Showtime!

Before I was an editor and before I was in retail, I was in the theatre. I began as an actor (doesn't everyone?) and then turned my focus to directing when I discovered it was far more interesting. My influences were a couple of very good directors and teachers I worked with, and perhaps more importantly, some very bad directors I worked with. In any case, it was a hugely fullfilling endeavor and a very special and memorable time of my life. Recently, while hanging up some theatre stills of productions I was in (you can take the actor out of the theatre but you can't take the ego out of the actor) to spruce up my office walls. Not everyone would agree, I'm sure, that the pictures were an improvement to the walls, but it's my past and my walls so up they go. As I was musing on my days treading the boards and trying not to tread to heavily on the Bard, I was once again reminded how like theatre is retail. In fact, at the beginning of my retail career, working in an upscale and rather cutting edge housewares emporium, we used to have a brief staff meeting every Saturday morning after we dusted, swept and generally readied the store for business, and before we opened the doors. As customers would begin to line up out on West Broadway, we would hear from the buyers about new products or from the store manager about new developments in the store and so on. When we would finish our meeting, and they were always very short, the owner would say, "OK, it's showtime!" 

It was actually a reference to a film we had all seen called "All That Jazz" by Bob Fosse, in which the lead character (who was playing Fosse's alter ego), everytime he is about to go out to either perform or to direct his cast, says to himself in the makeup mirror, "It's Showtime!" We all understood what Gregory meant when he said. Of course, half the staff was connected to the theatre in some way, but nevertheless we knew it meant it was time to leave personal baggage at the door, focus on the customers, and really give them a show. If you are a store owner, especially in the specialty food or housewares business, you are the producer, director, set designer, and prop master (or mistress). Your staff is your cast, the merchandise accounts for the set pieces, and the script is your product knowledge and your ability to inform and inspire both your staff and your customers. This is especially true during the fourth quarter when stores typically do a majority of their business for the year, but it should be standard operating procedure throughout the year. Set the scene by displaying your goods in a thoughtful and compelling way, and not just at Christmas. Continually re-evaluate your signage and general merchandising. Is everything up to date? Is the information clear and easy to understand? Are your signs concise so that shoppers can digest the information quickly and easily? How about the lighting, the music, and your staff uniforms? No matter how long a play runs on Broadway - 2 days or 2 years - the preparations each night before the curtain goes up are exactly the same. The stage manager goes through an exhaustive checklist to make sure everything and everyone is ready before finally letting everyone know it's showtime. This holiday season, especially in light of the current economic situation, get your staff motivated like a good stage manager and go out there and put on a great show. Then you can stay up and wait for the reviews to come out.