Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 10, 1995 TAG: 9509080126
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Alice Davis, who has worked at the boutique for more than 10 years, married off her last child, a son, in Miami the day before. The Davises drove back home the previous night so Alice wouldn't miss her weekly shift at the University Boulevard Stein Mart store, one of four in the Jacksonville, Fla., metropolitan area.
"Oh, I have to show you the picture," she says. "I just happen to have one with me."
While Alice retrieves her pocketbook, her sister salesclerks discuss the new fall shipment. It's mid-August, and it's high time to start thinking about cool weather dressing. Brown is the "in" color this season, they say; they all admire a short brown blazer with a velvet collar and black trim on the sleeves that has just arrived.
Of course, classic cashmere blazers always sell well in just about any color, they add.
Davis and her Jacksonville colleagues are among more than 1,500 women who sell designer clothes in a separate department inside Stein Mart stores, a unit that over that last 18 years has become a major part of the company's reputation and a feature distinguishing it from other chains of small department stores.
Jay Stein, Stein Mart's chairman and CEO, started the boutique program in 1977 in Greenville, Miss., at what was then the company's sole store. He recruited wealthy, well-connected local women to sell discounted designer dresses to other wealthy women. It's an idea that worked so well it has been implemented in each new Stein Mart store.
Each of the women works at this store-within-a-store one day a week, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. They're paid just over minimum wage, but they also get a 25 percent discount on all Stein Mart merchandise, including the Jones New York and Anne Klein labels sold in the boutique. That, combined with the chance to work with friends and get a first peek at new merchandise, is what keeps women clamoring for boutique positions.
"The boutique is supposed to be fun," says Susan Edelman, Stein Mart's director of stockholder relations. "These ladies don't have to work."
"If the wage is what they're working for, then they're probably not boutique women," adds Judie Taggart, Stein Mart's fashion and boutique director.
Beverly Lambert, who will lead the retailer's Roanoke boutique team, is sold on Stein Mart, she says. Before she knew that the company was coming to Roanoke, she had thought about driving down to the Greensboro, N.C. store once a week, just to work in the boutique.
"It gives you a chance to be involved in something you enjoy," she says. "And what woman doesn't enjoy new clothing?"
Last year, between 175 and 200 women got their five- and 10-year boutique pins. Only rarely have women been asked to leave the boutique program, for reasons Taggart won't disclose. Most of the women are so excited about the job, Taggart says, that they aren't going to do anything to jeopardize their positions.
When the women are at work, their small talk sounds more like old friends or sorority sisters than floor employees at a discount store. They ooh and ahh over the new fall arrivals, talk about vacations, circulate their childrens' wedding photos.
"Here's the picture," says Davis, emerging from the back room. It's just a snapshot; the formal pictures will come later. But she had to have something to show the ladies at work. Thank goodness for overnight film processing.
"We become so involved in one another's lives," says Janet Hogshead, an eight-year boutique lady at the same store. "You know, if you're steaming clothes together all day long ... " She laughs, and Davis joins in.
Taggart smiles at her ladies. "You can see these two are so shy," she says.
She gets enough applicants for boutique positions that she can afford to be choosy. And Taggart knows exactly what she wants in her boutique ladies.
"We are always looking for women who are involved in the community," she says. "We like lively, vivacious women who know what's going on."
Stein Mart doesn't advertise boutique positions. For initial contacts, Taggart and her two assistants rely on recommendations from the women who already work in boutiques. When the company selected Roanoke for a new store, Taggart sent out hundreds of letters, asking for names of Roanoke-area women with boutique potential.
Lambert, the boutique leader, didn't wait to be recommended, she says. As soon as she heard about Stein Mart's plan, she was on the phone to her sister, a former boutique worker in Jacksonville, to make sure her name was included on Taggart's list.
