Tag: Palo Alto

Blog #140 I talked about key brands we made huge. In this blog I want to talk about people who made a difference plus fun stuff.

In any business there are always people who made a difference, these made one for me.  Plus fun stuff I want to talk about.

Nora

When I first got to Palo Alto I thought Nora was the bomb. She was attractive and confident. I could tell she didn’t take any crap from anyone. She was as strong as it got. Always dressed to the nines.

That was cool at first but… When I didn’t realize what the issue was in our business and it took me longer than I thought to turn it around… That made it not so much fun. Her high expectations didn’t waver, that was the thing. I couldn’t deliver until I had my “defining moment” in Blog #123.

 I’ll never forget the meeting in her office where she pretty much said she liked me, but would fire me if it didn’t turn around soon. That lit the proverbial fire to take chances and do what I do best. The problem was our RMM was very cautious and wouldnt  sign off on any aggressive buys. Sometimes when things are tough you have to take chances and be aggressive. It all worked out and in the end made me respect her even more. 

Once I figured out the issue was having a great team, it turned around. We actually started having a really nice relationship. I learned from her you have to have high expectations and people that can deliver. It’s not a personality contest or fun and games, it’s a multi-million dollar business in those stores. We get paid by results. I’m glad I left with a great year behind me.

Larry

When a store is sick, you need people who can make a difference. You can’t have someone just accept the defeat. There needs solution oriented people to make the difference. Larry was that guy. He was in sponge mode just soaking in all the info and then making great decisions. This helped tremendously because it wasn’t all on me, I had a partner now.

Larry was great at the managing of the department stuff and I could focus on the buys. He had size ups, stockroom maintenance and people issues dialed. It was refreshing. When we had events, I told him the game plan and the vision and executed it flawlessly.  I had said previously I was looking for another Candice who was my first in Arden Fair. Got him…

Bottom line

Plus we just really liked each other. It was nice going to work and spending that much time with someone you liked. He was someone I really wanted to help get to the next level even if it meant losing him. We still have a great relationship today. He’s a rep now and a darn good one. Really proud of him.

Stacey

She kept me organized. I had a pretty good clerical in Arden Fair and Stacey was just as good for me in Palo Alto. She would have everything organized and ready for me each day. We would go through the PO’s and she wasn’t afraid to tell me her opinion which I liked. She also had a great sense of humor and little dry like me. Ok kind of a smartass like me. It was great.

When we had the Easy Spirit event she volunteered to help and if the registers ever got jammed she do thew same. She was just looking out for the best interest of the department vs. what her “Job was”. She was awesome and another big reason for our success.

Neil

Neil was our stock guy. Technically I think he was the Brass Plum Stock guy but helped us too. Especially when we needed it. The big UGG shift and Easy Spirit move was a huge undertaking. He was right there and made it happen. When we did our transfers timing was crucial and he always made it happen. Our stockroom was always organized and between the salespeople doing their sections and Neil doing the heavy stuff we looked good.

During the course of my time there I got to know Neil and he was a fascinating guy. He had a large family and very close. There would be large family gatherings and they’d bury a pig in the ground with hot stones to cook it and then dig it up. It was always amazing. He was also a pro soccer player at one time in his life and you could tell as he was really fit.

Fun Stuff

When business is good all is good. Like the saying goes good business cures all woes. I had been working in a cubby for a while now and didn’t really say anything because I was too busy. It was like a punishment I joked to myself. Jean Claude allowed me and The other shoe buyers in Arden Fair to utilize a nice room for an office. Nora let us have the room we rang up the Easy Spirit items up in. It was large enough for the three women’s footwear buyers so we jumped at the chance.

It was nice when reps came in or you just needed to concentrate on writing orders without the loud goings on of a stockroom.

Wall Stretcher

One joke that never gets old is when a new person comes on board to have them do stock work at first to get acclimated to how we run shoes in the wall. At some point you will run into a space issue. The stockrooms were organized by color then heel height. If you received a ton of black shoes and only have space for a small amount a shift occurs. Sometimes they can be quite extensive.

