Informational Interview with the Wilmington Country Store

The Wilmington Country store is a specialty store that sells upscale clothing and accessories. It carries brands such as Vineyard Vines, Lilly Pulitzer , Eileen Fisher, and Ugg. Margaret’s job at the Wilmington Country store entails all the things a sole-proprietor does. As a sole-proprietor, she calls herself mainly a buyer. As a buyer, she must find vendors with various sportswear, dresses and accessories that fit the image of her clientele. Margaret works with vendors at trade shows to select merchandise for her store.

Margaret hires people from all ages to work in her store. High-schoolers work there during peak seasons, such as time surrounding holidays. However, she prefers employees with more retail experience. Typically, the employees have a 3-day training period where they learn how to run the software and how to deal with returns and manage sales. She mentioned how working on the retail floor an employee has to act as a “marketer and psychologist.” The marketing part refers to selling the item, and being a psychologist means having good conversations and relations with the customer. The employees she hires must be cheerful, adaptive and “leave their problems at the door.” Margaret’s business upholds a relaxed, yet clean and preppy look, which the employees are expected to embody as well.

The greatest competition for a specialty store such as the Wilmington Country Store is the internet, or vendor competition. The internet can sell the same item directly for the company for cheaper than the Wilmington Country Store. Vendors can also decide to open up their own stores, which draws consumers away from speciality stores.

Margaret believes that the internet is also the place where the retail industry is growing the most. She mentioned that rents and costs keeps rising, but internet costs remain the same and clothes are much cheaper online. For her personal store, in the future she hopes to make her company more vertical by adding more stores and then manufacturing her own clothes, instead of buying from vendors.