YouSaid · the spoken record

Tom Campion

lines on the record: 72
first: 2023-02-06
most recent: 2023-02-06
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Year over year without, you know, in Zoomies, it would be year over year in existing stores, not counting new stores. But it was important to get your inventory right.”
2023-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Zumiez: Tom Campion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Neither You know, we achieved our first goal. We got out of pennies and we were doing all right enough that we're comparable to what we're making at pennies. And you're doing it all on your own. You're winning or losing, you're achieving, you're driving a comp all on your own, and you go, there's nothing more satisfying since I did that. I mean, I did that, you know, and it just felt right.”
2023-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Zumiez: Tom Campion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh no, even the early days, we both had families and we split it up, work nights, work days, weekends, but we had, I think, three other employees, two or three other employees. And, you know, we hired people that could sell. We knew how to staff too. We knew how to schedule staffing, right? When the busy time was because we worked at pennies.”
2023-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Zumiez: Tom Campion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, how am I going to figure this out? But you did because you had the training you could see and you knew people and you talk. You communicated all the time. And reps. The reps work remotely. It isn't probably as centralized as now as brands. So they're out. They're trying to find new places to sell their goods. And we can sell.”
2023-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Zumiez: Tom Campion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So there was a famous clothing show then called Magic that used to happen in LA then it went to Vegas and we started going to that to the trade show and it's less of that now and it became an action sports show later on. We'll get into that. But you go to the show and it's like 100,000 people. You go, holy shit.”
2023-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Zumiez: Tom Campion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, you'd figured out what was on the mall, you'd figure out what was in the market, you'd figure out what was not suitably represented on the mall, and then you had to take the risk. Sooner or later, you got to spend that money and buy it. How would you figure it out?”
2023-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Zumiez: Tom Campion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That was where to be. There were stores downtown, but the action after World War two to the malls. And we're in 600 malls today. It still is for our customer.”
2023-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Zumiez: Tom Campion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We really wanted to leave pennies. Bigger thing was interest rates. Everybody talks today, oh, interest rates are going up. Oh my God, they're 4% or 5%. We borrowed it for the first four or five years as we grew. I think we were paying 16, 17, 18% interest rates. But the interest rate.”
2023-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Zumiez: Tom Campion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And now I employ ten eleven thousand people Gen Z because of an SBA loan. We each put in five grand and we borrowed thirty five grand. Something like that.”
2023-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Zumiez: Tom Campion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I'll walk you through it. We went to the bank, Seattle first or something. It was eventually bought out by B of A and we had done the cost of building the store what it was. And we did some of ourselves. We hired a couple of guys to build it out. But the biggest expense was inventory against getting it open, starting to get cash sales coming back in. And what we needed was total was about 45 grand, which sounds preposterous. But this 44 years ago. But like any bank, you guys got to be freaking kidding me. And I'm using friggin, you know, as the clean word. But we ended up with an SBA guaranteed loan. So the bank is just filling out the documents and making points and the money comes from government. That's a great program. And as you know, I do a lot of political stuff. And I say, hey, I got started on SBA.”
2023-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Zumiez: Tom Campion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Great business, but we had that training which appealed to Northgate Mall, I forget who owned it, and they gave us a shot.”
2023-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Zumiez: Tom Campion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, or the brand changes. It means if you can get in front of that... You're going to track the customer. And that's all about managing your inventory because that puts you out real quick.”
2023-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Zumiez: Tom Campion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it wasn't called Zumi's, and it was called Above the Bill. You know, we both had experience in men's department, even though at that point I wasn't managing that. And we, you know, and then you looked at the market, what didn't the market have and you knew what was going on, especially in young men's teenage, because that's where it flips. I mean, you don't go into selling blue suits because blue suits don't flip. But, you know, teenage brands flip all the time.”
2023-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Zumiez: Tom Campion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We came out of the blue and we were, you know, I don't know, school teachers and said, okay, let's open up a teenage clothing store.”
2023-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Zumiez: Tom Campion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Where I was getting the training, I just didn't like how it looked and how they managed without writing the management plan down guy. I mean, how you treat people, how you empower people, how you recognize people. They didn't do that. They didn't do that, not as much. It was always, oh my God, what is the manager going to think? And the manager told me what he thought, put your suit on and look like you're in management. And up to that point, you know, it wasn't like...”
2023-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Zumiez: Tom Campion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, usually around lunch or you go jump in your car, you go to the McDonald's drive-in or whatever or go into the Denny store, the highs and lows of any business, right? Oh, yeah, God, that guy's busting my chops or whatever. You get to know each other. I knew he was competent. I think he believed I was competent. We said eventually there was always a pressure on how much money you made. And he had two small kids too that about my kids age. So he was raising kids in the 70s just like I was. And, you know, it was like, are we getting rewarded for what the work we're putting in here? And he grew up in the Northwest too. I don't think he really wanted to move to LA or New York or other places to go up in the Pennies Corporation.”
2023-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Zumiez: Tom Campion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yep, Gary Hawkinson. He's, I think he's my age, a year older, was in the training program. And, yep, we went through the highs and the lows of the working.”
2023-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Zumiez: Tom Campion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I wasn't totally in control of my own destiny, and it always gotten a problem with inventory because he would be buying part of it, he or she.”
2023-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Zumiez: Tom Campion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh yeah, and the high end was the Bond Marchais here. So it was a major department store. And the funny thing is anybody that knows me, you're wearing a suit. So I had three or four suits with white shirt, blue shirt, gray tie, and you're walking around. And I eventually, after a year and a half, two-year program, I stayed in that store that made me manager of the men's department in like 1971. Wow, this is the...”
2023-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Zumiez: Tom Campion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“30 hours a week, some weeks, I'm paying my own tuition. And I graduated in June. And I can't remember exactly how this happened, but I applied at JCPenney. It was retail, and Penny's was great training program, all that stuff. And I was hired, I think, right before Christmas that year.”
2023-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Zumiez: Tom Campion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm working in grocery tours and I'm loving it. It was my first taste of retail even though I was a paperboy for like I think four or five years. In the groceries to our business, you're running five ways from Sunday. People are buying stuff from you. I just love the energy, the action. I love interacting with people. Pretty soon this is pre computer. I'm buying for Law Store. I'm good at math and managing inventory and stuff like that, not managing the store by any means, just really solid worker guy, right? And doing this. And I really enjoyed this. And I'm working about 25 hours a week”
2023-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Zumiez: Tom Campion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We were doing all right, but it was important to get your inventory right. So many retailers, they fall in love with their goods. You never married to your goods. Doesn't work, got to mark it down, you got to turn it, you got to get cash back and buy something that a customer wants. But then taken the risk, you're going to buy 100, are you going to buy a thousand? A lot of people don't have the ability to do that to see that. I mean, it's old school”
2023-02-06 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Zumiez: Tom Campion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT