Episode 15: The People Business: Frank Ventresca on Retail Success and Community Involvement
In this episode of Main Street Matters, host Terresa Zimmerman sits down with Frank Ventresca, owner of Ventresca Limited, a high-end men's specialty store in historic Doylestown, Pennsylvania. With 43 years in business, Frank shares his journey from a small store, to multiple stores and a consolidated thriving 5,000-square-foot premium menswear destination. Through his experience, he illustrates how independent specialty retailers can thrive in today's market by focusing on exceptional customer service, expert tailoring, and building lasting relationships across generations.
Frank takes us behind the scenes of his successful specialty store, sharing everything from why he chose to move his shop to a new neighborhood, to how he builds and maintains an amazing team of people who truly care about helping their customers look their best. Frank emphasizes that his business isn't just about selling clothes – it's about being in the "people business." His philosophy of providing value through superior service, product knowledge, and attention to detail has helped his store achieve record sales in the post-pandemic era, even as many traditional department stores struggle.
Episode Highlights:
Strategic relocation to Doylestown brought the store closer to wealthy demographics and key institutions
The store invests heavily in employee benefits and retention to maintain service quality
Their customer base spans three generations, with products and service tailored to each
Product offerings cover a wide price range, from $900 to $2,200 suits, plus a wide sportswear range, to serve diverse needs
The core philosophy is "we're not in the clothing business, we're in the people business"
Deep community involvement keeps the store connected to local customers
Current challenges: Managing vendor delivery delays and finding qualified, committed retail personnel in the post-pandemic environment
Featured in this Episode:
Ventresca Ltd. – Frank Ventresca
Historic Doylestown, PA
145 West State Street
Doylestown, PA 18901
Email: retail@ventresca.com
Website: https://ventresca.com/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/ventrescaltd
LinkedIn (Ventresca LTD) - https://www.linkedin.com/company/ventrescaltd/posts/?feedView=all
LinkedIn (Frank) - https://www.linkedin.com/in/frank-ventresca-ba098634/
YT - https://www.youtube.com/@VentrescaLtdDoylestown
FB - https://www.facebook.com/Ventrescaltdmensstore/
Mentions in this episodes:
Doylestown, PA https://centralbuckschamber.com/
Shop Small Saturday
Amex - https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/benefits/shop-small/
US Chamber – 2024 Toolkit - https://www.uschamber.com/toolkit/shop-small-business
US Small Business Association - https://www.sba.gov/about-sba/organization/sba-initiatives/small-business-saturday
Connect with Us:
Main Street Matters Podcast:
Website: www.mainstreetmatters.co
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mainstreetmatters1
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/main-street-matters
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/@MainStreetMatters_MSM
Host - Terresa Zimmerman:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/terresachristensonzimmerman
Listen to the episode here:
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Full transcript:
Frank Ventresca:
I tell my staff all the time, we're not in the clothing business. If you think we're in the clothing business, you're in the wrong job. We're in the people business.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Because they had a great experience the one time they walked in, even if they couldn't afford it then. That's amazing.
Frank Ventresca:
They see the benefit of a specialty store compared to a department store or a chain store. They don't operate that way.
Terresa Zimmerman:
This episode of Main Street Matters is brought to you by Wood Underwear, Marchesi Jin Frati neckwear, and Inspiro Tequila. I’m your host, Terresa Zimmerman. Welcome. I am excited to be here today with Frank Ventresca, owner of Ventresca Limited in historic Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Welcome, Frank.
Frank Ventresca:
Good morning, Teresa. Nice to be here with you.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Thank you for joining us. This is awesome. We're going to dive right in and I want to hear about Ventresca Limited. Can you tell us about your store?
Frank Ventresca:
We are in our 43rd year in our third location, have expanded from 1981 in a small store. We're there seven years and then went down the street into a larger store. added different services and people, personnel, increased the size of the operation and diversification of our inventory. And that was in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, and we were there totally 25 years. Uh, in this location, we moved here in the fall. Uh, actually August 1st was a Monday, uh, was the first day here in 19, uh, no, in 2006, 2006 was, uh, August 1st and we. It's now 18 years we've been here, so altogether 43 years, and I blinked an eye and it went by that fast. It's crazy.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Yeah. Why the move from Jenkinson to Doylestown?
