaker:So you're not the person that's going to hover over them
Speaker:if they don't want to be hovered,
Speaker:but you also have those people that do want to know
Speaker:everything about the product and every little thing.
Speaker:I think it's just,
Speaker:you have to have good people that can read the customer
Speaker:as they come through the door and decide how they need
Speaker:to be treated and how they need to be helped,
Speaker:but being friendly and being courteous to all is important to
Speaker:everybody. Yeah.
Speaker:I totally agree with you there.
Speaker:So you've had a lot of experience in the field,
Speaker:obviously, but things keep changing.
Speaker:What do you do to stay current with the industry?
Speaker:Now, Our industry does have a really good social kind of
Speaker:interaction with different ones.
Speaker:They have different meetings around the country at different times of
Speaker:the year that you can go to.
Speaker:And I think staying on top of that and being in
Speaker:tune to what's happening throughout the country,
Speaker:even though you want to localize it and bring it to
Speaker:your location,
Speaker:but find out trends,
Speaker:you find out what works advertising for different people,
Speaker:by going to some of those meetings.
Speaker:And we had both Mark my operations manager and I attended
Speaker:one out in Scottsdale last year.
Speaker:And there was just a lot to pull from that.
Speaker:And there's a lot of meetings that talked about advertising and
Speaker:talked about ownerships of stores and how that transitions through the
Speaker:generations. And some things didn't play into what we were looking
Speaker:for, but the time away from it at lunches and dinners
Speaker:with other retailers really paid off,
Speaker:you learn what's happening out there and you learn what's hot.
Speaker:Yeah. And you build connections with peers in the industry who
Speaker:aren't direct competitors too.
Speaker:Yeah. How about kind of a final topic as we start
Speaker:winding down here?
Speaker:What about community interaction?
Speaker:I think it's really important.
Speaker:We have a great chamber of commerce here,
Speaker:and I think that being involved with that has helped us
Speaker:not only just in meeting new people and seeing new ideas
Speaker:out there,
Speaker:getting new ideas out there,
Speaker:but from some of the things that I do,
Speaker:I've changed my,
Speaker:it people I've changed my bank just based on the relationship
Speaker:that I've found in the chamber.
Speaker:So I think being tied into that and getting to know
Speaker:the people around the area is good.
Speaker:Downtown Highland park has its own little group of people and
Speaker:it's good to kind of walk up and down the street
Speaker:and see them and talk to them and know a little
Speaker:bit about what's going on in their business.
Speaker:And I think involving yourself in the local businesses is good,
Speaker:but then reaching out to the local community,
Speaker:whether it's through charity events,
Speaker:things like that,
Speaker:I think is important as well,
Speaker:be active in the community,
Speaker:Even though you own your own location,
Speaker:you're still part of a bigger group.
Speaker:And I think it is really important to individualize your location,
Speaker:who you are,
Speaker:that you're the owner employees and be part of the community.
Speaker:And you certainly do that.
Speaker:And you show up at the events too,
Speaker:Bruce, you know,
Speaker:you don't always send an employee.
Speaker:You're the one who's coming out,
Speaker:which is really cool.
Speaker:You set a wonderful example for everybody there.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Advice for someone who's starting out,
Speaker:someone who maybe they are working out of their house right
Speaker:now, but they are a people person and they're thinking,
Speaker:yeah, you know,
Speaker:maybe I ought to look at this brick and mortar type
Speaker:idea. What advice would you give them as they're thinking through
Speaker:the decision?
Speaker:Cause it isn't right for everybody.
Speaker:We know that.
Speaker:What would be your advice if you were sitting across the
Speaker:table from them,
Speaker:what would you say,
Speaker:Look at who your customer is and can you take that
Speaker:what you're doing right now and bring it into a store.
Speaker:And then as far as locations and things like that,
Speaker:what's going to make you successful.
Speaker:Do you need the walk by traffic or are people gonna
Speaker:come find you?
Speaker:And so things like that.
Speaker:And like I mentioned before,
Speaker:go out and talk to other stores,
Speaker:shop other stores,
Speaker:see if you can take your concept and bring it out
Speaker:to your own retail location,
Speaker:don't be afraid to do it.
Speaker:I think,
Speaker:like I said before,
Speaker:a lot of people fail,
Speaker:but pick yourself back up and you start all over again.
Speaker:So like I said,
Speaker:talk to people in the community,
Speaker:get ideas from them and look at other cities that might
Speaker:have things like you're currently offering and see if they have
Speaker:a brick and mortar and how it works for them.
Speaker:So just do as much research as you can do Great
Speaker:advice because I think a lot of people,
Speaker:when they start thinking the first thing they think of as,
Speaker:Oh, let me go look and see what locations are and
Speaker:how much it's going to cost versus doing more of that
Speaker:market analysis.
Speaker:Like your describing.
Speaker:Yeah. So I think that is a key to success.
