Life for Sears' new manager a yuletide frenzy

By Times staff writer

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 26, 2000

Making the transition to a new job is never easy, but for Rob Johnson, the task is proving exceptionally challenging.

He began managing Sears at Crystal River Mall last week, days before the start of the busy shopping season. What's more, a new competitor just opened its doors, Home Depot.

"This is unusual to come at this time of year," Johnson said in an interview at his office. "But some people retire and have some time off, and that starts the dominos."

His first initiatives were to make sure the store had enough employees (about 30 extra workers are hired each Christmas) and enough stock.

"Merchandise starts arriving in the stores by mid September. It takes weeks to build up an inventory. A plan has to be in place months ahead of time. Because you only have four weeks to sell it."

Johnson, 53, has worked for Sears for 31 years, most recently as an appliance repair service manager in Jacksonville.

He carved a few minutes out of his schedule last week to respond to a few questions.

Question: Let's talk about the upcoming shopping season, which began this week. Do you expect a frenzied crowd?

Answer: There's a number of people who start shopping at 7 in the morning. They want to go until the store closes. They want to do everything in one day.

And then you get your normal shoppers that will come at 10 o'clock. The way Christmas falls this year on a Monday, that last weekend -- Thursday, Friday, Saturday -- we expect to be extremely busy.

Q: Some retailers expect sales to be sluggish this year, saying consumers have accumulated debt and not saved enough. What do you see?

A: Our belief is basically just the opposite. I think the fears that were there last year are going to be offset this year. In most cases, the stock market and everything stayed strong through the year. The presidential deal right now seems to have the stock market concerned more than it does individuals.

Q: What do you think the big sellers will be this year?

A: Digital products this year, I think are just going to go crazy. DVD players are starting to strongly replace VCRs as the new home item. The kids scooters, the little scooters you see around, are very hot.

Bicycles are making a big comeback with kids. Fine jewelry for women. Tools for men. Treadmills remain a very strong item. And then your traditional dress clothing. With weather we've got right now, turtlenecks are already going very fast.

Q: What do these products tell you about consumer habits?

A: When you see Sears having a very successful year, people are back to basics. Sears has never been a fringe department store by any means. It tells you a lot about the economy. It's a strong, solid economy, but it's not wild and crazy. DVDs may be the stretch for people.

Q: You hear a lot about the Internet and how that's starting to compete with traditional retailers. How does Sears approach that? A: We've got two Internet sites; one is Sears.com and the other is Wishbook.com. Wishbook.com basically replaces the old Sears Christmas catalog. They are expecting strong sales out of that. We know certain customers, especially the rural customer between stores, may go to that. We see our Internet sales getting stronger every year.

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