Frank Ventresca:
Demographics. The demographics in Jankatown were magnificent up until I'd say the late 90s. A lot of wealth, close to the city. I was a half an hour from my store to Center City. So the drawing, I drew from a big area and it was nice. The money in the area was was substantial in a great perimeter. So it gave me an opportunity to build a business. And then all of a sudden, the demographics started to change. People our age who grew up there, they were not, as they were settling down, getting married, starting careers, they were not moving there. Their parents were still there, but they were moving elsewhere. And that elsewhere was all through the Delaware Valley. So my business was growing, but all of a sudden, little by little, you started to see the types of businesses, the quantity of businesses, restaurants in our area changing. With that, so all of a sudden, normal conditions, it's 2003 to 2005, and our retail numbers and sales plateaued. At that time, Doylestown, where I am now, I was born and raised, and the demographics here were changing. The quantity of new building, there was There was farmland out here, there was open space, and people were building homes. People were putting additions on home. The borough, there's two districts, the Doylestown Borough and Doylestown Township. Doylestown Borough became red hot. uh, business-wise and, um, desirability for people to own homes in the borough and then out in the township as well. So from here, we relocated and at this time we're doing all-time high business post-pandemic consistently for three years. and had a huge increase post-pandemic, like a lot of independents. And the demographics are very solid. And the growth stability in our area is, I would say, very secure. We have a hospital. Doylestown Hospital is no more than a quarter mile down the street. Delaware Valley University, three quarters of a mile down the street. The county seat, Doylestown Courthouse is five blocks, walk out my front door, turn left, five blocks away is the county seat, is the courthouse. So you have attorneys, you have doctors, you have professors. You have a lot of professional people. We're a suburb of Philadelphia and we're a semi-suburb of New York. So the demographics here are very good and there is, at this point, unless a big catastrophe occurs, we are very rock solid in the stability of the demographics with only one way to go and that's up.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Yeah. Well, and I mean, I've been to Doylestown and it is a beautiful town too. That main street that you've got there is just gorgeous and vibrant and I don't think I've been on it when it hasn't been packed with people.
Frank Ventresca:
Yeah, it gets, I'd say, three quarters of the year. All the restaurants, they have outside dining out on the porches. Matter of fact, one week a month from the spring all through the early fall, they'll close a couple of the streets on State Street and Main Street for about three blocks in both directions. And they'll close the streets and all the the restaurants will roll out and put tables in the streets and leave the sidewalks open, and it's flooded with people. That's great. The people that borough council and the political officials here in town are doing a great job intelligently. So once a year there's a bike race, there's a car show, there's an arts festival, there's a tree lighting ceremony which is going to occur right after Thanksgiving when Santa Claus comes to town and throws a switch and they'll be crazy amount, there'll be 10,000 families that come into town and the streets are closed right in the very center at the intersection of State Street and Main Street. And they have a huge Christmas tree and it's loaded with families and little people that want to see Santa Claus. So if you think about the people that come out for a tree lighting, the people that come out for a car show, the people that come out for arts festival, nine times out of 10, they don't have the same interest. So they're bringing different groups of people through the town half a dozen different times of the year. And that one day may affect the foot traffic in the store. It may affect the sales of the store. But as a whole, it's exposing the store continually to thousands and thousands of fresh eyes and people. and making an awareness of who we are and where we are.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Yeah, that exposure is great. And a courthouse is always great to have close by for clothing stores, right?
Frank Ventresca:
And it's huge. It's big. I mean, it's a large, large facility, not just a little building. They have a farmer's market from 7 a.m. to noontime on Saturdays all through the spring where you know, loads up tons and tons of people that come in. So, I mean, they do a really beautiful job of bringing and exposing people. And one sign of how a town is doing, how healthy it is, is vacancies. So storefronts that are empty for rent. When a storefront, if and when it goes empty, is filled very quickly and it's filled with good, desirable businesses as compared to a check cashing store or bail bondsman or something crazy where you go into different places and you see that and you scratch your head and saying, wow,
Terresa Zimmerman:
How safe are we? Not every town can fill their empty spaces with stuff like that. I mean, the easy move-ins, you know, or the insurance office or the, you know, the lawyer's office.
Frank Ventresca:
Plenty of professional offices and plenty of residence. There's condos and apartments. So the town is very walkable.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Nice.
Frank Ventresca:
Yeah. And then here, here's, here's, here's a fact. Okay. Um, Doylestown has the longest continuous Memorial Day parade in the country. Wow. Okay. The Memorial Day, the Doylestown Memorial Day parade looks like something out of a Norman Rockwell hometown USA movie. It's crazy.
Terresa Zimmerman:
That's exactly what Royalstown reminds me of. It comes straight out of Norman Rockwell. You hit the nail on the head there when trying to describe it. That's exactly it. Okay, with you out, I'm going to stick the Chamber of Commerce website in our show notes. Go for it. People should go visit Doylestown. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, so this is home for you, so you know all about it, but clearly you're involved in the community.
Frank Ventresca:
Um, yeah, we do a lot, you know, like any, like any good business, you know, being a part of the chamber of commerce and making donations and ads and contributing to the school district and, you know, the homecoming and different events, the plays. and they need garments or tuxedos or different things to be used and worn. We do that all the time. Attend auctions and events and anniversaries for different fundraisers. Yeah, we try to do as much. They have the Bucks Beautiful. Bucks Beautiful, they do a couple different events. They do once a year a charity, the village commercial community, and the money goes to the Doylestown Hospital, and they'll take like an old historic home somewhere. and they'll bring in a group of designers and they'll paint it wallpaper, put lighting in, do different things, bring landscapers out and redo the outside and take something that's tired and bring it back to life. and then have an open house for 30, they'll have a gala. Normally they'll have a gala on a Friday night and then a Saturday kickoff for 30 days where it's open to the public to come and see and all the money raised goes to the Doylestown Hospital.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Wow, that's a serious event. That's serious investment into the community too. I love it.
