W&E; Today provides retailers and manufacturers with education and ideas that provoke innovation in the Western and English markets.
Issue link: http://wetoday.epubxp.com/i/235944
Billy Bob's airport venue exudes the real deal's essence with marquees announcing upcoming concerts, framed handprints of star performers and a replica of the backstage wall, replete with performers' autographs. Samuels explains that their merchandising and operations teams spent a good deal of time in the market looking for brands and concepts to add to the portfolio."Billy Bob's had the 'right stuf ' — a recognizable, authentic Texas brand to attract visitors and natives alike," she says. Other airports give diferent direction, Samuels notes. MINING THE NICHE. "Te hard thing is that there are so many national chains now that if municipalities are not careful, you are going to end up with the sameold stuf like you have in every mall in America," Weir says. Te evolution of the Avila business shows what is possible. "Our frst store in the Albuquerque airport in the early 1990s was a tremendous success, moving a high volume of goods in a very concentrated area," she says. "While rents are very, very high, the airport brings you the customers. We just ft: We ofered something diferent than the typical customer saw at that time in the early '90s. We were one of the frst airport retail stores to emphasize local and regional products. People were very pleased and loyal to our store, because we had quality goods at competitive prices with the local marketplace." Te airport venue proved a good niche for the Avilas. "We are a small, minority-owned company," Avila explains. "We capitalized on the local-regional partners/local-regional goods movement to grow our business. About the same time in the early '90s, the DBE (Disadvantaged Business Enterprise) was established, which opened opportunities at the Denver Airport — that was again, regional, Western, Native American products we were a part of. We bid for and won that business. Moving from Albuquerque to Denver was a huge challenge for us, as we had to fgure out an organizational structure that could support multiple locations." Te Department of Transportation defnes a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise as a for-proft small business in which socially or eco50 Western & English Today nomically disadvantaged individuals own at least a 51-percent interest, plus control management and daily business operations. African American, Native American, Hispanic, Asian-Pacifc, Subcontinent American and female-owned and operated businesses are generally qualifed to receive DBE status. Avila sheepishly admits their early bids were "very naïve and unsophisticated." She explains that their oral presentations were very persuasive, but it was difcult in the early '90s to produce any kind of professional proposal book. "I was just looking last week at one of the frst proposals we wrote for Denver — it was done on a typewriter," Avila says. "I can remember sitting at a typewriter doing page afer page afer page, and having to retype our entire proposal for every mistake or every time something changed." Once they got involved in the process, the proposals became public documents, and the Avilas studied their competition, learning what they needed to improve. Tey successfully bid for the Phoenix airport, "another big step for us," says Avila. "We built our growth on our personal involvement and relationships, and our personal risk." Tey have entered the San Francisco Airport as well, although that business is not Western-oriented. "Doing business in California is complicated and expensive," she notes. "We've had to learn the state laws, particularly for employment. Hiring today for airport stores is difcult all around — the security clearing and badging process, the signifcant travel time required for employees just to get to the store, and security issues and screening that add to that time burden." SETTING THE STAGE. Billy Bob's Minick favors the small stage with a large audience that his Love Field store is providing. "We really just tried to get the most important elements of Billy Bob's in there," he says. "We didn't get them all — obviously the bull