Taggart came to Roanoke for three days in August to meet local women. She tries to conduct the interviews personally, but these visits are becoming harder for her to schedule as the company grows. She depends more on her "A-Team," a group of boutique leaders in places such as Atlanta and Houston. When too many stores are opening at once, these women are her surrogates, lining up interviews and pre-screening local women so that she just has to fly in for the final round of meetings.
By the morning of her third day at the Hotel Roanoke, Taggart has interviewed about 20 women, and has more meetings scheduled. She'll end up selecting 10 women as regular boutique workers, who will work one day a week in teams of two. During weekends and evenings, the boutique will be open but staffed by regular Stein Mart sales associates. Five to 10 additional women will be chosen as substitutes and will fill in when the regulars get bogged down in committee work or planning galas.
The Jacksonville store's boutique women know how to make their customers feel welcome.
"Would you like a cup of coffee, dear? And the shortbread is homemade."
Paulette Cohen, a boutique lady since this store opened 13 years ago, stands next to the silver coffee service.
"What are you looking for? A dress? There are some wonderful little black Anne Klein dresses in the back. Here, I'll show you."
A little while later, one of the regular customers - a well-dressed woman who looks to be in her early 40s - comes in to shop and to chat. She doesn't buy anything, but as she leaves she instructs the women to keep their eyes open for anything that she would like. Or anything that they think would look good on her, she adds.
As their special name implies, boutique women are not typical sales associates. Their jobs call for them to be combination hostesses and personal shoppers, and they take their duties seriously.
"Jay [Stein] wants them to welcome women into the boutique as into their own homes," Taggart says.
Because many of the women have traveled extensively and all are involved in community goings-on, they make excellent personal shoppers, she says. If a customer comes in and says she needs a dress for a four o'clock wedding in Atlanta in July, the women will know just what she should buy - or who in Atlanta could tell them. And then they'll take the customer to the shoe and hosiery and jewelry departments to round out the ensemble.
It doesn't hurt that the women often are married to men of high standing in the community. Alice Davis' husband, Donald, is a former president of the Jacksonville city council and was partially responsible for bringing the NFL Jaguars to town. Janet Hogshead's husband, Howard, is a well-respected orthopedic surgeon.
The tradition continues in Roanoke. Beverly Lambert, for instance, is married to the head of John Lambert Associates, a marketing and advertising firm that often represents companies with community clout. And Lambert herself ran for city council back in 1992.
"You have instant credibility in a community when you have these women working for you," Edelman says.
Taggart says the boutique women are Stein Mart's eyes and ears in the community. They, as much as the company's professional buyers, decide what should and shouldn't be carried in the boutique.
Giving employees - especially discount-store employees - such say-so over store content seems an odd way to do business, but in the case of the boutique program it's a sensible arrangement. After all, the women who work in the boutique are also the women who buy from the boutique - and who persuade their friends to shop there.
The "typical" boutique customer, Taggart says, is an upscale woman, a touch conservative, who may work outside the home and probably is involved in community affairs. She wants to see the latest trends, but only in ways she can relate to - not too flashy or trendy.
But this "typical" boutique shopper comes in as many varieties as there are Stein Mart stores. The boutique capitalizes on local events and tastes. For example, Louisville, Ky., boutique stocks "horsey" clothing during racing season; the Augusta, Ga., boutique keeps plenty of traditional green on the racks when the U.S. Open golf tournament comes to town; the Indianapolis boutique carries black-and-white checks. And, thanks to the arrival of the Jaguars, the stores in Jacksonville must sell animal prints.
So what can Roanoke women expect to find when the boutique opens later this week? Star-spangled Anne Klein separates? City Market-themed Jones of New York sweaters?
Probably not, Taggart says. Her conversations with local women haven't turned up any popular colors or patterns, although she has heard that decent shoes are hard to find in the Valley.
It reminds her of the scene in Dayton, Ohio, before a Stein Mart moved in. No good shoes anywhere, she says.
"Now those women were shoe-starved," she says with a laugh.
by CNB