In Blog 121  I talked about what is the gameplane. In this blog I wanted to talk about Being Present and Meeting Bruce Munro.

One of the hot items on the floor was a little ankle boot from Munro called the “Demi Boot”. It was the only item we had from this brand that touted “Made in the USA”.

Bruce Munro

I was busy writing orders from some of the bigger brands like Nickels, Easy Spirit and Sudini when this guy pops his head into my little cubby space and says “Hi I’m Bruce Munro”. What I heard though was:  “Hi, I’m Bruce from Munro”. Oops… So given that, I said:  “Great! Here’s a size up pad, let me know when your finished”. He said ok and left his card on my desk, as I continued to write the order I was working on.

As I was finishing up the order, a strange feeling came upon me as I just heard what he actually said. “Hi, I’m Bruce Munro”. Immediately I looked at the card and sure enough it said Bruce Munro, President…I was mortified. I ran over to where he was and apologized.

He laughed and said that’s alright, I was in the area and wanted to talk to you about our brand. He was very much the gentleman type. And he took the sizes! I sat down with him as he explained they were made in the USA and specialized in comfort and extended sizes with a fashion edge.  “Just what we need” I thought.

The Munro table is created

I was so impressed by him and the story of the brand, that I told him I’d give him a full table of his product and asked him what his suggestions were for an opening order. He put together a nice package that represented the brand very well.

Fast forward a month or so,  and we got the first hit of the brand and they immediately took off. It was a huge success. The wide widths especially flew off the shelves as well as the sizes over 10. Later that month I submitted a MNS (Make Nordstrom Special) on the brand and won! It came with recognition at the recognition meeting and some cash.

Being Present

I learned that day that you should always pay attention to what people are saying to you and not to be so busy that you blow them off. You might miss out on the next big brand. Munro was just that for us. It made the Anniversary sale the next year too which was huge. My relationship with Bruce over the years and to this day, has been a good one. He is a true gentleman and a great shoe guy.