Kimono Shopping in Japan

My mom has been into Asian collectibles ever since I can remember—she even has an Asian-inspired room in the house I grew up in. So when I told her I was going to Japan and Korea for two weeks this summer, she (of course) wrote out a laundry list of things that would be perfect for her beloved room. On the top of her list was a traditional kimono—something I thought would be easy to pick up and highly marketed to tourists.

Surprisingly, I had no such luck in Tokyo and put my hopes into finding a reasonably priced one in some of Kyoto’s famed shopping districts. When we arrived via bullet train, I saw many women sporting kimonos about town. (I love how the image at left captures traditional Japanese culture fused with modern cell-phone technology. Given that Japan is so far ahead with m-commerce, I find this picture both ironic and fitting.)

For some reason, even in Kyoto, I still couldn’t get my hands on a kimono. The few I did see on display far exceeded my budget. Feeling defeated, I figured the search for her kimono was a lost one.

That is until my good friend and travel companion Sharon ran into the fast-fashion apparel chain Uniqlo to pick up some t-shirts before continuing on our trip. While looking around, my eyes set on something I never expected to see there: An entire kimono section in the middle of the store. Cheap! Stylish! Perfect.

And just like that, my quest—one that included hours of rummaging through markets and stores for affordable kimonos—came to an end. Why hadn’t I thought of the popular Japanese retailer before? I have often shopped at its global flagship (and largest location) in Manhattan’s SoHo district since it opened nearly two years ago.

My mom loved the kimono—and for all she knows, I shelled out the big bucks to get her exactly what she wanted.

—Samantha Murphy

Say 'Yes' to the Show

Until very recently, my favorite television show set in a retail store was an old "Twilight Zone" episode in which a man somehow gets trapped in a department store after closing time. The lights go off—and the mannequins slowly come to life. Next morning, there was a new mannequin in the store. At the time, the show scared the daylights out of me, and I would hurry past mannequins lest they glance my way. Truth be told, they still give me the chills every now and then.

Apart from that "Twilight Zone" episode, TV shows set in retail stores have left me cold. I gave Unwrapping Macy’s (the 2006 reality show about working at Macy’s) a shot, but it came across as phony and overly staged. So it was with some trepidation that I decided to watch, on the advice of a friend, "Say Yes to the Dress," which is set inside the country’s most famous bridal salon: Kleinfeld, in Manhattan. I was hooked after one episode.

Unlike most other reality shows, this one actually lives up to its hype: It casts a spotlight onto the inner workings of the store. Part fashion show, part bridal drama and part family therapy, the show feels real as it details the many hurdles the sales associates face to make sure that each customer leaves 100% satisfied with regard to the dress she will wear on her big day. Given the demands of some of these customers, it is no easy job by any means.

More than the customers, however, it’s the sales associates and the store’s co-owners, Mara Urshel and Ronnie Rothstein, who fascinate me. I’m impressed with the respectful way they treat each customer—regardless of whether she has budgeted $5,000 or $50,000 for the dress—and one another (with some exceptions). That they all seem to love their job is a given.

During a summer when there is precious little to watch, I’m happy to report that "Say Yes to the Dress" is now back for its second season. You can catch it on the cable channel TLC, at 8 p.m. (7 Central) on Tuesdays.

—Marianne Wilson

Kudos to Chick-Fil-A for 'Moo-ving' Traffic

Do you ever feel like you’re going to be sitting in a drive-through lane until the “cows come home?”

It’s ironic, given that the fundamental purpose of drive-through lanes, particularly at fast-food restaurants, is to provide expedient service.

Problems typically arise during peak hours, when the cars snaking around many restaurants often out-number the bodies standing in line at the inside counter. Unsurprisingly, walk-in service during those hours may prove faster than drive-through.

Such was the case at our local Chick-Fil-A, which was notorious for attracting long lines inside and out, particularly during lunch hour.

