One you absolutely have to listen to is a roundtable featuring three very diverse and successful retailers from across North America. On the panel were Fred Reinhart, owner of Reinhart Carpet Outlet, a fifth-generation retailer in Philadelphia; Cynthia Dean, general Manager for Nufloors of Coquitlam, British Columbia, a multi store operation; and Paul Johnson, the owner of Carpet One Tulsa, Oklahoma, another growing, multi-store operation.
A number of topics were discussed – Paul does a quick riff on “ankle biters” – but an absolute must-hear segment deals with margins, with each participant describing how they go about ensuring that they’re doing everything in their power to put consistently high margin numbers up on the board. Industry-specific retail management software is front and center as well; if you’re contemplating making the jump into this technology, this is something you need to hear.