Frank Ventresca:
So we'll do, and then what they'll do is they'll have, you know, people that'll design a bedroom and then they'll design a closet. And we'll put some apparel in there and Ventresca bags and Ventresca hangers and try and fill up the closet with different men's clothing on one side. And they'll do the same thing with one or two of the ladies' shops that will do it on the other side in a walk-in closet. So it gets exposure. It's just things that we do, any more we take for granted. But there's three high schools, Central Bucks West, Central Bucks East, and Central Bucks South. And they have football teams, basketball teams, girls hockey, soccer. They'll come through and ask for ads for the program book. The baseball team every year sells poinsettias. And we'll buy a couple dozen poinsettias from the boys' baseball team, and they'll deliver them the first weekend in December, and we'll put them in the front of the store. And when ladies come in for Christmas to buy for their family, for their husbands, for their better half, their son, we'll give them a poinsettia. So it makes the lady feel good and you're handing out poinsettias to shoppers after we gift wrap their purchases. And at the same time, it helps the baseball team. And they always come in and says, you're our best customer. You're our best customer. We buy 24 poinsettias.
Terresa Zimmerman:
That's great. You'll have to keep that up. They're going to count on you now.
Frank Ventresca:
I told them to keep it up. I'm interested in doing it every year. I said, you guys got to always remember we're here.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Yeah, awesome. Well, tell us about the breadth of stuff you have in your store, because I know it's pretty wide ranging. I mean, because you've talked about courthouses to high school, so you're serving a pretty huge clientele.
Frank Ventresca:
Yeah, well, I mean, like anybody else, diversification of product services is important today. If you're strictly selling men's suits, it's depending, and I'm asked all the time, who's buying suits? People ask me all the time. It's the same question, like, how's your business? And they're waiting for me to say, oh, it's in the toilet, we're doing horrible. which it's just the opposite. It's never been better. It's never been healthier. It's never been more diversified because there's no independence left. I mean, if you go to a mall, and there's six malls in the Philadelphia region that are 50% empty, The King of Pressure Mall, which is 50 minutes from us, is a very profitable, large mall and one of the top 200 performing malls in the country. Now there's a Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom's, there's a Bloomingdale's, there's different, you know, high brands, male, female, apparel stores, as well as all the mall stores. But if you think about those stores, they're open from 10 a.m. to 9 o'clock Monday through Saturday. They're open from 10 o'clock to 6 o'clock on Sunday. They're open holidays So if you have a group of people anymore who don't want to work more than three days a week from nine to five in an office, what kind of people are you getting to fill the position to fill those hours? And those days they could have the labels, they could have the diversification of the product, but the customer service, the attention to detail, the tailoring, is not there. So we're getting more and more people looking for the value for the money they're spending. So hypothetically, if they want to buy a canali suit, Well, you could buy it in three different locations in the King of Pressure Mall, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom's, Bloomingdale. You could find in all three stores. You could buy Eton shirts in those stores. But now all of a sudden, try and find someone who knows the product, who has customer service skills. And then on top of that, we'll turn around and alter the garment Instead of trying just to put it in a bag, a box or whatever, and get it out the door. We're not trying to cut corners with tailoring. I have six tailors in my tailor shop and they stay busy all the time. We sell a lot of sleeve units, suits, sport coats, tuxedos. We alter all the pants for length. We'll take in a waist if a guy's an athletic built. So he's got a big seat and thighs and the waist needs to be taken. That's standard. I mean, that's what better specialty stores do. But in department stores, that's not the case anymore. They're not looking to do that. They're looking to get the customer in and out. So the growth that we're experiencing and other independent specialty store retailers, they're getting it. People want the value for the money they're spending. And then what happens is being in business so long, we're doing business or did business with the grandfather, then the father, now the sons. You're seeing the next generation, um, as they come through. So merchandising the store. with regular fit clothing is one thing, but how about slim fit? Slim fit shirts, suits, sport shirts. So having a, you know, a canali suit is nice, but it may not be as slim for the son as it is for the father. And then also what we'll do is have an entry, a middle and a premium tier in price point. So not everybody wants to walk in and spend $2,200 on a suit. Well, we'll have a $900 suit. We'll have a $1,500 suit. And then we'll have sport coats and pants to reflect that as well. So we have a starting point, which is a better price point. And our target market is luxury. We have a very stable demographic that we target market. And we're only men's. We're just men's clothing. We'll do ready-to-wear in clothing, which would be suits, sport coats, formal wear, tuxedos to purchase, and obviously the shirts and the accessories to go along with it. But then we'll do tons of sportswear. Denim, casual, techno, five pocket with a stretch pant that we'll do is key and important. We'll do tons of soft coats. in a nice fabric, and then also do it in a luxury. We have unconstructed cashmere sport coats in four different colors that, you know, they feel wonderful. They have a soft touch. Soft always sells.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Yeah. I saw you talking about the cashmere on your Instagram video. I wanted to touch it.
