In this special format bonus episode I’m chatting with Ron Thurston, Vice President of Stores for Intermix, best selling author of the great book Retail Pride and opening keynote speaker at the RCC Retail HR conference coming up March 25th. I ask Ron for two starts, and one stop, based on what he has learned and experienced over the past year of the COVID era.
Welcome to the The Voice of Retail , I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.
In this special format bonus episode I’m chatting with Ron Thurston, Vice President of Stores for Intermix, best selling author of the great book Retail Pride and opening keynote speaker at the RCC Retail HR conference coming up March 25th. I ask Ron for two starts, and one stop, based on what he has learned and experienced over the past year of the COVID era.
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Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of The Voice of Retail. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss out on the latest episodes, industry news, and insights. If you enjoyed this episode please consider leaving a rating and review, as it really helps us grow so that we can continue getting amazing guests on the show.
If you are a retail HR professional you don’t want to miss the RCC Retail Human Resources forum, March 25th. Learn more and register at http://rcchrconference.ca/
Ron Thurston loves retail. And he's proud of it. Ron has led the retail teams for some of America's most prominent brands, inspired thousands of store employees, and traveled relentlessly across the country to sit and listen to what they have to say. From a part-time sales associate to a Vice President of Stores, Ron has put in the hard work that a retail career requires and wrote this book to share what he learned along the way. Ron currently leads the retail organization for INTERMIX, a division of GAP INC, and sits on the board of directors for GOODWILL NY/NJ. You can learn more about Ron and keep in touch on his website here.
Michael LeBlanc is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience, and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. Michael is the producer and host of a network of leading podcasts including Canada’s top retail industry podcast, The Voice of Retail, plus Global E-Commerce Tech Talks and The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois. You can learn more about Michael here or on LinkedIn.
Michael LeBlanc
Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael Leblanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.
In this special format bonus episode on chatting with Ron Thurston, Vice President stores for Intermix bestselling author of great book, Retail Pride, and Opening Keynote Speaker at the RCC Retail HR conference coming up March 25. I asked Ron for two starts, and one stop based on what he has learned and experienced over the past year of the COVID era. Let's listen in now.
Ron, welcome back to The Voice of Retail podcast, how you doing my friend?
Ron Thurston
Fantastic. Thank you for having me today.
Michael LeBlanc
Well, it's a bit of a different format, you and I've had a longer form conversation on both The Voice of Retail and Remarkable Retail podcasts. And this format is a bit different. You're speaking at the Retail Council of Canada's HR forum coming up. First of all, tell us a bit about yourself. And then I'm gonna ask you two starts and one stops. And then a little bit about what you'll be talking about at the conference. But let's jump right in. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background.
Ron Thurston
Sure, so my name is Ron Thurston. I'm the author of Retail Pride: The Guide to Celebrating Your Accidental Career. It came out in October of 2020. And my goal with the book was really to celebrate the millions of people who do the work in stores every single day. And to really encourage the pride, the pride that everyone shows and demonstrates but would love to see it in writing. And so, I've had such a great time talking about retail. Celebrating our industry. The people that work in it and the joy that we have. And so that's part one of my jobs. The other is I'm the Vice President of stores at Intermix, which is a multi-brand, it's the largest multi-brand women's retailer in the U.S. today.
Michael LeBlanc
What I've always liked about our discussions is you have this merge of the experience of an operator. Like you're, my favorite saying of yours, I think it's your favorite saying as well as “Saturday's my favorite day”, right? “It's go day” Clear out the distraction, clear out the clutter. This is the day where we will be successful. And so, I think that's what you, what I really enjoy about your background and what you what you bring to us.
So and what we want to talk about today is these, based on what you've been going through, and what the industry has been going through, you're in apparel, so apparel has been struggling a little more than home improvement, but very innovative, right? It's trying to do different things, whether that's ecommerce. That blend the stores open, the stores closed, how do I get people excited? Tell us over the past, you know, what's it almost been a year now of the COVID era. This isn't a history lesson. But two things that you would recommend the listener start doing based on what you've learned over the past 12 months. And then I'll ask you something that maybe if they're doing it today, or what you see people doing they should, they should stop or just move on. Was part of the past and just let it go and do something different. Let's start there.
