Mary Liz Curtin

Gifts & Decorative Accessories just announced the finalists in its 2009 Retailer Excellence Awards competition. Leon & Lulu will be one of the honorees celebrated at the Gifts & Decorative Accessories’ 58th annual Retailer Excellence Awards Gala, which will be held at New York’s Marriott Marquis overlooking Times Square on Sunday evening, August 16, 2009.
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My name is Kegan. I am 16 and I work at my parent’s furniture store, Leon & Lulu. My job at the store could most closely be compared to the opposite of a job at Burger King: No steady schedule, I can’t afford the product, and I actually become healthier from my job.

It is ugly out there at the moment, in case you haven’t noticed. There is no question that this is the worst, absolute most stinking rotten economy most of us have seen…and it doesn’t look like it is going to pick up in the immediate future. Even people who are able to shop have cut back because they are nervous about the future or think it is bad taste to spend when others cannot. As our sales figures and incomes shrink, we are all saving money anywhere we can. Every magazine, newspaper and TV newscast talks about pinching pennies, tightening belts and thriftiness of all kinds.

Everybody loves a party (except my husband, who absolutely hates most forms of merrymaking) and we especially love gatherings at our store because they are fun, lucrative and you can actually make people go home at a reasonable hour.

Don’t laugh at this phrase! Although it is often used for a giggle, it is not a joke- these words are money makers and should be paraphrased in every business. This simple question, uttered by millions of order-takers in hundreds of languages, has helped make Ronald McDonald a very wealthy clown. Those six words fatten not only the customers: they have increased the fast-food chain’s revenues monumentally.

What is the big deal about margins? Why do I continue to rant and rave about them? Oh, solvency, profits and the future of your store are a few small reasons. Many years ago the keystone markup was a dream…but now doubling the wholesale price is simply not enough. All of our costs have risen and many of us are reporting slower sales, so we have to be even more vigilant about profitability in order to survive.