Speaker:I have a theory about retail.
Speaker:Tell me what you think about this.
Speaker:Bruce everyone's gravitating online.
Speaker:It's convenient.
Speaker:It's easy.
Speaker:Pretty soon the are going to be dropping our product probably
Speaker:right through the front door.
Speaker:Well, and I hear Amazon's looking at being able to open
Speaker:your door and place products right inside,
Speaker:which is a little crazy,
Speaker:but everything seems to be cyclical.
Speaker:And I kind of have a feeling that although online is
Speaker:the bright and exciting thing right now that it's going to
Speaker:come back,
Speaker:it's going to circle back online will always be there obviously,
Speaker:but it's going to circle back to people,
Speaker:wanting to come back in and have that personal interaction right
Speaker:now. I think people are worried about it,
Speaker:but I don't think retail ever is going to be gone
Speaker:forever. I would totally agree.
Speaker:I think some of the big box people are going to
Speaker:have some difficulties in less state change,
Speaker:what they do inside the stores.
Speaker:We've all been into different stores where it difficult to shop.
Speaker:They load it with stuff that close outs and clearance items,
Speaker:and you can hardly make your way through the Isles.
Speaker:And there's very few trained salespeople there and it's just not
Speaker:a fun place to shop until they change that.
Speaker:I think they're going to have some problems.
Speaker:I think that's what plays into the smaller retail stores like
Speaker:us and other people that if you give that person that
Speaker:personal experience,
Speaker:you can compete against the internet people.
Speaker:I agree 100%.
Speaker:Okay. So Bruce,
Speaker:at this point,
Speaker:I would like to offer you a virtual gift.
Speaker:It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.
Speaker:So this is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable
Speaker:Heights that you would wish to obtain.
Speaker:Please accept this gift on behalf of me and my listeners
Speaker:and let us know what's inside your box In the box
Speaker:would be another location.
Speaker:Really. We're looking right now,
Speaker:pretty seriously at something Western suburbs.
Speaker:I don't know the timeframe on it yet,
Speaker:but we actually draw a lot of people in from some
Speaker:of the Western verbs and we've went out and checked to
Speaker:see what's available out there as far as locations.
Speaker:So we have some feelers out there right now and just
Speaker:see if everything can come together to do it.
Speaker:But that's what we would love to do.
Speaker:So you can not respond to me,
Speaker:but I'm thinking Barrington,
Speaker:put it out there.
Speaker:I'm just putting it out there.
Speaker:I have no idea.
Speaker:I'll tell you,
Speaker:there is a guy.
Speaker:I know that he's the vice president of leasing down at
Speaker:the merchandise Mart and he and I have become very good
Speaker:friends and he lives in Barrington and commutes every day into
Speaker:the merchandise Mart.
Speaker:And he said,
Speaker:you gotta have a store in Barrington.
Speaker:So it's funny.
Speaker:You had mentioned that.
Speaker:Yeah, I totally see it.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:that's a neat area.
Speaker:There's other ones like St.
Speaker:Charles and Hinsdale and Naperville and those areas that we're kind
Speaker:of looking for.
Speaker:It'll be exciting to know when it can be announced.
Speaker:We'll let you know.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So Bruce great information that you've given us if our listeners,
Speaker:because not all of them are obviously in the area.
Speaker:In fact,
Speaker:the majority of our listeners aren't there worldwide.
Speaker:If they want to just take a peek at what you've
Speaker:got going on,
Speaker:what would the best place for them to go website Facebook
Speaker:page? Where would you send them There?
Speaker:One, the website shows everything that we do.
Speaker:so@summerclassics.com, you can see what summer classics as a whole is
Speaker:from product and everything.
Speaker:And then there's a link into the store locations there.
Speaker:And you can see our store on that as well.
Speaker:So that gives you a kind of a peak into the
Speaker:store itself and then Facebook,
Speaker:Twitter, any of those work out real well.
Speaker:Wonderful. Well,
Speaker:I really,
Speaker:really appreciate you spending the time with us,
Speaker:your insight,
Speaker:because you've had so much experience both from the wholesale side
Speaker:and then retail,
Speaker:and then being in retail for a while and choosing to
Speaker:go back.
Speaker:It's really interesting.
Speaker:I don't often meet people who do,
Speaker:but you have a great thing going and you,
Speaker:as I'd said before,
Speaker:are a perfect fit to be the owner of this very
Speaker:classy chain store.
Speaker:I'm not even sure what to call it in terms of
Speaker:summer classics,
Speaker:because it's just such a total fit.
Speaker:So I'm going to be interested and excited to see how
Speaker:things progress and your second location.
Speaker:Although I'm staying here,
Speaker:cause this is way closer to home for me.
Speaker:Just don't ever give up on those S see candles.
Speaker:That's all I have to say.
Speaker:All right,
Speaker:well, much success to you.
Speaker:I obviously know I'll be seeing you around and may your
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