Frank Ventresca:
Yeah, and then cashmere sweaters and soft touch in a Brax jeans in the fall and winter do a soft touch, which is nice. It's not heavy, but it's a fall winter weight in a cotton. Denim, Brax has a new product for this fall where it has 3% cashmere, 3% lycra, which gives it the stretch. Then it has, you know, 94% cotton. So it looks like a regular denim, but it has a little softer feel. We have that in two washes and it's doing well. It's a seasonal product from Brax.
Terresa Zimmerman:
I haven't seen that in person yet. I'm going to look out for that. Those guys do some crazy cool things with fabric.
Frank Ventresca:
Yeah. And then they're doing the same, they're doing a concept for spring where it's cotton and silk. So it has a denim weight, but it's a lightweight denim weight and it has a little nicer hand, but they're doing it in silk. So they're doing the cashmere, uh, cotton for, for fall. And then the silk cotton for spring, which gives a little different touch and feel and, but it has the same silhouette. that we do in BRAX in their perennial product.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Yeah. I mean, so I can talk about fabric and components of fabrics all day long. Do your customers care about this? Do they want to hear these stories? Do you impart these stories to them?
Frank Ventresca:
Teresa, it's very simple. They want what feels good and fits good. So if you turn around and show them something new, whether it's the high flex, the stretch, the knit in Brax, and you tell them when they put it on, oh, this feels great because it moves in every direction. And if you think about people, if they're on an airplane, they're in a car for two hours, they're packing, and they're going to do a presentation for business, and they don't want to load up a suitcase, they might need a suit or an outfit that requires a tie. But they may need a jacket and more casual, like what I'm doing right now, an open shirt with color buttons on it. And they're doing a speaking engagement or a cocktail party or a presentation to a group of people in a business meeting. So they may travel with that look. get to where they're going, having to wear a suit to do a presentation or suit on without a tie, with just a shirt that's intended to look like you didn't forget your tie or you didn't forget to finish getting dressed. It's put together to look like it's a business casual. Yeah. Very important anymore. And then the footwear to go with it. So our footwear department is very broad. Our denim selection is broad. Our sport shirts, knitwear, sweaters, and now at this time of year, outerwear. So diversification is key.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Well, and it sounds like they're counting on your expertise to really put them together. So they know you're the expert. They come in and they know that when they walk out, they've got their outfit picked and they have total confidence in what that is, what they're doing with it, where they're going with it. Correct.
Frank Ventresca:
The key is being in business so long. And we're not a mom and pop store anymore. I mean, we're, you know, a specialty retailer with different categories, different areas of the store. We do a lot of custom-made clothing. We have a tuxedo rental department, which is huge. And we do some serious amount of units out of that. But they have their own counter for payment. They have their own dressing rooms. They have their own personnel. So no matter how busy the store is, not everybody's on top of each other. Having experienced, talented people, number one, genuine interest to take care of people instead of just making a sale makes all the difference in the world. You know, people that have a desire for an occupation versus a job. Okay. My, my belief is as an employer, uh, we got to stay innovative. Uh, it's important, you know, because retailer, you know, we have Wednesday and Thursday, we're open till eight o'clock. Um, but Monday, Tuesday, Friday, we're here till five 30, Saturday, five o'clock. We're never open on a Sunday. We're never open on holidays. And if the store is properly staffed, you can have a rotation giving people a weekend off once every five weeks. You go through the process. Now, there's times of the year where We're people on rotation of vacations. They work a five-day week. They get one day off. But if you can get a bonus and people can get a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Saturday, Sunday, Monday, it's important. As an employer, we provide a 401k, paid vacation, medical coverage.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Nice.
Frank Ventresca:
I believe in paying people. I believe in the salespeople, the tailors should be out looking for, you know, where can I make more money? They should be concentrating on what can I, how can I learn more so that I can provide more information and have a bigger impact and be more important to the customers we're working with. Um, in, in case of an illness or, uh, something happening and we're short staffed, you know, a person on a day, um, the staff is well trained to pick up. And, and, you know, not trip over themselves and make the difference instead of having, you know, six, uh, instead of having eight people, nine people on the floor, um, you might have six and seven people, but. It doesn't affect the efficiency. You're getting it done.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Talk to me a little bit about challenges. All of what you've talked about sounds amazing and wonderful. And we know there's challenges in retail and you know, we all go through them. What would you say is kind of your biggest day-to-day, you know, day-to-day challenge?