Ron Thurston
Sure. So start, you know, I think what one of the many great things that has happened in the year in our industry is the immersion of incredible technology. So, there are every day, I'm seeing new ideas come forward, whether it's live shopping platform, keep like one to one, or one to many different chat functions. So recreating potential in store experiences through websites that may connect you directly with in store associates. Chat functions, that where you can text with the store, you can text to pay text to write reviews. There are great technologies and client telling, outreach and development, appointment setting for retail. There's great technology. I actually was just exploring one with a vendor, being able to identify the gender and the age of customers walking by the store, or even inside. About kind of who they are, why they're spending time. So, the start is really, you know, continue to explore, learn, you know, take those calls, when you think it may not be something that's right for you and your business today. I think it's always great to know what's happening in the industry. So that's definitely a start.
Michael LeBlanc
So, you're clearly a fan of exploring technology. I mean, you and I have also talked before about you have to be careful that technology doesn't create a wall between you and the customer. That it's an enabler, not a, you know, not a decelerator of the relationship that you need to have with the customers in front of you. Right?
Ron Thurston
Yeah, it's really I think, at every touch point, how does this enhance the experience or enhance the customer experience or the employee experience. And if it doesn't fit the filter of either one of those, then it's likely not right for your business. But, if you say I can have an incredible customer experience that is very human and very kind of filled with emotion and empathy and curiosity, yet very tech enabled on the back end, that makes it efficient. And maybe the product ships directly from a warehouse or another store. So, you can enable product, enable things like contactless pay. But have the same intimate experiences either on your website or in person. All of that it, it enhances your brand and enhances in the best of retail. And that's really what I love about what's happening in the tech space. Not at all to replace but to enhance.
Michael LeBlanc
Right. And, and that's that squaring of the circle. I talked to a lot of smaller, independent merchants. And I know the way that you run your store, it's like each store is like an indie merchant, right? You're part of a big company, but each store has to thrive in its own trading area with its own customers. And I think there's a bit of fear that technology gets in the way of a relationship, and then it just makes you like everybody else. Like it just washes out the experience a bit too much. I guess that's that thing you've got to really, you know, focus on. As you said, that lens about does this add value to the experience? Yeah.
Ron Thurston
Right. And so, imagine you're having this great interaction with someone and then you had a question about product or question about inventory levels, and, you know, I love when, you know, an associate can pull their iPhone out of their back pocket and say, “Well, let me just check for you”. Oh, I see that, you know, Apple does that really well. I like to buy this phone. Fantastic. They pull out their own device, and someone from the back brings it out. The conversation continues. You can talk about features and benefits and Apple care. And you're doing all of this very human work that can only happen in person. But it's all tech enabled on the back end. And that feels very much like the best version of
Michael LeBlanc
Right on, right on. And for the listeners out there, Ron, you spent some time, a fair bit of time at Apple. So, you know of what you speak.
Ron Thurston
I do.
Michael LeBlanc
You lived that experience in the go go days.
Ron Thurston
I do, much better today than they were 10 years ago. But yes, they're, they're one of the best. You know they still are.
Michael LeBlanc
Yeah. And no kidding. Okay, that's a great, that's a great start off. Okay. Number two, in terms of things retailers should start doing.
Ron Thurston
I think that there's has been at some point, kind of, when we think about cost and the decline of retail footfall traffic and business, there's been a lot of cost that has stripped, been stripped out of stores, and specifically payroll. And when I would say is start now, with the anticipation and the optimism that we all have about 2021 and beyond, to start now and go back and add, add the cost, add the people, add the experiences in the things that felt like they were a little more optional than last year, or to just minimize expense, now's the time to go back in.
Because the reason I say this is that we now have the opportunity as people get back out and begin to travel and back in stores is you have the opportunity now to wow them. And to be the best version of the retail business that you have built. And if it then doesn't have an incredible group of people that work in it, who are highly motivated and engaged and proud of what they do. And that there's a kind of a lack of service or a lack of experience, what's going to happen is the customers going to say well, you know, fall back maybe into the habit of 2021, 2020, which was buy it online. But what I would really encourage is start this idea of shifting some revenue back into stores, but also with the people that do the, that do that work and create those connections. And to don't be afraid to invest on the front end, because now we have we have the opportunity now to do it really well.
