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Board member knows retail large and small |
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Winfrey Smith—the newest member of MRA’s board
of directors—has been in retail for his whole career, but in Michigan
for only two years. Currently the district manager for Sears, Roebuck
& Co. in eastern Michigan, Smith has been with the nation’s fifth-largest
retailer for eight years, overseeing operations in the south and the Chicago
area before coming to Michigan.
He owned several businesses, the last one a Sears Dealer
store (an independent business that contracts with Sears for merchandise,
marketing and other services, similar to a franchise). “I owned a Sears Dealer store in Vicksburg, Mississippi,
for about three years—that’s how I ended up coming to work directly
for Sears. They recruited me, so to speak, to manage stores at the district
level.” Sears assigned Smith to manage its largest Chicago store
and later to a district in Birmingham, Alabama, that covered parts of
Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. He was transferred to his current office
in Livonia two years ago. The district he manages includes 10 stores in metro Detroit,
as well as the stores in Flint, Port Huron, Saginaw, Bay City and Midland.
He is responsible for general operations in all stores, with about 5,000
employees—as many as 7,000 during the holiday season. As a man who has worked in retail operations—both
major and small stores—in several regions in the country, Smith is
well suited to describe how Michigan retail fits into the national picture. “Michigan is the most heavily regulated and highly
taxed state I’ve worked in,” said Smith. “There are regulations
on retail I have not seen elsewhere, such as in our automotive line, but
item pricing is the single biggest regulatory hurdle.” “It’s the single biggest unnecessary cost of
doing business for Sears in Michigan—and the biggest drain on profitability
here. If item pricing had some benefit for customers, that would be one
thing, but I see no advantage at all for the consumer,” he added. Smith has seen other states leave item pricing behind
with no trouble, to adopt newer pricing technology. The retail competition for Sears in Michigan is somewhat
different than other places he has worked. “There are fewer Wal-Marts
here than other regions I’ve been in, but then, there are more Kmarts,”
he noted. But Sears does very well in Michigan, even in the recent difficult
years. “In this market, business has been significantly
stronger this year than the last several years. And we have been the strongest-performing
district in our region,” Smith said. Michigan is part of Sears’ North Central region,
which also comprises Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, parts of western New
York and parts of West Virginia. According to Smith, Michigan’s western
district has also been a strong player for Sears, despite Michigan’s
ailing economy. “We have very strong lines in apparel, appliance
and hardware, and great customer loyalty. Two years ago, things were very
slow, but we’ve seen a turnaround.” The friendliness and work ethic of Michiganians have pleasantly
surprised Smith.
“Michigan strikes me as a place where workers are
friendly and very interested in performing well. They take pride in the
way they approach their job.” Smith also notices a strong pride of place and a strong
sense of family. “Unlike some places, where everyone is from somewhere
else, most people I’ve worked with here have long roots in Michigan
and are proud of their state,” Smith noted. “That shows a loyalty
to the area and to their extended families.” That might contribute, Smith believes, to Sears’s
better-than-average sales in Michigan—families who have been Sears
customers for generations tend to remain loyal to the stores they know
and trust. “My wife and I have been very pleased with our move
to Michigan—we like the change of seasons, and we like the diversity
of people here and have found them very friendly. “Even the drivers are better than what we expected.
People here may drive fast, but they have good manners on the road—much
better than in Atlanta or Chicago!” Smith has worked in all areas of retail—merchandising,
buying, operations—but managing stores has been the best fit. “I
like the contact with people—both employees and customers,”
he explained. The greatest challenge in his job, by contrast, has been
the constant change. “Sears has undergone a great deal of change in the
last five years, especially in the last three. We have embraced a new
operating model in our stores, and the conversion process has taken a
while.” Like other major retailers, Sears has edited out unprofitable
lines (they no longer carry bicycles, cosmetics or wall-to-wall carpeting,
and they sold their credit-card business to Citigroup) to better focus
on profitable ones, like Sears’ hard goods. “We are fairly well through with the restructuring
of our product lines, and we are totally set as far as the operations
aspect goes. We feel very optimistic about the fourth quarter and the
future.” Smith joined MRA’s Board of Directors this April,
filling the vacancy left by Jim Schwark’s departure in 2003. His
current term will run through next year. Smith’s presence on the board also fills a requirement
that the board must have two members representing major retailers. Joe
McCurry, who still sits on the board, has retired from Sears and no longer
fills one of the “major-member” seats. McCurry recommended Smith for the open board seat. Target’s
Joe Swanson, district team leader for north metro Detroit, fills the other
major-member board seat. Having worked in retail for over 30 years, both as a small business owner and as district manager for a major retailer, Smith is able to contribute in many ways to MRA and its governing board. This article was written by Amy Buttery, Michigan Retailer staff writer. |
As
his slight southern accent reveals, Smith hails from Virginia. He worked
at McRae’s Department Store in Jackson, Mississippi, for 12 years,
then joined Rich’s Department Store (part of Federated) in Atlanta.
After 14 years with Rich’s, he retired to open his own small retail
business. 
“I
wasn’t sure what to expect of the people here, with most of my experience
in the South, but I had a vague impression that in Michigan, there might
be greater tension between employees and management. I haven’t experienced
any of that at all,” he said.