Frank Ventresca:
There's two glaring outstanding challenges that exist today. One is on the vendor side. The customer service, sometimes you're buying product, you're in the market. When I see you in Chicago or I see you at the Philadelphia show or in New York, we're in showrooms and we're doing shows and we're buying product six to eight months out is the way our business works. Well, you're supposed to get a delivery September 1 for the fall. You're supposed to get delivery November for holiday. You're supposed to get delivery February 1 and be complete by March 1 for spring. And then all of a sudden, you get into the season and they're 10 days, 15, 20 days late, and they want you to take the goods. and you're saying, wait a minute, timeout. You didn't even ship yet and you're 20 days late. By the time I get it, you're 30 days late. If you want me to take this product, you better do two things. Number one, I better be getting a discount because the time window that it's going to go to sale has now been shortened substantially. And if it's a seasonal item, say it's shorts, say it's sandals, say it's outerwear, say it's sweaters, it's not like you're carrying it over. You can't carry it over. You got to move it out. So we're experiencing that and the manufacturers need to get better. Some are great and some are just consistently late. And so now, uh, it makes a decision where when I go into the market come this season, um, you know, starting at the end of December and all through January and February, I have a couple vendors that are earmarked to be replaced because there, there was fallout. You order, say you order 10 SKUs. And it's outerwear and it works between cloth and techno, between three quarter length and waist length. You know, it's, it's a different colors, different weights and different price points. Um, and you put together a collection and now all of a sudden these two SKUs dropped out, these two SKUs shipped late and now all of a sudden your sell throughs.
Terresa Zimmerman:
are affected and your- Well, at least now your outfit merchandised in your plans isn't now an entire outfit, right? Correct.
Frank Ventresca:
Your merchandising is off. Your presentation coming out of the gate for the season is off on how you wanted, you know, we got six windows. So we'll do, and then we have showroom is 5,000 square feet. So we'll trim the inside of the store and we'll trim the windows every three weeks. And we don't just do signage like the chain stores or the department stores put signage or banner in the window. We'll put mannequins with clothing, shoes, the whole outerwear, depending on the season. in the window. So we'll do different looks to represent the diversification of what we do here in the store. And you change it every three weeks. And you can run the store like a little mom and pop store, or you can run the store as a professional operation that's serious about taking care of people.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Yeah, and those windows are important to make a difference. I mean, I've watched men walk in stores, yours and a couple of others that I've been to in the last couple of years, and the gentleman will walk up to somebody and say, I want that outfit in that window right there. It's not just a banner in a window. It is actually what you're selling and what they can get right there and then, right?
Frank Ventresca:
Right. And inside the stores also, the displays. So you have the windows, and then we'll have 10 displays inside the store between mannequins and or Henry hangers, which are drapes that is everything but shoes on a hanging display hanger with a full shoulder and a waist on it so that can hang up against the wall and it looks professional, not mom and pop. If you're going to sell expensive clothing, it needs to look real. The person has to see themselves and say, just like you mentioned, I want that. Can I try that on?
Terresa Zimmerman:
Absolutely, yeah. Well, people may not know that there are professionals out there that you can hire out too, so that's just an important point to note. But you mentioned there were two challenges. The vendors were one. What's the second one?
Frank Ventresca:
People. People inside the store. You know, hiring personnel, you know, stores will load up on part-time, and that's good, but part-time normally don't last. Our part-time people are cashiers. which is a little different because they need to run the register, they need to know the store policies and the cadence of the store, and how to help people answer the telephone, how to run a gift card, how to get payment, all the different things that need to be done, how to write a ticket and put it on the garment after it's sold. how to gather information for a follow-up that we need to order if it's a Saturday and we need something and we didn't have it, or they wanted to see about another color from a manufacturer, and we got to follow up and do that on Monday. You know, the people behind the counter will do that, so it frees up the salespeople to stay on the floor to work with people. and to have full-time personnel who are knowledgeable, who have good customer service skills, who make a good presentation, whether it's male or female salespeople, and try to have good quality people that have long tenure and not a turnover. So many stores, especially the department stores, the chain stores, have a lot of turnover. Well, when you have a repeat loyal customer, they like to have a salesperson. They like to have someone that they know they can pick up the phone and say, Teresa, I'm coming in on Saturday. What time is best? And the person will say, well, I have an appointment at 10. How about nine or 11 o'clock? Um, I can work with you. And they know that Tuesday is Teresa's day off and, uh, uh, Monday is Jennifer's day and Wednesday is Lisa's day.
Terresa Zimmerman:
And it's so true. Yeah. Your client, your clients know.
Frank Ventresca:
Yeah, and then when a new person comes in, they hand them a business card after they're done, and they say, here's my card, feel free to call me. you know, Wednesday is my day off, but otherwise I'm here unless it's an emergency all the time. And call me, let me know what's good. I'd like to work with you going forward. And so now all of a sudden they develop a rapport. It's professional and it's the way it should be done. And it builds repeat business with loyalty.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Yeah. Well, where have you had best luck finding people?
