Mitchell calls on brick and mortar stores to hug their customers

By Scott Benjamin

WESTPORT -- It was 2001 – long before mayors canceled appointments to devise a formula to convince Jeff Bezos to put the second Amazon headquarters in their business district.

It also was shortly before Jack Mitchell established his calling card by putting a tape measure around his neck as he walked through the Mitchell clothing stores and before he autographed his books with the salutation, “Keep Hugging” or began giving guest lectures to Ivy League business classes.

Mitchell was third in line to speak at a summit of clothing executives in Arizona who were bemoaning the decline in retail sales.

The first speaker said, “If you don’t have a sexy web site, you’re going to be history.”

The next speaker added, “Dot.com is going to wipe us out.”

Mitchell, the chairman of a company that began when his parents opened a store in Westport in 1958, differed.

“Customers and personal contact are the center of our universe,” he said. “You try to get to know them as real people. Loyal customers come back.”

If it’s former Westport resident Jim Nantz, he’ll reciprocate and help you get tickets to college basketball’s Final Four.

Mitchell’s blueprint: Greet the customer within 25 seconds of their arrival, do more listening than talking and then carry their bags out to the car after the sale.

If they’re a first-time customer and they’re driving a Maserati, then you should note it in the computer records – of course after you’ve entered their birthday and anniversary - so you might show them some more “flamboyant” clothing on their second visit.

“The service is more than service, you are family there,” stated Cindi Bigelow, the CEO and President of Bigelow Tea in Fairfield.

That’s partly because Mitchell and his brother, Bill, head the operation and much of the third generation – their children – work for them. However, for the third generation, they have to work elsewhere for five years after college before they can be hired.

They do sales at IBM or photo editing at Sports Illustrated so they’re used to working for someone other their parents or an uncle. When they arrive at Mitchells “they bring us a valuable skills set,” Mitchell said.

The Arizona panel discussion became an inspiration.

Mitchell had always wanted to write a book and in 2003 he published “Hug Your Customer” (2015 edition, Herchette Books, 317 pages, $26). It became a Wall Street Journal Business bestseller and was praised by Warren Buffett.

His third book, “Selling The Hug Your Customers Way, (McGraw Hill, 317 pages, $26) was published June 8 with endorsements ranging from Italian clothier Brunello Cucinelli to Glenn Hubbard, the dean of Columbia’s business school who before that chaired the Presidential Council of Economic Advisors for George W. Bush.

Not bad for a guy who has overcome a slight case of dyslexia to play three sports at Staples High School in Westport, and then earned degrees from Little Ivy League Wesleyan, where he played football, and then the University California-Berkeley.

“I’m more focused,” Mitchell said in an interview on how he has addressed dyslexia. “I think that helped me in my sports career and my business career.”

In his most recent book, Mitchell outlines the steps in selling the hug: Making the Connection, Decoding the Mission, Show and Share, Allowing the Buy, The Kiss Goodbye and One for Good Measure.

Maybe both sides of the panel discussion from 17 years ago were correct.

The brick and mortar businesses are struggling to compete.

Radio Shack is out of business and Time reported last year that analysts say by 2022 one of every four shopping malls could close.

Amazon has facilities in Windsor Locks and Wallingford with another under construction in North Haven.

“I think that other companies can learn from our way of doing business,” said Mitchell of the online retail competition. He noted that many of their staff members have been with them for decades and that each store holds many charity events each year “to become part of the community.”

He said the company does “three to four percent” of its sales online.

Since 1995, Mitchell Stores has acquired or partnered with six other outlets. As of 2015 the overall annual sales at the seven stores was $125 million.

Mitchells has become the model for personalized service, but ironically its stores, located on both coasts, are near the dot.com hubs that attract a high ratio of college-educated employees who work at Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Google, Twitter, YouTube and Indeed.

Among college graduates per capita, the Stamford metro area ranks first nationally (Richards in Greenwich and Mitchells in Westport), according to University of California-Berkeley economist Enrico Moretti’s 2012 book, “The New Geography of Jobs.” San Jose is fifth (Wilkes Bashford in Palo Alto), San Francisco eighth (Wilkes Bashford in San Francisco), Seattle 10^th (Marios in Seattle), Portland 14^th (Marios in Portland) and Long Island is 17th (Mitchells in Huntington).

By the mid-1980s, Mitchells in Westport was making the transition from the less expensive American-made clothes.

“There were so many people from New York City moving to Connecticut, and they wanted the Italian suits and sports coats and women’s clothing,” said Mitchell.

General Electric set up its world headquarters in Fairfield in the mid-1970s and after Mitchell Stores acquired Richards in Greenwich in 1995, UBS helped turn Stamford into the fourth largest financial services market in the world and Greenwich became a hedge funds capitol.

Now the Italian clothiers dominate the shelves.

“Making well-constructed clothes is part of their heritage,” Mitchell explained. “They’re mostly family businesses that will do the hand-work and take great pride in the product. They regularly ask us what our customers are looking for and help us sponsor charity fashion shows to raise money for local organizations.”

The Westport store is currently being expanded, yet Mitchell said he is concerned about a Connecticut economy that contracted eight percent between 2007 and 2016.

“The income tax is higher,” he said. “People are moving out.”

The company has taken no formal position on the report released in March by the state Commission on Fiscal Stability and Economic Competitiveness. However, after speaking with the co-chairmen – former business executives Robert Patricelli of Simsbury and Jim Smith of Middlebury – Mitchell said he has encouraged customers, employees and friends to support the recommendations.

Those range from a payroll tax on businesses to more control by the General Assembly on the contracts awarded to the state employee collective bargaining units.

He said Connecticut, where, according to the commission, there are $100 billion in unfunded obligations over the coming years, should follow the path of California Gov. Jerry Brown, who, as CBS “60 Minutes” recently reported, turned $50 billion in deficit and debt into an $8 billion surplus in less than eight years.

“60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker reported that Brown decreased spending and increased taxes, which “sounds like a prescription for political suicide.”

Said Mitchell, “Everybody in Connecticut, from the corporations to the labor unions, has to make sacrifices.”