Glendale Shoe Store President Fills Parent's Shoes

If you walk into in Glendale, you’ll find a device you may have only seen at the deli counter: a number-dispensing machine.

The store is not cluttered with boxes of rummaged-through shoes, but neatly arranged display models. Laurie's runs on the old-fashioned concept that customers should be waited on by knowledgeable staff who will measure feet and then bring out a selection shoes from a well-stocked backroom.

Owner Mark Waldman believes that providing a high level of customer service sets his shoe stores apart from national chains.

“We fit shoes, and the younger generations aren’t used to that,” he said. “We also do orthotics, and we have shoe experts. We’re a white elephant—the last of the independent shoe stores.”

He said his sales staff learns about the shoes they sell, so they aren’t just telling a customer what looks good. He said having untrained shoe salesmen might have worked in the 1950s, but his staff are all about finding the right shoe to fit a customer’s needs.

His parents, Joan and Wally Waldman, opened Laurie's Shoes in 1948 at a location in Maplewood. They later opened the Manchester Road location in 195 and currently have six stores around the St. Louis metro area.

Waldman and his siblings, Patty Baker and Scott Waldman, are the third generation of their family in the shoe business—their grandfather Morris Goldman was in the shoe wholesale business.

“Essentially, we were all brought up in the business," Waldman said. "It’s a natural involvement in all our lives. In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, family businesses were hands-on. The whole family gets out on the floor.”

Waldman said it was his late mother’s idea to give children cookies and balloons, a special customer service touch that continues today.

The Laurie's in Manchester has a special area for children that includes a high platform where children sit, which puts their feet in easy reach of the sales staff. Of course, what the children’s area is really known for is the slide for kids to play on while they wait and the airplane decoration on one wall, which dates back to the store’s opening.

Besides the children’s area, Waldman keeps a fish tank in the adult section of the store. Waldman said that making his store fun to visit helps build a positive image with his customers.

Waldman said another quality that sets his stores apart is that each location is allowed to have its own personality to better fit into their communities.

“Each one is merchandised different, according to demand,” he said. “You can find a fashion trend in Manchester that’s not in St. Clair, IL.”

He keeps an inventory of 60,000 shoes in a variety of sizes not seen in other chains. The store carries shoes from sizes 4 to 14 for women and 6 to 18 for men, in both narrow and wide widths.