Frank Ventresca:
Sometimes it's word of mouth. Before, it's funny how it's changed. Being in business for over four decades, you see the differences now, just like our culture in society. Okay. The differences. People, I used to, at least once a month, someone would walk in the store and say, I'm a tailor. Are you hiring? I'm a salesperson. I'm looking for a position. Are you hiring?" It used to happen all the time. I used to post on ZipRecruiter and Indeed and things like that. Sometimes you get lucky. Now we're using actual employee recruiters. We're using recruiters. where their job is to go out and find people, give you qualified candidates, and then you interview those candidates and make a decision on what direction you're going in. The changes today and the changes that we've seen since the pandemic, UPS runs a little slower. Customs runs a little slower. Things getting out of a warehouse run a little slower. things coming from Europe were running a little slower. It's just being in business and seeing, you know, you call up customer service or you go online. I got people working in the store who every Monday, every Tuesday, they're filling in on perennial goods, dress shirts, denim, blazers, solid suits, you know, whatever the item is, they're filling in. It's funny to see my people, when we need something, and getting them trained to think outside the box. So, getting people to understand, okay, yeah, here's the standard protocol, here's what we do when we're filling in, but when there's a need, a rush, or we need to fulfill a customer's want, We need an extra step that we have to go through and getting people to understand, hey, you got to take that extra step. It's not, it's not an option. It's a necessity.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Right. Well, you know, and as much as you guys care for your clients, your vendors, your sales reps want to care for you, hopefully at least the ones you want to work with. So use taking that power of the relationship all the way through your own supply chain. That is a good lesson.
Frank Ventresca:
I mean, you're a prime example.
Terresa Zimmerman:
He doesn't care, right?
Frank Ventresca:
You're a prime example. Wood underwear, all right? So yeah, it's underwear, okay? But if I have a half a dozen size larges in a particular color, and a customer comes in and buys them, and now I have another customer who's saying, I'm going to Europe for two weeks. And I want to buy 10 packs of underwear to turn around and take with me. And because it's in the summertime and I'm wearing a certain color, I don't want black. Well, there's a prime example where all of a sudden, you know, the guy's leaving Friday. Today's, today's Tuesday. Uh, I got to have them for him to take and pack and take with them.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Yep.
Frank Ventresca:
All right. And you know, it's something simple, it's underwear, but if he's not buying it for me, He's got to go to a department store or a chain store or someplace. He's not going to go without. So somebody is going to take care of him. And when you do that, they turn around and they don't think, OK, well, they're going to disappoint me. Every time I give them something I need, they never come through. So now all of a sudden, they start looking elsewhere. and all of a sudden gain the experience elsewhere. And now all of a sudden starting a relationship elsewhere. And all of a sudden, you lose the business. You're not important anymore because that relationship went elsewhere.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Yeah. No, I mean, taking care of the whole person, whether you stock it or not, I agree. And that is important to impart to your people. Probably some hard lessons for them to learn on that in the early days of training them, though, I would guess.
Frank Ventresca:
I tell my staff all the time, we're not in the clothing business. If you think we're in the clothing business, you're in the wrong job. We're in the people business. Our job is to take care of people. If you take care of people, everything takes care of itself. That's what we do anymore, and that's why men's specialty stores throughout the country are thriving, because the ones that get it, the ones that have been in business, the ones that provide the customer service, the tailoring, the attention to detail, the product knowledge, who have the consistency to take care of people, people want the value for the money they're spending. And, you know, they're given a gift or they're buying something for their dad, for their husband, for their son, for their significant other. You know, if they don't, if they're just buying a gift and they're looking to save money, and I don't mean this in a disrespectful way, but if you go to Macy's, you go to Target and you're going to buy a sweater at $29 and you're going to throw it in the bag and you're going to give it to them and that's fine. But all of a sudden, if you want a made-in-Italy sweater, you want a soft touch, you want something that looks nice, that's very recognizable of not being run-of-the-mill, you're coming to a specialty store. That's why they're coming to stores like this. Someone's going to show them, and what happens is Teresa walks in. If the salespeople know or it's one thing, if they don't, the first question is the person you're buying it for, does he shop here? And if they say yes, they says, okay, what's his name? And either they know him personally, if not, they can go into the computer and check the sizes. They can see what size coat he is, what size shirt, pant. And so instead of just selling something, they can pull out his size and show it. So the probability of a return goes way down. the possibility of a wow goes way up, because now not only did they get something in a store where they regularly shop, or it's a better item than they anticipated, but also it fits. It fits, and so you put those things into consideration. The store's healthy because it doesn't get returns. After Christmas, 50% of the products that are bought in department stores are returned. Okay? So people are taking stuff back all the time because mainstream, you know, the thought process of just by, look at the people that buy online and give it as a gift. I mean, the quantity of returns online has shot up post COVID because people used to buy for themselves and COVID just threw it to the forefront where they made laziness where, well, for any given time, people didn't want to go into public. They didn't want to go into the store. They didn't want to go into a restaurant. They didn't want to fly in an airplane. They didn't want to work. side by side with people in an office or a business. They wanted to work remotely. I mean, the thought process changed a lot of people and the quantity of online sales escalated. So if the quantity of online sales escalated, the returns escalate. Yeah. Because they're not having an opportunity to try it on, see how it fits. If it's a classic fit, a tailored fit or slim fit, you know, in our store, we have manufacturers that have different fits. If it's European, if it's a slim fit, it's different than a classic fit. You got to know your people. You got to be able to talk to people. You got to be able to ask questions and you got to know your inventory. So if you want to make a sale, that's great. But if you want to develop a customer, you're now you're doing a good job. You develop a customer and you show genuine care and you made the sale. It's a win-win. The customer's happy.
