Meeting a Deadline

The saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" surely goes double for anyone in the business of selling easily breakable tabletop products. But entrepreneurs Marsha and Lawrence Dautch, owners of Jenss Decor in Amherst, New York (a Buffalo suburb), didn't build their 35-year-old gift, tabletop, and home decor operation by handling their business with kid gloves. They take risks.

In 1998, the Dautches won a Gifts & Decorative Accessories Merchandising Achievement Award (as the REAs were then known) for the design of a 2,000-square-foot artwork and jewelry gallery, Jenss Decor Etcetera, that they spun off from the main store when space became available in their mall location. Then, with the expiration of the lease on their main shop coming in 2001, plus the opportunity to incorporate a fine jeweler (Reeds Jewelers) in their operation, the Dautches decided it was time to take another chance. In September 2000, they began construction on a 13,000-square-foot, freestanding building just two blocks from the mall.

However, Jenss was working on a tight deadline because the mall lease was due to expire the following May, and the Dautches wanted a pre-Mother's Day opening to take advantage of the business the holiday would generate. What with inevitable construction delays and the infamous winter weather of western New York State, the couple had set themselves a formidable task.

With the financing for the steel-and-brick structure secured, the couple realized they would need to forge an alliance with the architects/designers, the general contractor, and the municipal authorities. To keep things on track, they instituted daily meetings to prioritize the construction process, and used local contractors to make on-site adjustments more easily. The timing was so tight that the designers of the new point-of-sale system were actually on site installing the system during the store's grand opening charity benefit.

The hard work, and the gamble, paid off. Even the weather cooperated, allowing the store to open on budget and on time, May 8. The results are a retail space that epitomizes stylish elegance. Exterior features of the new Jenss De-cor include herringbone brickwork, a column-supported canopy, 13 dark bronze windows, a lighted sign and logo, and window awnings that also feature the store logo.

Interior features include eight perimeter merchandise galleries housing high-end lines of crystal, porcelain, china, and crafts that offer a uniquely spacious setting to display fine gifts and tabletop at a single glance. Other galleries showcase Christmas items and Buffalo-themed merchandise (in honor of New York's second-largest city). Interior fixtures feature textured cherry wood and marbleized shades of green. Support columns and galley casings are trimmed in real mahogany.

The store's center aisle is tiled in marble. A table, placed beneath a Waterford chandelier, is set with products showing customers how they might look in their homes. Customer service features include a bridal registry desk, a comfortable seating lounge, a viewing room for private showings, a coffee bar, and marble-tiled restrooms. Five cash wrap locations and a 90-square-foot giftwrap counter complete the amenities.

Besides facing the challenges of completing construction on time, Marsha and Lawrence Dautch had another hurdle to overcome before opening day: moving 25,000 pieces of fragile merchandise two blocks down the road. Again they applied their organizational skills and enlisted scores of relatives and friends as well as store employees. The crews packed the fragile merchandise into hundreds of oversized hampers layered with carpet foam. Then they transferred the loaded hampers to trucks with automatic lift gates for the short move. Once in their new home, the crews carefully unpacked the goods.

Only two things have been broken since the store's opening: store traffic and sales numbers. Both experienced double digit increases. And the Dautches aren't about to put on the kid gloves.