NEW YORK — Stacey Pecor, owner of the four Olive & Bette’s stores here, wants to concentrate on growing sales in the neighborhoods where the retailer already operates.
So after nine years, rather than branch out to new locations, she closed her Madison Avenue store and moved next door to the much larger 1070 Madison Avenue.
&”In the old space next door, we were doing $8,000 per square foot and growing consistently,” Pecor said. &”The problem was that the space, at 424 square feet, was just so small that we were literally selling things off the walls.”
The shop was packed. Shelving on the walls was built to the ceiling and racks were crammed with clothes, making browsing difficult.
&”You couldn’t see the product and it became overwhelming,” Pecor said. &”We were getting great business from our existing customers, who are really very loyal and are in the store on average of about twice a week. But what was happening was that we really weren’t getting much new business, and I think it was because you couldn’t see the product the way we were displaying it.”
So the retailer moved, albeit a short distance. The new Olive & Bette’s is 1,300 square feet, the largest of the four locations. In September, construction is set to begin again, and Pecor will add another 700 square feet to the space. Olive & Bette’s three other stores are in SoHo, the Upper West Side and the West Village.
&”When we expand, the dressing rooms will move back and there will be a boyfriend and husband seating area,” Pecor said, pointing to what is now a rack of clothes.
The store’s design is also in line with the others, with hand-painted pink striped walls, glass shelves, blue tile floors and light wooden tables. In the dressing rooms there are large mirrors with sayings like &”pretty girl” and &”gorgeous,” for a little motivation, of course.
Pecor said that though some of her competitors in the contemporary retail business have been growing by numbers of doors, that isn’t her strategy. Instead, she chooses to invest in her 80 employees, hoping they will bring in new customers and nurture the regulars.
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&”The sales girls all have relationships with the customers. They know many of them by name and a lot of times they even know their dogs’ names,” she said as a customer walked in with his dog — a neighbor coming in to congratulate a sales girl on the new store — and to pick up a dog treat for his puppy (which are always available). &”Many of them have been working with me for years, so it’s important to keep them happy.”
To do this, and to enrich their minds, Pecor arranges regular field trips for employees. They’ve gone to meet with designer Susana Monaco (a best-selling brand), there was a tour of United Parcel Service headquarters and Emily Post even came in to speak about etiquette. Soon, the team will go to the Hanky Panky panties factory to see how thongs are made.
Pecor said she hopes to bring in $6 million in sales in the store’s first year.