Terresa Zimmerman:
It's lasting too. You've already said it's generational, multi-generational.
Frank Ventresca:
And the salespeople on the business side, the salespeople get a salary plus a commission. So if they're only thinking about getting the commission, They're doing the wrong thing. So I like to overcompensate people in every category so that money is not an issue. there's an incentive for them to make more money. But meanwhile, if they're not self-motivated and because you're paying them, they're not doing anything, well, you got the wrong person. They got to get out. So if they have a team mentality, if they work collectively together, whether we're receiving merchandise, putting it out, ticketing it, getting prepared and ready for a window trim, a store display. Someone's working with a customer and someone's not doing anything. They came in, they're buying a suit of clothes, and they didn't bring in a pair of shoes they got sneaks on, which happens all the times anymore. Uh, someone saying, you know, you're asking, okay, what size shoe are you? I'm going to get a dress shoe. So we have the correct heel for the fitting on the length of the trouser. And the guy says size 10. And one of the coworkers says, I got it because we, we. We really emphasize, stay with your customer. Don't leave them. Another staff member will go get the shoe, will go get another item that's out of the area that they're working in. So that way they really get a one-on-one, they really get personalized service. They see the benefit of a specialty store compared to a department store, a chain store. They don't operate that way.
Terresa Zimmerman:
And your staff also feel like they're part of a team when they can work together like that, too, and be supported.
Frank Ventresca:
Exactly. Because one time they're running to get the item, and the next time it's someone else. They're working with the customer and someone else is doing it. If you have a thought process that we're here together and we're all doing this, And, and, you know, it, we don't have a cutthroat floor. We don't have a cutthroat, um, stabby in the back. Um, oh, that's my sale. Oh, you know, I should've, you know, I was busy selling a tie and, and you got, uh, the guy buying $3,000 worth of clothing. It works out. Okay. If the store, if the, if the store is healthy, if the owner, and management are doing their job, making sure there's traffic in that store, there's product in that store, and the store is properly staffed. It's a win-win. It's a win-win. The object is the store should not be making money and the people going hungry, the customers feeling like they're not fulfilled. That's wrong. If the customer comes in the store and They buy whatever they're looking for, and when they're leaving, they paid you, and they're leaving and saying, thank you very much. You did a great job. I appreciate it. And they leave. I tell my staff all the time, you can't get better than that. They spent money in our store, and now they're thanking us for helping them. Yeah. Okay. So the store did business. The customer got what they were looking for. The salesperson, um, is getting their commission over and above everything else. It's a win-win.
Terresa Zimmerman:
It's a healthy customer. Yeah.
Frank Ventresca:
It's a healthy, it's a healthy circle. Okay. The customer's being taken care of the sales person's getting, uh, fulfilled and the store's getting fulfilled. It's a healthy environment. It keeps perpetuating itself.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Well, Frank, we're running out of time, and I know you've got a store to open, but I do have two more questions for you that I ask everybody. So the first one is, if you're looking at the future, and you can pick the timeline, two, three, five, 10 years out, what are you kind of seeing, and how are you preparing for that?
