What are some ways to engage employees and give everyone a better working experience?

We try and create an environment that our staff would like to work in. I’m fortunate to have employees who have been here for 30 or 40 years. Early on, we adopted something called management by participation, where everyone on staff has a role in the department of the store they are in.

 I wrote about this in my book Specialty Store Retailing. I think it’s important to look at your own store and try and figure out how to get your employees involved in a way that makes their work meaningful and allows you to take advantage of the skills and passions they bring to the job. Have a meeting with your staff and ask them what they like, what they find frustrating.

 As we all know, the job market for retail employees is not thriving. It’s a good way to find, motivate and keep employees. Mine range in age from early 20s to 80s, and we also have customers in a wide range of ages. It’s important to have all those viewpoints represented and it contributes to what the store offers. Also, look at what the owner’s or manager’s daily or weekly tasks are, and figure out what you could delegate or share that is interesting to them. It’s good time-planning for owners and makes life more varied for the employee

 We also have two things that I think are important: A dependable schedule so people know when they have to be here months in advance, and know what their income will be. Also, flexibility in scheduling. We acknowledge that people have other things going on in their lives, so we have a robust program encouraging people to sub for one another so no one misses major life events or doctor’s appointments. Retail needs to recognize that it’s not the only, or most important, thing in people’s lives.

In your opinion, what are the best stores doing right today?

Engagement is so important. With people working at home and missing the office environment, isolation and loneliness are big issues that brick-and-mortar stores can help combat. People tell me all the time that when they need a break or cheering up, they love coming into the store and browsing around. We try to create an environment that customers enjoy. It’s not accidental; it takes work: merchandising, bringing in new products, being sensitive to the market and what might delight people when they walk in.

If you are in a category where there are certain items you are expected to have, keeping those in stock is important, as is having items they may not be looking for. It’s a combination of serendipity and dependability. We also love people who just come in, either tourists who want to window shop or locals who just want to get out of the house.

We come up with reasons for people to visit the store: an on-site cooking school taught by a combination of local chefs and employees, book signings, tastings and once a month, we are open late with other stores on the street and give a percentage of sales to charity.

What’s one thing you wish you’d known when you first started your store? 

One thing we didn’t fully understand when we started out, because it was the 1970s and more of a hippie time, was that we didn’t fully appreciate profits. Profit is what keeps your store going, what allows you to invest in new merchandise and pay employees well. We didn’t pay much attention to it until we didn’t have it. It’s important to respect the bottom line and do everything you can to help your business grow and thrive.

What’s one mistake you've made that you learned from? 

I’ve made a lot of buying mistakes over the years, saying no to the Pet Rock being one of the early ones. Being around for so long, we’ve seen a lot, from the Beanie Baby craze to COVID and Amazon. Being flexible certainly helps. Having a wide variety of merchandise means we can carry Beanie Babies, but we also have Cuisinarts. When one of those things is hot or not, we have a variety of other things to appeal to customers.