Scarpa: Lessons from 30 years of retailing 🗓️

Last weekend I went to Charlottesville for a 30th birthday party. This party, for which I gladly drove two and half hours each way, wasn’t for a dear friend or family member — it was for a business. Not just any business…one of my most favorite retail businesses, Scarpa, a truly one-of-a-kind women’s boutique.

I worked at Scarpa during my last years in college and for a couple years after. I’ve told you many times before that I grew up in a retailing family, so if I was born with the kindling, it was my time at Scarpa that struck the match that lit my bonfire of love for retail.

Scarpa came into being in 1994 when a burgeoning architect in her early twenties, Amy Gardner, recognized that there weren’t any decent shoe stores in Charlottesville (people were driving an hour to Richmond), and that she was the one to change that. With a modest investment and support from friends, she signed a lease in a prime shopping center, and 30 years later, Scarpa is growing and thriving in that same spot.

Since my time selling shoes on Scarpa’s sales floor in the early aughts, I’ve remained close to the store and Amy because I’ve refused to let go. I’d nominate myself as the store’s biggest fan (which, unfortunately for me, is not the same as being its best customer), and I’m constantly inspired and humbled by Amy’s business acumen and leadership.

If I had to distill what I’ve learned from Scarpa over the years, there are three main themes. Here they are…

1. The details really matter, and they require a lot of hard work

On my very first shift, Amy handed me a box of about 2,000 2x2 inch earring cards. On some of the cards, the logo had printed a bit off center, so my job was to pick through the batch and pull out every single misprint - we couldn’t use them, so we weren’t going to pay for them. I’ve told this story probably 50 times in my career because it’s a perfect example of the everyday diligence and exacting attention to even small details that makes the difference in retail.

The physical space and the customers’ flow within it are important background contributors to whether or not they buy from you. Things that stop us in our tracks as consumers, the things that shouldn’t be there — like merchandise without price tags, messy displays, smudges on the glass — interfere with our natural flow and can subtly signal a lack of care or quality.

Without exception, care and quality are critical to any retail business whether you’re running a massage therapy practice, a yoga studio, or a cat café. And there’s no way around it — all of these details take physical labor and mental effort to maintain on a daily basis. They are boring and “reproductive” tasks that never stop needing our attention. Yet, they are essential.

2. Be as generous as you can with your staff, and know they will leave you someday

Many business owners pay the lowest possible wage for labor, and many would argue that this is smart in order to keep expenses as low as possible. But while it might be “smart” on paper, it’s usually not wise. People do their best work and invest most in your business when they feel valued.

There are lots of ways to show your staff appreciation — buying lunch for the team on busy days, hosting fun holiday parties, stocking a snack fridge — but what makes people feel valued is money. Paying people the most you can reasonably afford buys loyalty, dedication, and more attentive work — better quality labor. This is not only how you get people to stay on your staff when they graduate college, for five years, for nine years, for fifteen years; it is also how your staff builds the meaningful relationships that keep customers coming back time and again to buy from you.

That being said, the only constant on your staff is you, and no matter how generous you are, most everyone will leave you eventually. They move away, their careers develop in other directions, they move on. Sometimes the goodbyes are bittersweet, and sometimes they’re more like bad breakups. But in most cases, everyone who comes on staff will probably leave someday, and that’s okay. You still keep being generous.

3. Growth comes from trusting your gut and taking calculated risks

When I worked at Scarpa, footwear was the primary revenue stream, and we didn’t sell any women’s apparel. These days, the primary stream is women’s apparel, and footwear is in second place with fine jewelry nipping at its heels. The merchandise has always been high-end, current, and curated with a clear point of view, but the categories have changed over the years.

During my time slinging shoes, Mark Zuckerberg was still in college, and e-commerce was not a thing. Today, Scarpa maintains an entirely separate space for photoshoots and employs a full-time photographer all in the service of keeping the website as close to the in-store experience as possible.

Times change and customers change, so businesses have to adapt in order to stay relevant and to grow. Not every attempt at adaptation will stick around forever. Scarpa once had a mobile shop inside a converted Airstream named Carlo. Scarpa sold men’s footwear for a few years. Sometimes you try things and they really work, sometimes they work for a short time. But the only way to grow is to try new things, and that takes courage, planning, and trusting yourself.

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Now because this is a Pedal newsletter, and Abby won’t let me publish this without mentioning real estate, here’s what I’ll say…

In 2022 Scarpa doubled its square footage and renewed its lease for the seventh time. All of the growth and adaptation over these past 30 years were most certainly facilitated by a great location and a good lease. Scarpa got the location right the first time, and cultivated a strong relationship with the landlord through communication, collaboration and (most importantly) by driving consistent foot traffic to the shopping center over the years. As the business evolved, Amy and her landlord adapted and adjusted the lease accordingly. Win-win.

Scarpa is a rare independent brick-and-mortar that has withstood the test of time and more than one retail apocalypse. We say that’s proof that the real estate really does matter.