Michael LeBlanc
Right on, right. And so, both risk and opportunity for retailers listening, right now. The risk of you, you got to come out of the blocks strong in other words. Which is, which is important as people start to come back to the store and remind the best of the stores and leave the rest behind.
All right, speaking about leaving the rest behind. What, which, what should the listeners maybe do less of, or stop doing that that they might have done before? Or, that you've seen lately?
Ron Thurston
You know, this is it's kind of my own personal mantra often. But you know, I personally want to stop defending brick and mortar as a viable source of resources. And I do think I've spent a lot of time explaining brick and mortar retail, or talking about its importance in a portfolio, or how it builds brand, or how it builds loyalty, best customers. We're at the point now where we've all learned the value of brick and mortar retail to the, to your portfolio. But because when you didn't have it, you can also understand loyalty of customers shifts. Their options are really wide, or in many cases, too wide. And the brick and mortar kind of version of your brand, puts your curated, edited best of here's what we think are the most important options of our website into brick and mortar. And kind of limit choice and add personal experience.
And from what I've seen and read, this is the time where we want to reinvigorate those brands and to think about how we can rebuild all of our business back. But I what I want to stop doing is stop defending the importance of this and encourage the growth and the investment as I had said in the in the start.
Michael LeBlanc
Did you ever imagine, when you started writing your book, that you'd become an evangelist for brick and mortar retail? I think it feels like you started as, look, retail is a great place to be, and but you, how many interviews have you done like this? Like you didn't do a book tour, but you must have done?
Ron Thurston
I’ve done a lot.
Michael LeBlanc
A lot of interviews, I think you have done a lot. And it is, it's interesting, right? It's like, how many times do we have to say it again? Brick and mortar retail matters. But you know, anyway, you do a great job. You're such a great ambassador for retail.
So, what do you what are you gonna be talking about on the stage coming up on the 25th? The virtual
Ron Thurston
Virtual stage, so, I, I'm going to share one of my favorite parts of the book, which is why we love working in retail. And there are many, you know, a couple, a couple of my favorites, which is number one is we bring joy. And when you think about, again, brick and mortar retail, done well with incredible people, who are really proud to do what they do and the brands you work for. You bring joy to the experience that nothing else can do.
Technology can't bring joy. It might bring some entertainment. But I think of joy as being very human. And you know that you're, you've thoroughly feel like the money you've just spent is appreciated. You've learned about what you've, maybe you learned something about what you just purchased. You've shared it with your friends and family. You've promoted the brand. You become loyal to that brand. You come back and visit them again. Just that word “joy” gives me joy to talk about.
But think about, that's one of the top 10 reasons why we love working in retail. And this, you know, give you another one that I talked with a group of people today about is, we create friendships that last decades. And as someone who's been in this business for decades, I have dozens and dozens of really close friends who I've known for 20 - 30 years that all started in retail. And I'm probably one of the few that’s left that is still doing it. Because I’m obsessed with it. But those friendships that are often established in the retail environment are one of the reasons why we work in this business. It’s like we go through these experiences together. And we're friends for life. And so those are just a couple of the two of them that I'm going to speak about. But this is either when you have a real understanding of why we love working this, or if you don't work in it yourself, why others do, I think, particularly HR professionals, then you can help support them and encourage the, encourage their retail careers.
Michael LeBlanc
Well, fantastic. You're the opening keynote, I have the pleasure of introducing you, I’m the Emcee for the event. So, you and I will meet again.
Ron Thurston
Fantastic.
Michael Leblanc
I will I get the get the pleasure of introducing you but, for now let's leave it there. Ron, thanks again for joining me, and I look forward to seeing you on the virtual stage soon.
Ron Thurston
Fantastic. Thank you so much Michael.
Michael LeBlanc
Thanks for tuning into today's special bonus episode of The Voice of Retail. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss out on the latest episodes, industry news, and insights. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating and review as it really helps us grow so we continue to get amazing guests onto the show.
If you are a retail HR professional you don't want to miss the RCC Retail Human Resources forum, March 25. Learn more and registered rcchrconference.ca or on retailcouncil.org. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc, President of M.E. LeBlanc Company Inc. And if you're looking for more content or want to chat, follow me on LinkedIn or visit my website meleblanc.co. Until next time, stay safe and have a great week.