Comfort Specialty

COMFORT SPECIALTY: ALAN’S SHOES

Swan Song

ALAN MIKLOFSKY, RECENTLY retired owner of Alan’s Shoes in Tuscon, AZ, ended on a high note. Not only did he snag a Plus Award for retail excellence, the veteran retailer finished 2021 with two strong quarters—as more people became vaccinated—that enabled the two-store business to top 2019 sales and would have topped the 20-year-old chain’s best year ever of 2018 if he could have gotten his hands on more inventory.

Blame it on the pandemic, and the fact that in the sit-and-fit world lots of customers are repeat style purchasers—or nothing. “We just couldn’t get some of those key athletic styles in all the sizes and widths that our customers demand,” Miklofsky says, noting that it was a similar issue with a couple of key casual brands as well. “If we had the right amount of inventory, we’d have really beaten 2019 by a lot and 2020 by a ton.”

Nonetheless, Miklofsky believes the inventory shortages forced his team to become better retailers. For starters, they had to find alternatives, and then they had to convince customers they were worthy substitutes. On that note, he says Brooks and Hoka made up for some of its New Balance inventory shortage. “A lot of independents like myself were overly reliant on New Balance, anyway,” he says. “So we were really fortunate that we could turn to those two brands, like a lot of other independents did with On.” And while the idea is to always sell the inventory that you have, Miklofsky admits there were times when alternatives simply didn’t do. “You can’t trade them all. Some people fall in love with a particular style, and that customer wasn’t served very well by us last year because we just didn’t have every size and width needed,” he says. “Or with Birkenstock, for example. You can try to sell a knockoff or something similar, but that’s usually not successful. You hate losing those sales.”

David Kahan, CEO of Birkenstock Americas, credits Miklofsky’s long-running success (he and his wife/business partner Annette got their start in shoe retailing in 1982 with The Shoe House chain) for his inventory management capabilities, for starters. “Alan’s Shoes offers a fantastic assortment of the best comfort brands along with fantastic personal service,” he says. “He’s a student of the footwear industry and is very adept at managing his inventory to be productive.” An example, Kahan notes, was the Miklofskys’ decision decades ago to take a risk on a little niche brand (Birkenstock) that has since helped define their retail career. “Having the foresight to take certain brands and bring them to their community and never compromise the high levels of customer service, as well as always being a well-run operation make Alan and Annette role models,” Kahan says. “They’re also fantastic communicators—very direct and have a good understanding of both vendor and retailer needs. They truly epitomize the word ‘partner.’”

Miklofsky credits the chain’s success particularly in 2021 to his people. “Our staff, especially our executive staff, performed miracles for our company,” he says. “Our buyers worked with our vendors, and our sales staff worked harder with customers.” With regards to the latter, Miklofsky made investments in store employees to try and reduce attrition, which proved to be very successful. “As our attrition rate reduced, it allowed our average staff person to become more knowledgeable about our products,” he says. “That meant that our efforts at SWAT (Sell What’s Available Today) helped us reduce obsolete inventory and keep our walk rates low.” Miklofsky adds, “Our customer service abilities, already very high, became better as more salespeople started to reach the benchmarks we established for them.”

As for the decision to call it quits after 40 years, Miklofsky cites a host of reasons for making it the right time to sell his business—particularly the opportunity to sell to Sole Provisions, an 18-store chain of comfort stores that include Pegasus Shoes in New York, Benjamin Lovell in Pennsylvania and InStep in Texas. Miklofsky believes his business is in good hands—one that will continue its legacy of great customer service, only now with a much stronger buying position. “Even prior to the pandemic, I became convinced that our business, as good as a retailer we had become, would be a better business as a division of a larger retailer,” he says. “Without margin growth, it’s difficult for small retailers to produce enough gross profit to carry expense ratios that fund professional staffs that can accomplish all that we aimed to. Our focus on inventory accuracy and networking required too large of a back office payroll expense at a time when selling floor payroll needed to increase to meet the demands of state mandated payroll and benefit increases and the needs of our staff in an environment where everyone is competing to recruit staff from other employers.”

The Miklofskys did their due diligence in finding the right partner. Or, as Miklofsky says, “The right recipe cannot and should not be rushed.” The two entities first got to know each other’s needs and wants, a process that required transparency and understanding. “A seller should run away from any buyer who wants to make many changes immediately, or who doesn’t understand the seller’s model or who isn’t ready, willing or able to execute,” he offers. “We were fortunate to find the right match for us.”

Ditto for John Holden, director of merchandising for Sole Provisions. “They are iconic stores and align with what we do nicely,” he says.

As for any sage parting independent retailer wisdom, Miklofsky believes there is strength in numbers. “Work with fellow retailers. Find some clues by putting your heads together,” he says. “It’s one of the reasons why trade shows need to happen, so you can sit down and talk about what is and isn’t working, instead of only looking at your own business.” In the meantime, Miklofsky says he won’t disappear completely from the industry he so loves. “I’ll relax for a bit first, but I plan to work on consulting projects,” he says. “I’ll still be attached to the shoe business in various ways.” —G.D.

Alan Miklofsky: the man and his store.