THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 19, 1996 TAG: 9602170224
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 05 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JUANITA RAISOR, BUSINESS WEEKLY VIRGINIA BEACH
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
In the era of the mass merchandiser, retailer Janet Woods is determined to defy the marketing odds.
Big discounters each try to out-smart and out-price one another, and in the age of help-yourself retailing, customer service and product quality can be left on the flip charts in the conference room.
Woods last summer opened Janet's Fashions, a boutique in Thoroughgood Commons that offers the personal touch.
While stores open every month in Hampton Roads, Woods herself stands out for the wealth of retailing insight she has about this oceanside area, where tastes run to the casual rather than the classic.
``This idea . . . that there is nowhere in the community that they can go to dress up is a myth,'' Woods said. ``We have all kinds of events that demand dress-up, but they have played it down to where they feel out of place when they dress up.
``If they were going to the same event in New York City, they would wear a cocktail dress, and there is no reason for them not to do it here,'' she said. ``It's not the lack of culture that has caused the ladies to feel like they don't have a place to dress up. It's their own doing. It's the way we allow ourselves to dress during the day, and present ourselves in front of our friends.''
Woods has watched the area's sense of fashion change considerably in her 21 years of retailing. Women in Tidewater, she says, ``have gotten so comfortable in jogging suits that when they come in the store to look at a church dress they think they are a 10 and they have gone to a 14 without even realizing what has happened to them. And it's the jogging suit. They don't fit, they're loose and baggy, so they eat and eat and eat.''
Woods herself is the antithesis of the dress-down look in her black sheath dress with a designer pen and black heels. She believes women shouldn't accept less than quality clothing.
``What's gonna happen with the market in this area, if we as merchants don't provide the quality and service that the ladies want, is that there gonna' go out of town to find it, and we're gonna' be holdin' the bag,'' she said.
A stream of Tidewater residents already shop for unusual quality and service in the boutiques of Washington and New York, as Woods fully knows.
For 21 years, she operated JJ's, a boutique in the Meadowbrook Shopping Center until she closed the shop in 1994, needing ``a break and a change.''
She took a job in the gift shop at Nauticus, the new maritime museum in Norfolk. ``Computers were taking over and I knew nothing about them,'' she said. She learned how to use computers for cash and credit card sales, but her stay was short. ``My customers missed me and I missed them,'' she said.
By last August, Janet's Fashions was up and running. While style and selection are important to Woods, customer service ranks highly, so much so that she tries to provide an ``at home'' atmosphere for customers.
Woods said she wants people to feel ``shopping is more of a leisure than a rushed, hectic occasion.'' Her boutique even has a small kitchenette near the dressing rooms.
``I like to have desserts and treats on hand for them (customers),'' she said. ``It may cut into my profit, but in the long run, it also may bring me more business.''
To add to the personal atmosphere, two upholstered chairs and a table set with coffee pot and cups are comfortably arranged near the door. ``I want it to be a homey atmosphere,'' Woods said ``I want them to feel like they are coming into my living room,''
Woods knew that she had to make some hard and fast decisions when she reopened. ``Where to cut back, like on the different manufacturers that I carry, because I knew that I was not going to be equipped here to have as much stock as I had at JJ's,'' she said. ``I didn't want it to be a chore. I wanted it to be enjoyable.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by D. KEVIN ELLIONTT
Janet Woods displays the quality of the personal service in her
boutique.
by CNB