“I miss Natori.” is a sentence I hear all the time.
There used to be a Natori “outlet” store here in Manchester and in addition to women telling me all the time that they miss Natori, they also tell me they love Natori. Stores come and go in this little “shopping” town I do business in and some are missed more than others when they leave. The departure of the Natori Outlet Store and the Natori brand that left town with it, just might be on the top of that list.
I attended the Curve Expo – the lingerie industry’s huge trade show – this August in New York City. I had three full days of meetings scheduled with vendors to talk JOY business and to see their new holiday lines. As I was creating my agenda, the first meeting I booked was with the Natori lingerie division.
I wanted to explain to the Natori representatives the unique opportunity I saw here in Manchester – a place with a Natori “fan base” if you will. A lot of those “fans” became fans through their outlet store (with outlet prices) that used to be right across the street from where the bra shop sits now. When Natori closed their doors here in town, it was part of a much larger corporate decision not to do outlets anymore. My question was this: could we find a way to bring the beloved Natori brand back to Manchester at JOY; a shop that falls somewhere in the middle of not being an outlet, but also not being a high-end retailer? It was important to me that whatever “Natori” we brought into the shop was representative of what the Manchester Natori shopper missed and loved.
I was just getting settled at the meeting table in the Natori booth with their sales rep when I saw a woman approach the table out of the corner of my right eye. I looked up to a petite, stylish Asian woman who held out her hand and said, “Hi, I’m Josie Natori.” This wasn’t planned at all. She just happened to make an appearance at her company’s booth at the exact hour of my appointment. (you can just add it to the list of my incredible luck) “Oh my God, you’re Josie Natori,” I gushed. She nodded to acknowledge that she was indeed Josie Natori, the CEO.
“Hi,” I said as I stood up, dwarfing her, and then I started to ramble “My name is Joy and I own a store in Manchester, Vermont. You used to have a store in Manchester and so many women tell me how much they miss Natori. You had an outlet store there in the town where I have my shop. Actually right across the street…” As I blabbered on, I saw recognition in her face and she quickly interrupted, …“Oh, yes, Manchester. I know Manchester. Yes, we had a store there, but we no longer do outlet stores. No more outlets.” She said this nicely, but also very firmly indicating to me that the buck on that “no more outlets” decision stopped right there.
I told her that I understood they no longer did outlet stores and that I was not an outlet. I repeated the whole bit about the unique position I find myself in with women telling me all the time that they miss Natori, love Natori, and would like to purchase Natori in Manchester. “I’d like to make it possible for them to do that,” I told her, “but I’m worried that the prices might be too high now. The customers are used the prices that the Natori outlet offered.
I literally saw her “work the problem” in her head. I felt like she got it. Here was an opportunity, but it wasn’t an opportunity that fell into a perfect category. I could see that she was thinking hard about this “opportunity” I saw for my shop, her company, and the town of Manchester. Seeing the consideration in her face, I wondered if in any of those corporate meetings where they discussed “not doing outlets anymore,” they thought about the fans they left behind in towns like Manchester.
Josie motioned to the sales rep to go over to one of the racks filled with gorgeous Natori signature patterns. She asked her to pull out certain ones and to bring them over to us. As the sales rep carried them over, I said, “Yes…YES…things like that! …That’s what I want to have in my shop!” She pointed to the two ensembles that the rep had brought over and said, “This and this. These are good prices. You can sell these. These would be good for you.”
They were beautiful – very beautiful – patterned sets. One a top and bottom and the other, a negligee-type gown with a matching caftan and robe. The rep went over the pricing and I was so relieved that everything Josie suggested could retail for under $100. I realized that I could price these particular Natori sets competitively with other quality lingerie and sleepwear brands that we sell at the shop. I decided to order the sets and also their best-selling Shangri-La gown and robe in the “holiday” colors of black and cashmere.
Josie had stepped away, but came back over just as we were wrapping up the order. We shook hands like new business partners and she said, “Thank you for trying. Thank you for trying for Manchester. These are good. You are good. You will be ok.” I left trusting her and what she said. It was a very good feeling.
We received our Natori order last week and sold our first set on Friday. It was to a woman who was looking for a birthday present for a friend of hers that has lived a life with very stylish taste, and is now very sick with cancer. She bought the emerald and gold set – the one that Josie Natori had handpicked for us here in Manchester back at Curve in August. It was, and is, perfect.
Thank you, Josie. Thanks for helping us make good things happen in Manchester.
Joy
