I promise you that there are a lot of people involved in various kinds of retail activities who think they have a crucial role in the economy, and they're right.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
No one in my family had a retail or marketing background. They were professionals. They didn't understand just what I was doing by going into retailing. After I started, though, it got into my blood. I knew this was what I wanted.
I think shoppers are looking for newness and creativity. Look at C. Wonder, for instance. They're dancing in our stores. We don't believe in retail like retail was done in the past. We believe in disrupting the whole environment, offering them amazing value in an amazing package of fun, excitement and whimsy.
Trying to move the volume of products we're talking about from place to place to get it ultimately into the customer's hands, to price these items, to market these items, I think the retail business is incredibly complex. But if you get it right, it's a beautiful thing.
One of the people who most influenced me was Ben Shapiro, a marketing professor at the business school. He used to rant and rave and pound his fist: 'It's all about the customers!' And he was right. He was also right that, at that time, retailing was devoid of really talented people; he urged me to go in that direction.
People are always going to go shopping. A lot of our effort is just: 'How do we make the retail experience a great one?'
Consumerism is so weird. It's a sort of conspiracy we collude in. You'd think shoppers spending their hard-earned cash would be highly critical. You know that the manufacturers are trying to have you on.
I'm not from a retail background, but I am a shopper.
I've always taught that a poor economy is the best opportunity for salespeople because the naysayers and grumblers have already given up, leaving more territory, more opportunities to be successful than in a good economy when virtually all salespeople are out there, giving it their best.
People in retail banks are not smart. They have a business model that's quite difficult to not make money out of - but still they somehow manage it.
The American consumer is also the American worker, and if we don't do something to protect our manufacturing base here at home, it is going to be hard to buy any retail goods.
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