Our First Store Visit Made Us Feel At Home

At Home

Let me start out this store visit (our first in a monthly addition to our newsletter) about At Home by saying they are one of the most successful retail companies in America today. They have great merchandise (more on that in the shop), a great business plan, and are open minded. If you look at their results for the latest quarter, and any quarter the current management team has been in place, you are going to see results that any retail company in the US would die for. Their team is focused on what they do best, and, as you will see in my shopping visit, they are focused on execution. They know what they are, and they know what they are not. Every other retailer in America should be walking their stores and looking at their results to see what good looks like.

The Store Visit

Whenever I visit a store I try to look at from three different points of view. How do I see the store as a customer, a sales person, and a Store Manager? I look for what is right, and I look to find places where we could be better. 

The Outside

           As you drive up to the At Home I visited you see great signage. The name of the store really does describe what you will find inside. The parking lot was empty as I shopped the store on a Thursday afternoon. As a Store Manager I want the store to look full as customers drive by. We used to encourage our employees to park close into the store during the week just to make the store look full. Not the closest spots, those are for the customers, but close enough to give the customer the feeling that they weren’t going to be the only ones in the store. Afterall, this is a store that must be close to 100,000 square feet.

           The parking lot was clean with only a few carts scattered about. The store itself was nice looking from the outside. 

The Entrance

           As you walked into the store and just started to gaze around you knew that you were in a place that had everything for the inside of your home. I just stood there and gazed around. Right in front of me were boxes of fall wreaths. It must have been a hot seller because there were a few empty boxes or boxes with dividers that had not yet been thrown out. Now, I am not saying this to be picky, I am only pointing out that as good as At Home is doing, there is a place or two where they could be better.  I looked over to my right and there were two cashiers just chatting. As they say in the restaurant business “If you have time to lean you have time to clean.” Mr. Roach used to tell me that in Incredible Universe our employees (they had purple shirts on) would cluster like grapes.

The Store

           One thing that you can say for At Home, they don’t dabble. If they are in a category, they are really in. Their Halloween display was eye catching. And the popular lawn blow-up characters were certainly easy to spot. The Christmas product was out in force, but here At Home was very smart. They put up a sign as to why they had to bring the Christmas product in early. So, rather than hear people complain about Christmas being out so early, they let the product reinforce one of their key principals…they are a value place to shop, and they work hard and smart to deliver to their customers great value.

           Throughout the store it was easy to see pricing. In fact, the signage of the store was some of the best I have ever seen. You knew where you were and it was easy to find where to go. We used to call this “silent salesmen.” At Home is doing a great job in this area. Since most of the merchandise is made for them, they don’t have to waste space for brand merchandising on the product. They take that space to clearly show price. And when you are talking about smart, the location signage for where to find your Christmas tree is terrific. You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to find your six foot red Christmas Tree. 

           A place they could get much better is “silent add on selling.” They have a great product in a Christmas Wreath Cover. Very good idea. You buy the wreath and then store it protectively for the next year. However, I found them by accident near the boxed Christmas trees. There was not one isle display for these wreath covers in any of the 4 isles of wreaths. Additionally, while At Home sells extension cords, there is not one to be found near the blow up lawn characters. This could be another $10-$15 per blow up character and save the customer another trip. It would not cause stale inventory to accumulate as the product is already in the store.

           The way the merchandise is organized screams, “we have variety and we are in stock. “ Take the chairs, they have aisles and aisles of them. And with each chair there are 20-40 backups. So if you are looking to re-chair a dining room table or looking for matching furniture for the back yard it is here and you can take it with you right now. 

           While walking the store I chatted with customers. They all loved the treasure hunt aspect of At Home. They were discovering and finding treasures they did not even know they wanted. And, this is important, they wanted to share them with me. They were that excited. And this happened several times during my visit. The best customer service people I found all day were the other customers. And they were great.

           Speaking of walking around, I noticed there was no music in the store. Not sure why, but I noticed. 

           The wall décor items show off the huge advantage that At Home brings to the party. The vast array of different things you can hang on the wall, put in the corner, or put on your desk simply is not recreated anywhere. This is how to beat Amazon, Wayfare, and Jet. When the customer can have this type of selection and actually touch it, it is worth the investment of their time. This merchandise spoke to all ages and backgrounds. I don’t have a decorating bone in my body, and I went home and told my wife that we had to go there together. 

           But here is where my eyes as a Store Manager come into play. While I realize this store is set up for self-service, I think there needs to be people on the floor to be able to answer questions and give advice. I’m not sure how it works in the financial model, which may be the rub. But culturally, no employee should ever walk by a customer without starting a short conversation. It is a culture issue. Here I was walking around with a note pad, taking note, and no one asked me what I was doing or what I was working on. I even asked employees if I could take a picture and, after they said yes, they never even asked me what kind of room I was looking to decorate. Remember, this is a well running store. It is neat, well priced, organized. But, could they add 1-5% more in sales if people said hello and were curious about helping their customers? 

           Now if you are looking for a pillow look no further than At Home. From bed pillows to throw pillows, to pillows just for pillow fights (Ok, I am making that part up) this place is loaded with pillows. And if you need something to go with the pillows they have all of the bedding you could want. 

           It also looks to me that they are testing storage merchandise. If they are, Container Store better look out. The baskets I saw were outstanding. The only reason I did not buy them is I had to get permission.

           At Home is a seasonal store.  Halloween, Christmas, Spring, Thanksgiving, Mothers Day, you name it, they have it covered. So that means they will be dealing with large amounts of traffic. Like my dad would say, “the bus just pulled up.” At Home deals with this by putting an isle full of impulse buys before you get to the cash and wrap. Very smart. That way there is not a log jam at one register when the others are empty. The check out process seemed organized and welcoming. It was a little dark, but not terrible. As this is the last impression a customer sees in the store I think it is very important. I am not sure why they have candy at the end of the isle, but I would imagine it sells. (I did resist)

           So, At Home is a terrific shopping experience, which is why their company performs so well. With a tweak here and there, you can see where they could get next years comps from. But, remember, it is all about the merchandise and this is where At Home wins in spades. They never forget it and never should. With a leader that has been responsible for finance, supply chain, and merchandise in both the retail and wholesale sectors the importance of merchandise will never be forgotten. Keep up your leadership role At Home and we will continue to be At Home with you.

For more information about Axcelora and how we keep veteran retail executives active please reach out to Rich Hollander at [email protected] or Taylar Gomez at taylar.gomez.com . Or call them at 817 615 9540