Frank Ventresca:
I had a team of people that worked with me from 20 to 32 years, and they all retired. They didn't leave me, they retired. They aged out and they said, we're gone. Um, that was an awakening. Now it happened over a three year period. It wasn't one, one weekend. All of a sudden everybody's gone. You know, uh, everyone, everyone told me, I mean, my, I had a Taylor who was 80 and retired a Taylor who was 75 and retired. I had salespeople when they hit 65, 67, uh, and, and they retired. Um, so. That's what they wanted to do. And we bring in new talented people to replace them. And, and I shouldn't say we'll never replace them. That's the wrong, uh, description. We brought new people in to work in the store because I'm talking about, I had six people that helped me grow my business. Uh, when they're with you, I'm in business 43 years and you got people that were with you 20 to 32. Um. You don't, that's something. And now I got a new group of people who some have 10 years, some have five, some have two, some have one year. But right now we're in a cohesive position. So to answer your question, going forward, building the team again, keeping it intact, and at the same time, having I've always been very sensitive and not developing a pop-up store because the ownership or management is getting older. I got people on the floor that are in their twenties. I got people on the floor in their forties. I got people on the floor in their fifties and in their sixties. So what happens is having a diversification shows experience and shows freshness. You can wait on younger people, middle age, and when I say elderly, people 70 and 80 years old. And having people that have the talent, have the confidence, if they're in their 20s, to work with an 80-year-old. And the 80-year-old has the confidence that this person knows what they're looking for and has the ability to help them as compared to just making a sale. That's very, very important. So having that execution is important. Having that confidence in your sale and your customers is important. And then, you know, having the merchandise. You're not going to put slim fit clothing on an elderly man unless he wants to buy it. Having trendy clothing on people and knowing when, what label fits what way, what product to show and not embarrass yourself, but help people, that's very important. So the store gets more experience, doesn't grow old. That's how I look at it. So you're transcending time and you look appropriate in that time. You don't look like a store from 40 years ago. You don't look like an old person's store. You look like a store, um, that's important and keeping youth coming in the store on the clientele side is important because what happens, I've seen stores from 30, 40 years ago, that the personnel on the floor were old, the ownership was old, the merchandising was mature. I won't say old. What happened is so young people didn't feel comfortable in that environment. The setting was the same setting from 40 years earlier, and they felt like they were in their pop, they're in their dad or their grandfather's store. Having a tuxedo rental business like we do brings high school kids in for proms, brings grooms and the people in the wedding party in for weddings. It constantly exposes the rest of the store and we gain a lot of retail sales by people that come in and they may say, boy, this store is too expensive. I can't afford it. But one day when I have I have the money, I'm going to come in and shop in this store. And sure enough, we've seen it over the decades. He's in a position to shop in the store, and we're seeing it. We're seeing it not only in families from generation to generation, with people that we've taken care of. And they said, the first time I was introduced to your store, I got my prom rental here. And now all of a sudden, they're in their 40s and 50s. They're shopping in the store and they're buying thousands of dollars of clothing for business and pleasure.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Yeah, because they had a great experience the one time they walked in, even if they couldn't afford it then. That's amazing. Right.
Frank Ventresca:
Treat people the way you want to be treated. If you take care of people, everything takes care of itself.
Terresa Zimmerman:
That's a worthy focus. I don't care how far out your timeline is, focusing on your people and keeping things fresh. That's fabulous. My last question, why does Main Street matter?
Frank Ventresca:
Main Street matters anymore because of the disconnect. We've been talking about it all through. I mean, people, when you deal with independence and you take the day, American Express, I think it was about 20, 15 or 20 years ago, started when there was a financial crisis. Matter of fact, it was 15 years ago, when 08 to 10 occurred, when the financial collapse in Wall Street and the banks failed and then all of a sudden, everything collapsed in 06 to, I mean, excuse me, from 08 to 10. So you have Black Friday, which a lot of stores do business on Black Friday. But, um, uh, it's funny where a lot of department stores or malls, you know, people think, and that's where mainstream America shops is in those stores, but you know, the better consumer shops and specialty stores and American express started shop small Saturday. So all of a sudden. from Black Friday weekend, which we would always do business. I work hard in making sure we were important. And like anywhere else, there's a cadence of retail and whether you're in restaurants or in any business, whether you're in accounting, the, the, in the first quarter is tax season, you know, so you could be oblivious to it, but the reality is these are going to occur and you have to stay up for it. So when you turn around and you get to black Friday, um, you should be busy. uh, doing business, everybody goes on sale that week. And if you're, if you're, uh, on sale and you're meaningful, um, and you're going to have value, you're going to be important to your customer base. And there is always a regular price customer. There's always a sale customer. And then there's a crossover customer, a customer that will buy regular price, but will always dip their toe in the sale to get extra value. And then over and above, we give our customers free alteration at 25% off. So, uh, we're not charging them for alteration as an extra incentive to come shop with us compared to a department store. Sure. Nice. So, yeah, giving people the reason to come see you. If your selection is good, your personnel is good, your customer service is good, your product knowledge is good, and your tailoring is good, and you're consistent, you're doing it every year, every season, and you're showing it, there's a reason for people to come see you.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Thank you so much, Frank. Appreciate your time today.
Frank Ventresca:
You're welcome, Teresa. I appreciate this opportunity. I wish you a great holiday season and continued success, and I'll see you soon in the market.
Terresa Zimmerman:
You will. Thank you. Have a great day. Thank you for tuning in to Main Street Matters. I hope you found today's episode insightful and inspiring. I'd love it if you would share Main Street Matters with fellow retail owners or anyone else who loves Main Street. And please subscribe so you know when the next episode drops.
