Tag: miles

So, in Blog #135,  I talked about the Ugg slippers bet I took in Palo Alto. In this blog  I want to talk about how the Ugg slippers  Bet paid off.

Miles my Ugg rep told me about the feeling of shock walking away with the largest PO he ever got at that point from a Nordstrom Buyer. I also had that feeling when they hit the store. it was a feeling of excitement and fear. Excitement because I knew in my heart I was right. Fear for what wrath I would incur from my new boss.

Stockroom

The main thing we needed to focus on now was getting them into the wall. Our calculations were right we were a little short. We decided to stack the excess sizes on the very top of the shelves. 

Now keep in mind these were already 12 feet high. We kept them in the cases but had the cases arranged by size. We wrote the size on the outside of the cases in big black numbers. “man we are going to kill it” Larry chuckled. He was cracking up how many Uggs we had.

Sales picked up

With all the pairs we now had on hand we started selling them like crazy. This got people to notice. “How many Uggs do you have over there?” one person asked. “Enough” was the reply.

My RMM however didn’t appreciate it as much as Larry did. He was not happy…Mr. Normart, I don’t remember signing these…”Would you have?” I asked. Not that many was his response. AND….Thats why I did it…

“You will split out these to the other stores then…” Uhhhh, no I’m not doing that. I took the chance, I’m reaping the rewards. You better be right then or you will reap something else if you are wrong…

Grey Area

Nothing like a little motivation. But truth is I expected it. Nordstrom was fairly rigid about certain things but this was a grey area. Buyers would have their secret drawers and kill the business and get recognized for it. 

Everyone knew what they were doing. Trick was not to get in to a situation that you can’t correct. This is when people would get fired. So you can live or die by the Pen. I tried to do it in a smart way.

The Ugg Slippers bet Paid Off

We absolutely killed it. People from the other stores were always calling for sizes because they sold out. Our reply would be “we would be happy to send to your customer and give you the sale”. We sold most of them and the others were taken by stores that could use them after the holiday rush. 

I was right…We ended up having the best year in Palo Alto history…