stroll the hill: winnies takes the stroll ..

winnies takes a stroll down memory lane

by anthony saluto

bill fike has been suiting up the twin cities for more than 3 decades downtown bloomington. working his retail sales floor comes second nature as he puts out some of the best fittings and customer service only an independent could do. winding down on at least some days of the week and working in some golf games and travel. its no secret the store has been for sale. recently the real estate listing has been terminated and acquiring the long clientele business can be done directly with bill. bills an active guy, he loves to travel, golf, partake in aviation, and who knows what he would get into if time permitted. selling is one thing, if not, i am going to reduce the days i work and start enjoying life.

Tony, bill tell me about some of the issues of the downtown associations from years past back in the 70’s

Bill, the owner of sorgs jewelers in the mid 7o's and discount den, another gentlemen and I all got together every morning and played basketball at the ymca. The first meeting I remember was at the pantagraph. It was about the corn festival. Bill from sorgs, kind of took it on in those days.

Tony, did it have a name

Bill, bloomington unlimited, Sharon mc ginnis was an early director.

Tony, I remember al holzman,

Bill, yes that was one of the first I remember, back in the mid 70’s. you remember fitness plus. That business did so well, at 4 in the afternoon, everybody came down here and parked up and down. I told al holzman at the time, we have to do something about this parking, my wife cant even come down and park, they have sold so many memberships. Al claimed there wasn’t any problem, but after they closed up it was paradise we had so much parking.

Tony, so we were combating the eastland factor.

Tony, do you remember going to some meetings.

Bill, I wasn’t much of a meeting participant, because I was so busy down here at the store. Earl that managed leaths was opposed to the island curbs
That they wanted to do because of snow removal problems.

Tony, hours were they a big issue, I remember most stores were open on Monday nights for a long time.

Bill, I was open Monday nights and Friday nights for many many years. it was one advantage of being a downtown retailer, that we could operate by our own hours. then I closed on Friday nights, and 10 years ago when I started the tuxedo business I started being open on Thursday nights, so I was open Monday nights and Thursday nights.

Tony, where did you first open

Bill, I opened at 103 w Monroe, I had a silent partner at that time a guy named fred clark.

Tony, was it opened as winnies

Bill, yes it was called little winnies to begin with, and the reason is because of winnie smith of Decatur. We asked a lot of people from bloomington and they were going there to buy their suits. So we asked his permission, if we could call it little winnies, and he said o.k.

Then I bought my partner out in 1977. and I called up winnie smith and asked if it was o.k. to call it winnies of bloomington, and he said it was o.k. to do so.

tony, did you use an open to buy system for purchasing budgets

bill, my open to buy according to earl from leaths at the time, was my square footage, because if I had room to fit it in here, I bought. I would pack this place and if we ran out of room, I would have a sale and we would get rid of it.

tony, what about peak inventory vs. peak sales, did they coincide.

Bill, the most I ever bought at one time was 500 suits. I had a sales rep call and tell me his credit manager was coming to town to visit my store. I could not have hired actors to come in and do what happened when he was here, I was selling 3-5 suits in the half hour he was here.
The next day the sales rep called me and said what happened, you just got unlimited credit and 6 months dating on invoices. That was the late 70’s when that happened.

Tony, so you could just order whatever you wanted

Bill, that’s right and they didn’t even charge me interest. One check was $74,000.

Tony, how are we going to be buying our suits 10 years from now.

Bill, the recent incident at isu makes me hope dressing up will be back in mainstream.

Tony, what about the internet, whose the big player in suits.

Bill, I don’t think there is one, its fragmented so much, they really have to be fitted, its not really internet friendly.

Tony, what are some of your favorite websites, personally, professionally?

Bill, my home page is cnbc, then I look at cnn, and then my e mail. Mostly news related.

Tony, what about the sourcing in the 70’s vs. right now, how is it different.

Bill, everything was American made in the 70’s, i have two lines still American made but soon they will be in china. Back in the early days a person would see a suit that’s not in stock in their size. You could call up and get it brought right in. as offshore shipments took over you cant do that like you used to be able to

The custom made hart schaffner marx suits are still made in des plaines.

Bill, it was good ride all those years, I just wish state farm would of waited five more years before going casual. That was my best year, then they went casual, they went casual june 14 1997 at 1:16 in the afternoon. The total company, corporate south went casual slightly earlier.

Tony, Are you using the internet for the business

Bill, www.winniesontheweb.com , they can order, I find people use it more in the winter time than they do in the summer just because its cold and people seem to be on their computers more than in the summer.