THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 4, 1995 TAG: 9508040578
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: Living with the Machine
Occasional series exploring the impact of computers on the lives of
Hampton Roads residents.
SOURCE: BY ESTHER DISKIN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 123 lines
For 75 years, the family that owns Eagleton's Inc. kept the business thriving through a readiness to change with the times.
Sales of nautical and engineering supplies, often to military bases in the booming naval port, got the store rolling. By the 1950s, the shelves of the store on Granby Street held tools for fine artists, from oil paints to easels. When the market for commercial art boomed in the 1970s, Eagleton's owners shifted into graphics and arts supplies.
Then came the computer revolution, which turned their economic universe upside down. ``I immediately get an image of, how am I going to survive?'' said Elizabeth Wray, one of the owners. ``My business was affected very adversely by the coming of computers.''
Wray and her business partner, Susan Downing, took over Eagleton's in 1981 from Downing's father, who built it with Capt. Henry A. Eagleton. Since then, the accelerating popularity of personal computers has forced them to reexamine the basics of their business, from choosing what they sell to finding people to buy it.
The market for graphics supplies is dwindling as the computer screen replaces pens and the drawing desk. That has forced Eagleton's to stock shelves with new items, from oil paints to art and philosophy books, and seek out new customers.
The federal government, once the largest customer, is demanding computerized bidding on all of its purchases of goods and services. Vendors are supposed to make the change before the year 2000, but Eagleton's owners say they can't afford the up-front investment in software and fees.
``One of the concepts my father gave me was that you had to change,'' said Downing. ``Computers offered us a really big challenge. What is the change for us? What will our business be?''
Downing and Wray aren't alone in their struggle with technology. Across the nation, personal computers are changing the business plans, and sometimes the bottom line, of small companies.
A Gallup poll in March showed that last year, small- to mid-size firms spent an average of $125,000 for desktop computers and an average of $35,000 on notebook models. Spending for both kinds of computers is expected to rise in 1995.
The poll targeted small firms with 100 to 1,000 employees and annual sales of $5 million or more. That's significantly larger than Eagleton's, which has a dozen employees.
Eagleton's owners tried to move aggressively into new technology. In 1985, they bought a sophisticated IBM computer, which was wired throughout the store and equipped to scan merchandise with bar codes. It crashes frequently, costing them hundreds of dollars each time to get it back in action.
They pay the bill, and laugh ruefully. ``This is a deluxe Rolls Royce computer, when we could have done with a few PCs,'' Wray said. ``It was overkill.''
As a result, the computer isn't even used at customer checkout the way it was envisioned. ``We're a little past the cigar box stage of taking money,'' Downing jokes. But the low-tech approach helps them as they try to give their store an old-fashioned small-town intimacy. The staff greets regular customers by name, assists new visitors with energy and writes the receipts by hand.
That style of service used to be fine for the federal government, especially Navy enlisted men who would stop by to place last-minute orders for engineering, drafting and graphics supplies before long deployments at sea. Not anymore.
Now, the federal government wants to speed up purchases and cut down on paperwork by forcing its vendors to bid on its contracts through a computer network. The effort got a big push under the National Performance Review, an effort to streamline government operations signed into law last year and spearheaded by Vice President Al Gore.
The mandate hits small companies directly, because it runs alongside a program giving small and minority-owned businesses a competitive edge for government purchases under $25,000, said Robert E. McGhee, director of a procurement assistance center in Petersburg. By October, the threshold for set-aside purchases is expected to rise to $100,000, opening up a larger territory for computer bidding.
``Anybody who does not get on board is going to miss the boat,'' McGhee said. ``It's the cost of doing business in this age.''
It's a cost Eagleton's owners say they can't afford. They estimate that they'd need an up-front investment of $5,000 for software, a high-speed modem and fees. Add to that the cost of a new phone line to transmit the information.
Though it may not seem like much to get off the starting block, Downing says that the store's narrow profit margin leaves little for extras. ``We have discounted so heavily to maintain the government business that we have,'' Downing said. ``There isn't much fringe, speculative money available.''
Until 1985, the store did about 45 percent of its business with military bases, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and NASA, Downing said. These days, due to downsizing and less demand for graphics supplies, the federal government's share of the store's business has dwindled to 25 percent, Downing said.
This year, Eagleton's lost about $10,000 in business with the Defense Logistics Agency because the government agency insisted upon doing business by computer. The store didn't have the equipment to handle it.
As the government business declines, Downing and Wray are seeking new customers by diversifying their merchandise and targeting niche markets.
The store once had nearly all of its inventory in graphic arts, engineering and drafting supplies.
Now, about 40 percent of the merchandise is targeted for buyers Downing describes as ``artists and thinkers.'' The store's shelves are now stocked with an array of high-end, fine-arts supplies; hard-to-find books on art, philosophy and culture; exotic, hand-crafted paper; and several software programs for graphic artists.
Wray is using her own personal computer to develop the store's first catalog, which will be sent to schools, artists and others on their mailing list. ``I see it as a whole different kind of business,'' Downing said.
As computers help people accomplish their work more efficiently, Downing believes they will have more time - and a growing desire - to explore the arts, from music to painting. If they do, Eagleton's plans to be ready to help them.
``We think that people with really creative minds will need substance, not just a keyboard,'' Downing said. ``We're in the technological society. The backlash of that is that people will become more right-brain oriented, creative and artistic.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color file photo by Vicki Cronis, Staff
Eagleton's Inc. owners, Susan Downing and Elizabeth Wray, say the
computer age has forced them to stock new items.
by CNB