Specialty Retail Blog

James Hallman (Atlanta, GA) had a couple of clients who were winners of the Alabama Retailer of the Year awards. The Fitting Touch won Gold for its category and Shaia’s won Platinum for its volume level. Congratulations to the winning owners and to James!

James Hallman’s (Atlanta, GA) client, Sole Shoes & Accessories inAtlanta was named 2009 Best Shoe Boutique by Atlanta Magazine. Cathy Wagner’s (Chicago, IL) client, My Favorite Toy Store, was on NBC Nightly News and her client G Boutique was featured on Oprah.

Congratulations to James Hallman and his client Sole, named Best Shoe Boutique in Atlanta!

A recently received Management One testimonial
Robert Gronich;

Salary is little more than compensation for the damages to one’s career if we do not allow our employees to be creative, contribute and work as part of the team.

2009 marks our 49th year in business and we have been clients of Management One® since 2004 through John Adams as our affiliate. Since we began working with John our volume has increased by 50% in volume. Before John the buyers looked at plans a couple times during the year. John brought the Winning@Retail process and OTB plans. Using planning we got more aggressive on marking down merchandise and we hired a merchandise manager that brought more buying talent.

Without Winning@Retail and Winning@Business (W@B), I am not sure where Garlan’s would be today. (more…)

M1 Shines

In this month’s “Merchant Prophet”, Norton Ditto’s success is discussed: “(Dick Hite) knew that the key to turning around Norton Ditto’s fortunes would be based on implementing an effective Open to Buy plan to increase their profitability. One of the most important relationships he developed was with Management One^®, one of today’s best retail management consulting groups, to develop a rapid ROI (Return on Investment) strategy to maximize the two largest assets of Norton Ditto: their people and inventory. Mr. Hite stresses that the key to effective planning is a disciplined commitment to “following the plan.”

Laura B. Van Camp, owner of Jean Theory, Ken Rodriguez’s (Baltimore, MD) client in Charlottesville, was recently interviewed by public radio’s Sandy Hausman as to why the designer jeans shop seems to be doing so well!

Affiliate Alan Roseman (Los Angeles, CA) was asked to be a guest writer for Transworld Business, a trade magazine for the surf, skate and snow industry. His article “How to: Create a Merchandise Plan” was included in the May issue.

Also one of Alan’s clients was a shining star this past month as Clever on Main received a glowing review by LA Shopping Reviews.

March 15 and 16, Thierry Bayle (London, UK) will be presenting a seminar at the Off Price Show in central London on “Retail in a recession: will you sink or sail through it?”March 19 Alan Roseman (Los Angeles, CA) will be a featured speaker for the Industry Boot Camp sponsored by SIMA and BRA. He will speak on “Merchandise Planning: Yesterday’s Gone, What’s Your Tomorrow?”

The November issue of Los Angele magazine lists ZJ boarding house as best
athletic shoe shop for skateboarding shoes in Los Angeles.

Errol Chavkin’s client, Olive and Bette’s (NY), was mentioned on the television show Entertainment Today. Alan Roseman’s client, ZJ Boarding House, celebrated its 20th anniversary with a wildly successful carnival in Santa Monica, CA; the proceeds were contributed to charity. In England, affiliate Thierry Bayle had a feature article printed in the publication Drapers.