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Tilton & Sons: tradition meets innovation |
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Gladys Tilton is the “people person” of the team: gregarious, with a natural interest in and talent for marketing. Her husband, Bud, knows the back end of the business: inventory management and operations. Their older son, Tim, uses his computer skills to modernize the business, putting most of their operations on the computer and maintaining operations from his desktop PC. Their younger son, Todd, holds a business degree and works elsewhere, but consults for the business when needed.
The Tiltons believe in the old-fashioned values of retail, where customer loyalty is built with friendly, knowledgeable and personalized service. They pride themselves on knowing their regulars by name (and shoe size) and being outgoing and helpful with new customers. Another distinction at Tilton & Sons is the wider inventory—including widths and sizes that other stores no longer carry. Women who need a size 5 or a 12 have heard that Tilton & Sons stocks them. That’s a big deal for someone who’s self-conscious about shoe size. One Colorado woman buys her family’s shoes at Tilton & Sons when visiting her sister in Tecumseh. Her daughter felt insulted at stores that say they just don’t stock shoes that large for women. “I told the young woman, ‘you don’t have large feet, you have unique feet,’” said Gladys. “We’re all different and that’s just fine.” Personalized service keeps customers coming back—in some cases, even after they’ve left the area. A woman who now lives in Las Vegas still comes in every year to buy her shoes. Another in Texas orders over the phone and has the shoes shipped to her. The store itself reflects the owners’ commitment to old-fashioned values of friendly retailing. It is situated on Main Street in the heart of Tecumseh’s small downtown, in an old building that has been a shoe store since 1951. A painted tin ceiling, cove molding and dark wood shelves all say “tradition.” Yet they strive to keep the store’s inventory fresh, with selections for the whole family. Brands range from Stride-Rite children’s shoes and bright “Kidorable” toddler rain boots to the Soft Spots Supremes sought by mature women—and many options in between. Despite the store’s traditional look and name, the Tiltons are not long-time retailers. Both Bud and Gladys had full careers before and even after buying the store in 1994. Bud worked at LP Gas before retiring a few years ago, and Gladys was a school nurse. “When we saw an ad for a shoe business in town up for sale, we called. An hour later, we were sitting at a table with the former owners, going over the paperwork,” said Bud. At first they knew little about retail, so they kept their previous jobs and retained all of the staff of the former owners, although two have since retired. One of the retained employees is Betty Roumell, who will be 82 this fall. She loves her job and continues to work one day a week.
“Wilda Hawkins is another of the original employees. She has over 30 years in the retail shoe business and has been a great asset for us,” said Gladys. Other good employees came from Gladys’s retired former colleagues. Bud believes that there are advantages to hiring mature workers. “We never have to worry about them showing up. If they need to rearrange their schedule, they work it out themselves, because they understand responsibility,” said Bud. Gladys is active in Tecumseh’s business community and the state’s retail community as well, supporting the MRA Political Action Committee with a donation when she can. She does so not in support of a single issue but because “it’s just the right thing to do.” She serves on the town’s seven-member Marketing Committee, which organizes fun visibility and outreach events. They threw a party for the pit crews who had come to the area for the NASCAR race at nearby Michigan International Speedway and also supported cyclists coming through town as part of PALM (Pedaling Across Lower Michigan) by providing assistance and refreshment to visiting riders. “The Marketing Committee brought in a salesperson from Comcast to talk about cable TV ads, said Gladys. We signed up for our store, but there wasn’t nearly enough interest among the town’s businesses to make it work—for now.” “We’ll let the idea simmer, and maybe we’ll be ready at some point down the road,” she added. Another of her marketing ideas resulted in a unique President’s Day sales event for Tilton & Sons, and she hopes that having seen its success, her fellow merchants will join in next year. “We opened at 6:00 a.m. with a live remote by the local radio station and offered ‘disappearing deductibles’—40 percent off from 6 to 9 a.m., then 30 percent off from 9 a.m. till noon and 20 percent off the rest of the day. “It was a Monday morning, the weather was terrible—we had to be here Sunday evening shoveling sidewalks. But we sold five pairs of shoes by 6:00! “The live remote helped make it work, since people are up early listening to morning radio,” said Gladys. “Of course, we had to recoup our promotional costs—about $700—but we still came out very well. Next year, maybe those who took a ‘wait and see’ approach may be willing to try it and we can share some of those costs.” Tilton & Sons also takes part in Tecumseh and Lenawee County events, like the town’s “Appleumpkin Festival” in the fall and the Summer Sale, a sidewalk-sale type event that draws a good crowd. “To be a successful retailer, you have to be willing to take some risks,” she explained. “Our President’s Day sale was risky, but it was also successful, not to mention fun.” This article was written by Amy Buttery, Michigan Retailer staff writer. |
Together,
this family team has made Tilton & Sons Shoes a successful Main Street
retail business in Tecumseh by combining tradition and innovation.
“But
we watch out for her. When there’s bad weather we make sure she’s
not driving to work or back home on roads that are foggy, slick or snowy,”
explained Bud.