I found out there is a similar joke in construction sites but instead of a wall stretcher its a pipe stretcher

The joke goes you ask the new person to go to another shoe store and ask for the manager. Then ask for the “wall Stretcher”. The reason why you have them ask for the manager is most people that have been around know the joke. They in turn say we let this other store borrow it ask the manager over there. Finally they get it.

There is no such thing. We did this to someone in Arden Fair and I think it was a record 3 or 4 stores before they figured it out.  The UGGs shift spawned another instance but this person caught on pretty quickly.

All of these people made a difference in our success and it helps to have a little fun too.

So, in Blog #134,  I talked about how you are only as good as your last flash. In this blog  I want to talk about the Ugg slippers bet I took in Palo Alto

As I mentioned earlier I was taking a risk by buying so many pairs of Ugg slippers without getting the whole amount signed off by my new RMM. But I knew I was right. I had calculated what we missed and what the opportunity was. I had the basic Classic covered as well as the Ultra.

Miles

Miles was great at helping me figure out what we actually needed. The goal was sell most everything with just a little left over for exchanges. Given the fact that most of the other stores weren’t doing this I was confident we would come out in really great shape.

We started shifting the stockroom to make room for the 1,000 pairs of the slippers. Given the tight space in the back we would come up a little short still but could store some excess at the very top of the stockroom shelves.

Slipper season

October was usually the month to start your flow of slippers. You would sell some in October but minimal numbers.When November Half Yearly started in the first week, we would start selling slippers fast. This is because of the excess traffic in the store.

The Ugg Slippers bet I took in Palo Alto was really the following.  I felt the other stores wouldn’t buy enough and if we had too many I could send some to stores in need. My gut told me we still wouldn’t have enough this year but without the proper history it was just my gut telling me so.

We would place the Ugg display right up front and watch them fly. For now though it was a waiting game. They were due to hit any day now…

So, in Blog #133, I talked about Our First Family Dog was Muttley. In this blog  I want to talk about how you are only as good as your last flash

At Nordstrom you would start your day by looking at your numbers. The previous closer would usually write out the floor watcher pad for the next day. This document we would attach to a small clipboard and carry it with us as we watched the floor.

Floor watcher pad

On the document we would have the sales figures for each hour from last year. This would give us a gauge on how our day was going. We would also have everyones schedule on it so we knew when people would arrive to the floor and when they would take lunches.

The floor watcher that opened in the morning would write out the stock assignments for each salesperson to get stuff done. It was always either the Buyer/Manager or an Asst. Tasks could be taking size ups, Mark-ups/Mark downs, transfers, sections shifts to get a shipment in and much more. The floor watcher could make notes on the pad for closers too.

 Closers

During the course of the day things come up. Someone might call for a trade of merchandise,  or the Wood pile might grow. Usually we would say do 10 sticks. This meant put away 10 pairs of shoes from the wood pile. Wood could be returns that came back or shoes people would leave out and not own up to.

This made us pretty organized and the day would be great as long as you were beating last years numbers. If not, you could expect a call from your RMM… All  of them did it too so they were probably getting a call from Jack. “Is everyone bringing out 4 pairs?” was the typical line. Rob would be a smart ass usually and say “Did you forgot what I taught you?”

The new RMM would start off with “Mr Normart…” then end with something obvious that would “fix the hourly decline”. They never worked. We made sure our people were doing the right thing, usually it was just traffic.

Call Personals

“You can’t use bad traffic as an excuse” they would say. Typical…But if there was no traffic there wasn’t too much you could do. We would have our salespeople call personals to drum up some sales, or I’d look at the floor to see if our best items were up front. Solutions driven. 

Walks

I’d see how many people were “walking” too. A walk is when a salesperson doesn’t sell the customer and they walk out without buying anything. This would inspire stock walks and size ups to see if we were missing anything.

