1. My Viewpoint
Sara Collins
2
4 Divisions:
Central (Charlotte, N.C.)
Northern (Raleigh, N.C.)
Southern (Jacksonville, Fla.)
Western (Greenville, S.C.)
FAST FACTS
Senior Communications Coordinator/Editor
Founded in 1888
277 Stores
16 States
23,000 employees
$2.97 billion FY06 revenue
At what time in your life do
you think you were your best
dressed? For me, it was defi-
nitely during early childhood.
My mother recently sent
me an envelope full of dupli-
cate photos from her files.
There’s me at six months,
looking the best I’ve ever
looked in my life wearing noth-
ing but a towel. There’s me in the fourth grade ice
skating show in my all-time favorite red polyester
bell-bottom pants with an appliquéd snowman on
the left leg – actually standing upright on the ice!
There’s me in the late ‘80s, sporting an atrocious
curly, mullet-like hairdo and the single ugliest
white lace prom dress you’ll ever see yanked off
the living room drapery rod.
But then there’s me at four, shopping down-
town with my grandmother. After a trip through
local department stores The Diamond or Stone and
Thomas, there was lunch at the Rose Cafeteria
and a special trip to the toy department in the
smelly basement of Woolworth’s. It was a big day.
Shopping downtown with Nana was always a
dress-up occasion. There’s me reaching for the
elevator button in my Jackie O best: black and
white giant herringbone plaid coat and matching
beret (set at a jaunty angle, of course); giant,
oval-shaped black sunglasses; white gloves.
I look at that picture and think: stylin’.
And then I think: what happened?!?! It’s a
sad day when you realize that you were your best-
dressed self at age four.
You, however, can be your best-dressed self if
you wear any of the merchandise profiled in our
centerspread on pages six and seven!
But before you rush to find out what to wear,
check out how Belk of Parkersburg, W.Va. focuses
on customer and community service on this page
and how Belk will help thousands of customers to
be well-dressed when six new or expanded stores
open this month on page three.
In our page-four corporate goals focus,
Chairman and CEO Tim Belk sets the stage for
the company’s climb to $3.3 billion.
And we focus on all kinds of new technology:
GE’s credit card system, 7thOnline’s assortment
planning tool (both on page five) and the Intellex
closed-circuit TV system that’s helping with more
than loss prevention (page eight).
Happy dressing!
“We’re proud to say that we’re the store in the community that people look
to,” says Betty Kesterman, better sportswear associate at Belk of Parkersburg,
W.Va. #698. “We see everyone in the community come into this store.”
Associates and managers at the former Proffitt’s store in Grand Central
Mall are focused on delivering the best in community and customer service to
an intensely loyal customer base, says Store Manager Debbie Taylor.
She serves on the Education Committee of the local chamber of commerce
and the store is active in the Partners in Education program, in which local
businesses “adopt” and support schools. Associates produce fashion shows
with students, judge science fairs and host choral groups at the store, among other events. Most
local schools participate in Charity Day events to benefit their athletic programs.
The store also supports the local American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life benefit, which it
selected for its grand opening charity. “It’s huge in this market,” says Taylor. “There are more
than 200 teams participating, restaurants catering, music – we hope to make it an annual event.
“We have a passion for serving our community,” she continues. “It’s what drives our store.”
And she channels that passion into a business development tool by partnering with local
women’s organizations. “As a total store, our biggest goal is to become more involved with those
groups so we can develop our cosmetics business. It’s a huge opportunity for us,” says Taylor.
“I want to dominate the market in all the lines.”
Providing superior customer service is a natural extension of the store’s community service
focus. “We have such great customers. They have to drive 90 miles to get to another mall, so we
see them twice as often as other malls do. They come in here every week,” Taylor says. “We’ve
developed great relationships and that’s an advantage we have as a small store.”
This small store is located in a small town that makes big claims: Parkersburg is “The Savings
Bond Capital of America” (the U.S. Treasury Department’s Bureau of Public Debt’s local office
processes every savings bond issued or cashed); the third most populated city in the state
(33,000); home of the world’s largest Teflon-producing plant (Washington Works); the world’s
largest manufacturer of ABS engineering thermoplastics (GE Plastics); and one of the nation’s
largest button collections (Henry Cooper Log Cabin Museum).
Located at the confluence of the Ohio and Little Kanawha Rivers, the regional market has a
population of 339,000 from both West Virginia and Ohio. Parkersburg, the seat of Wood County,
is conveniently located at the intersection of Interstate 77 and U.S. Route 50.
Settlers first arrived in these Indian lands in the
1760s. The area remained relatively isolated until
the early 1800s, when the first steamboat came down
the Ohio River and stopped to refuel. Then came two
major turnpikes and the railroad, and Parkersburg
became a major transportation and distribution hub.
The discovery of oil and gas in the rich hills gave the
town a much-needed boom after the Civil War.
The store opened eight years ago and celebrated
its anniversary just days before the transition to Belk
last month. “We have a beautiful building – we’re
fortunate and have worked hard to maintain it,” she
says. “We really focus on presentation and have
been recognized for that in the past. We get a lot of
positive feedback from customers on how well we
maintain the store.”
continued on page 8
Parkersburg, W.Va. store focuses on
community, customers
Parkersburg, W.Va. #698
Debbie Taylor, store manager
82 associates
1998 opened
2004 renovated (added homestore)
$10.1 million FY06 sales
$10.2 million projected FY07 sales
Debbie Taylor
“We want to be a great place for families to come and shop,” says Store Manager Debbie Taylor of
Belk of Parkersburg, W.Va. #698.
Parkersburg