Dashing between appointments recently, I found myself sitting at an intersection a half-mile from the Chick-Fil-A and wondering where I could grab a fast sandwich. The clock on my dash registered 12:04, which I expected would mean long lines at Chick-Fil-A.

As I got closer to the restaurant, cars were exiting but there were only two cars visible in the drive-through lane and they appeared to be moving. Pulling into the lane, I saw a teenage employee speaking to the driver in front of me.

“Oh, great,” I instantly presumed the drive-through must be out-of-service.

Wrong, the young man walked to my window, greeted me with CFA’s typical employee enthusiasm, and asked if he could take my order. A second young man took the paper the order was written on and read it into a cell phone.

My car barely stopped moving as I circled the building and picked up my chicken-salad sandwich.

“Great service,” I observed to the cashier, and then asked if the drive-through system was out-of-order.

“No, we just have employees outside taking orders between noon and 1:00 so we can give our customers better, more personal service,” she explained.

And it was clearly working— as I exited the parking lot, the time on my dashboard clock was 12:06, which would be an impressive service record even when it wasn’t lunch hour.

The take-away message for other retailers, including those without drive-through lanes, is Chick-Fil-A’s willingness and ingenuity to do whatever it takes to provide customers with that “better, more personal service,” even when doing so may mean putting your technology investments on hold and standing in the hot sun to personally get the job done.

—Connie Gentry

Ken Macke: A Remembrance

As the only journalist permitted to attend the annual Modes of Creative Retailing conference produced by Jeff Feiner, the retail analyst for Merrill Lynch, in the late ’70s and ’80s, I kept a low profile. Which meant I usually sat in the back of the conference room. I was there on an off-the-record basis, to absorb the details and nuances of the retail industry’s leading executives and their plans for growth.

It was during one of those executive presentations that I first met Ken Macke, at the time the CEO of Target discount stores, the largest but still not overwhelmingly dominant division of Dayton Hudson Corp. Macke was sitting in the last row, gnashing his teeth, mostly muttering to himself as he listened to his predecessor at Target, Stephen Pistner, then president of DHC, explain why the chain was successful. Pistner was trying to woo institutional investors. Macke thought he was spilling corporate secrets. He loathed providing details, such as Target’s unique bag-and-ring checkout system that trained cashiers to look directly at customers and the merchandise on the stand while touch-punching the price into the cash register (editor’s note: yes, there was a time before scanning). The bag-and-ring system made Target a more personal shopping experience.

Target sold many of the same goods as other discounters. Systems, and the discipline to adhere to them, differentiated the Target experience, not just from Kmart, which was 10 times larger at the time, but also from other so-called upscale discounters such as Venture and Gold Circle (Wal-Mart was about the same size and mostly did not compete with Target, as its real estate was in small towns in the South Central states). Product differentiation, such as the Michael Graves collection, would come later, under CEO Robert Ulrich. Under Ulrich, Target became “Tar-zhey.” Under Macke, it was plain, well-run Target.

After Pistner left Dayton Hudson and William Andres retired as corporate chairman and CEO, Macke became, at age 44, the head of the company he first went to work for right out of college when it had just seven department stores. When he took over, the company had revenues of $7 billion. By the time he retired 11 years later in 1994, Dayton Hudson Corp. was the fifth-largest retailer in the country, with 960 stores churning out $21 billion in sales.

Kenneth A. Macke died last Saturday at age 69, from complications of Parkinson’s disease. Macke was a bear of a man. Though he always looked to be brooding when talking to the press, that is, if he talked at all to the press, he did occasionally flash a smile that could brighten a room. The thought of him vanquished by this debilitating disease is unsettling.

In June 2005, one of his sons, Jeffrey, wrote a piece for our magazine about his father. Writing about his legacy, he wrote, “He created jobs. He felt more than generously rewarded for doing something he loved, and he never enriched himself at the expense of others’ livelihood.”

I’ve met many retail executives over the last 30-plus years. Macke was not an easy person to know as an outsider. But he was a determined advocate who laid the foundation for what is now one of the most successful and well-respected corporations in the world.

—Murray Forseter