If business would go south, I’d also look at hot sellers around women’s shoe floors to see if I had all the hot sellers. This is how I discovered the “Reseda” in Brass Plum shoes.

You are only as good as your last flash

This was a common Nordstrom phrase. It kept us on our toes. Some RMM’s were better than others on motivating you or not. Some just passed you off. The quote from Christopher McDougall hit the nail on the head:

“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa a Lion wakes up.  It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you are a Gazelle or the Lion, when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”

So, in Blog #132,  I talked about how we worked inventory down successfully. In this blog  I want to talk about Our First Family Dog was Muttley.

My job was getting really stressful. My mom calls me one day as I was coming back from San Francisco. “Mike Muttley, died.” I was crushed, I had to pull over to have a good cry. “I’m sorry I had to put her down she was suffering the poor thing.” She had cancer. 16 years old, I went off in a daydream about our first family dog. 

My Aunt and Uncle had a place out in Clovis in the Countryside. They had several animals and my Uncles hunting dog Duke. They also had a dog named Queenie that was rescued. My parents wanted a family dog so we all agreed we would adopt “Queenie, with one stipulation, we are changing the name…

At this moment in time, My brothers and I watched “Dick Dastardly and Muttley”. Muttley had this funny laugh that oddly enough sounded like my Grandpas laugh. “Muttley” we all sang in chorus. We want to name her Muttley. Since she was a poodle terrier mix she was kind of a mutt. I was probably 12 at the time and we were all 3 years apart me being the oldest.

Playful plus tricks

This dog was really playful running around our backyard at top speed. She was so fun to play with, tossing balls and teaching her tricks. We taught her how to sit, beg and shake. Of course a treat was involved as a reward. One treat she really liked was carrots. So a biscuit or a carrot is all it took. She would always look like she was smiling too when she got her treat.

My grandparents had a cabin at Huntington Lake and we took her up there a few times. She loved the outdoors. My mom would stay at the cabin with her while us boys would hike or go fishing with Grandpa. This is until she got a tick up there. That ended her Mountain days. She was ok though it came out easy enough.

Holidays

Holidays were always fun with our dog. Easter especially during the egg hunts. She would always want to participate. At Christmas time she was always in the middle of it all, We’d open our presents and she would plop down in the action. We would always include her with a toy or a new bone. She liked the gelatin bones the best.

My Mom and Muttley were very close. She would follow my my Mom everywhere. My mom was heartbroken that day when she told me, I could hear it in her voice. A loyal companion for 16 years. Our first family dog was muttley and she was one of the best…

So why this story. I think pets bring out the best in us. They put things in perspective. Unconditional love. Work was really stressful. Maybe it was time for us to get a family dog…

In Blog #131 I talked about why it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission. In this blog I want to talk How we worked iInventory down Successfully.

There was a buyer in Southern Calif. That was famous for working his inventory efficiently. Word had it he had a secret drawer. Inventory cut was the 21st of each month and he would hold his excess PO’s in this drawer and put them on the system on the 23rd. 

This gave him 30 days to work his inventory down. Phone calls were made and deals were struck.His business was usually pretty good so there must have been something to it. I needed to find space in my stockroom for 1,000 pairs of UGGS that were arriving in October.

How we worked inventory down Successfully

I started making phone calls and striking deals. We were moving our slow sellers out to other stores that were having success with them. It was a win for both stores. We started dropping the boxes down from the top as we sent shoes out. Because of space constraints the Palo Alto store had really high stock shelves. 

In fact they were so high we had to use reach sticks to get down shoes from the top. They were long poles that had an attachment at the end. The attachment would fit into the top of the lid and slide underneath the box. It was an art sometimes to retrieve shoes.

Other ways

We also requested return authorizations from the brands or would swap out slow sellers for hot items. Nordstrom only had sales 3 times a year, June Half Yearly, July Anniversary sale and November Half Yearly. This made it more difficult to move slow sellers through markdowns, but if I had that opportunity I certainly would have used that too.

After a few weeks, we were looking pretty good. This was going to be very interesting to say the least.