Education

The Best Retail Management Advice I Ever Received

May 5, 2009 | By: deaneparkes

In the early 80’s after a business partnership went sour and my attitude along with it I decided I had enough of working in the natural products business and was going to go work in the mainstream.

I ended up with a manager training position with London Drugs, at that time and may still be the top retailer in North America in sales per square foot. Retail executives around the world would visit our stores to learn how to improve business.

Anyway…I was sent to work at one of the stores where the rumors depicted the manager as a tough son of a bee. Horror stories of manager trainees being eaten up and spit out was urban legend stuff.

So here I am first day on the job, face to face with hard ass Bob and he says. ‘Did you walk the floor before coming to see me?!’ Ah …….no… So he then tells me ‘Ok so first thing you need to learn is before you take your coat off, before you put your lunch in the fridge, before you do anything you walk every aisle in the store’! Then he sent me away.

Well the next day I show up for work knowing my first job was to walk the aisles. I have no reason why but it took some courage as I felt like clown wandering about the store aimlessly.

Down the first aisle I went. And low and behold there was an ‘aisle person’ doing their job. [At London Drugs at the time every aisle was assigned a person who did all ordering, merchandising, pricing, stocking, facing, cleaning, etc]. We have eye contact. Well she more or less glared at me as she saw another management recruit with no experience coming down the aisle she had ‘owned’ for years. I meekly said hi and as I recall she grunted and muttered something under her breath. And on I went with similar experiences throughout the store.  I am sure over lunch they laughed about the lame ass new management guy.

So the routine continued every day.

I began to notice things during my walkabouts. I’d see the products we sold, what was on sale, empty spaces where we needed restocking, signs that had lost their luster and I began to understand the environment of each aisle and how it all connected together. I even brought paper to take notes of things I thought needed to be done. I really became in tune with the store.

I also would meet customers along the way and they would stop me and ask me questions. I started to learn about our customer needs.

After a while I think I wore down the staff and they actually would look at me and say hi and how was I doing as if they really meant it. I’d stop and chat and got to know them better. I love people and enjoy hearing their life stories, their dreams, their dramas, their loves, their losses; heck is there any better way to learn about ourselves? I got to know the people I shared my work hours with on a personal level.

Then I began looking forward to my aisle trip. I’d really look forward to seeing everyone. Then one of the aisle people said ‘Hey Deane come and look at this’. And they took me to a new end display they had built. As they proudly showed me their work of art they asked ‘so what do you think?’ I told them what a great job they had done and asked questions on choices they had made. I could ‘feel’ the energy change as they spoke about their effort. You could see them glow. Remember these people spend day after day working with the same products, fixing up the mess those darn customers make each day within the same limited workspace. I realized how people need to be recognized for their hard work. As I continued my walk I looked for areas to recognize other aisle people and noticed them take on a glow. The energy within the entire store rose just by acknowledging the effort these people were putting in. Everyone needs to be acknowledged and recognized for the work they do!

Later on after a few months I had one person take me aside and tell me how they were having issues with one of their suppliers. The rep was a real lazy guy who represented one of her top selling product lines. She cared! She needed support from the company and was getting none. ‘Could I do anything about it?’ So now I was being looked upon as a manager who was going to help take care of an issue. I immediately looked into the situation, addressed it with the company management and low and behold it got fixed. The story spread throughout the store and I started to be seen as a guy who got things done for the staff. They actually were seeing value in my existence. Let’s be honest I really did nothing but what she asked me to do, no magic here. If a manager just would listen to the people who do the daily work and support them they would not have to do much else to be successful.

Overtime I really felt we had developed a good team spirit. There was a wide range of personalities and as I began to know each of them I often was able to bring perspective to internal issues. Things were never perfect but I feel a trust was developed and a higher level of mutual support was formed. Instead of a group of talented individuals we became more of a strong talented team.

I found many of the staff took a personal interest in my success and they began to give me pointers. Tell me what they expected from me and how I could make their jobs better and thus the store do better. They helped me improve as a manager.

I knew I had really earned the trust of the staff when they began asking me for advice. It perhaps was going to lunch to hear about another job they were considering and if they should take it, or whether they should take a transfer to further their career with LD or just to talk about life in general and share thoughts. It was a time of mutual sharing and learning.

I never left the natural product lifestyle and after a few years the tug at my heart to get back into the natural product business was too much to ignore. So I left London Drugs. I remember the going away party, the wonderful relationships I had enjoyed, the tears, the encouraging words, the love we had shared. How blessed I had felt working with such great people.

I really owe it to that Type A manager who in the end was a hard working guy who cared and expected excellence. From what I recall the only thing he ever told me was to start my day by walking the aisles. I learned more about retailing, personal relationships and most importantly myself on these daily journeys. I also realized the most important part are the people who work the business and the stronger the emotional bond we have as staff will reflect positively throughout the entire store.

Hopefully this encourages everyone in management no matter what business to start the day walking through your business before getting caught in the daily routine.