THE BACK STORY

After graduating with a marketing degree from Kent State University in 1990, I found myself alone in Cleveland and with very few job prospects. I had worked at JoAnn Fabrics through high school where I had the opportunity to work directly with customers and where I got a taste of being the top salesman, but I was not ready to go backwards, so I took a job working part-time with the Limited Stores. I would go on to be the top salesman monthly, but they were not sure I was management material, so it was time to move on. 

My first "real" job after college was with Russ Berrie Co. and lugging huge bags of stuffed animals from one shop to the next. I had the opportunity to visit Bentonville, Arkansas in the fall of 1990 where my parents recently relocated, so that my dad could take over the management of Bates Hospital. This small community hospital located in Bentonville just so happen to have a board of very interesting people. The most significant in my world would be Bill Fields, then VP of Merchandising for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. 

Small talk after the December 1990 monthly hospital board meeting between my father and Bill, led the understanding that Wal-Mart was having difficulty finding buyers who were interested in moving to NW Arkansas. Even more specifically, buyers for the arts and craft department. My history at JoAnn Fabrics and my marketing degree made its way into the conversation and that was enough to bypass the HR department and secure an interview with Bill himself during my first planned trip to Bentonville later that month. 

January 2, 1991 I received a phone call with a job offer that would begin with training for six months in the Cleveland area to help open the fist stores in the region and gain experience working in the stores. Less than six months later I was pulled into the office to fill a vacant buying position and at the age of 23 was the youngest buyer on the team. 1991 was a pivotal year for Wal-Mart, Excel was integrated into the system, e-mail was a new communication option and Sam Walton was still walking the halls of Wal-Mart and kicking the buyer's desks when he had a new idea. Saturday Morning Meetings were mandatory, Mr. Sam attended and spoke at every meeting , the art of merchandising was in vogue and constantly talking about how things could be done better was always on the agenda. 

Over the next year I witnessed, Mr. Sam being awarded the Medal of Freedom by George H. Bush, listen to stories my father would share about the conversations he and Mr Sam would talk about at his bedside while he got medical treatment locally, because that is where he wanted to be and I had the freedom and the latitude to learn as much as I could, try things my way and place the largest purchase orders for craft products in the world. 

After Mr. Sam's passing in April of 1992, things did not change immediately. David Glass, Don Soderquiest and Bill Fields, along with the rest of the c-team, along with an amazing group of store leaders kept the Wal-Mart train going strong. It was not unusual to get a message that I needed to be at the hanger at 5 am to visit stores for the day with a team including David Glass, jump on the first Wal-Mart jet the day after Thanksgiving to visit the first stores in Idaho and Utah to find a merchandising nightmare of microwave ovens or to host a Saturday Morning Meeting that was broadcasted to all stores live to introduce the first Elvis Presley costume, finally approved by Pricilla herself. Elvis didn't make it to the event, but a very good impersonator arrived and the crowd went wild. 

I would spend the next few years embracing the Wal-Mart way of doing things, becoming a self-taught merchandising expert and constantly exploring new ways to help the stores, our vendors and our team offer better products, programs and improve the experience. Some of my ideas were considered radical, but many were implemented, with product categories I added, still in the stores today. 

Store traiting was introduced during this time, allowing the merchandising and operations team to control the products that would go to each store based on location, size and demographics. This helped to eliminate sleds from being shipped to Florida, bathing suits arriving in Minnesota in February and microwaves with free coffee makers from hitting a region of the country that does not drink coffee. 

Wal-Mart also implemented many new technologies and processes to improve the operation, shopping experience and movement of goods. I always aired on the side of the consumer and the stores and had no trouble walking into the SR VP's office to stand up for a system that was not working at the store level.

When the focus at Wal-Mart began to move from merchandising, store operations and customer experience to meeting margin requirements, profits and sales goals, which caused the merchandising team to call upon their vendors to make up the difference, I knew my runway would be short. 

My experience at Wal-Mart during the golden age of retail, was pivotal in everything I would do moving forward. I made the decision to leave Wal-Mart in the May of 1995, without a plan for what I would do next. Recently married at the age of 26 to a great guy and his four children, I wanted to focus on being a mom and see what might happen next. Within a week of leaving, vendors that I had worked with for years began calling. They pulled my husband aside and said "You don't realize this, but Christine is one of the best merchants we have ever worked with." This did not happen just once, but over and over again. 

This led to a full-fledge consulting business that was so busy, my assistant from Wal-Mart left her position to come and work with me. We had developed such a good working relationship that it transitioned right into a great team outside of Wal-Mart. Both of us very familiar with the good things that Wal-Mart had taught us and ideas for how to fix the things that were not working as well. We worked with a wide range of vendors from many different industries helping with product development, packaging design and merchandising. 

One of our best accounts, Paper Magic, was one of the largest consumer paper products companies in the world. Together we created the first blank paper line for the creative market and we were ready to show the line to all the major retailers. In essence one of the first products to enter into what would become one of the hottest trends in creative retailing for the late 1990's, 2000's and 2010's, Scrapbooking and Paper Crafting. While at Wal-Mart I saw a void for blank craft products that provided a place for the consumer to apply the craft supplies they had purchased. At the same time Paper Magic was acquired by CSS and the decision was made to divest of all business units under $1M. This left our new program without a home and because I was so instrumental in creating the line, we were given the heads up to run with it, so we did.

A small team of us, including myself and my husband Randy, started DMD Industries, Inc. We would go on to not only bring to life this blank paper program, but in six years after starting in our garage we would have 450 employees, 250,000 sq. ft of facilities and have programs in every major craft and mass retailer in the market. While the company was not for sale, we had an offer that was too good to refuse and sold the company in 2002 the same year we hit $25M in sales. 

Those six years of starting, operating and expanding the company through multiple acquisitions, line expansions and increasing marketing share were the most exciting years in my career. I was able to use everything I had learned from the best retailer in the world, the experiences consulting and then through trial and error. Wal-Mart had taught me to continually ask why, never underestimate the possibility of what could be and to always think big. I didn't understand that something could not be done, that there were questions that should not be asked or avenues that should not be explored. 

I was the first to help introduce green paper to the market, the mills did not change paper colors for a small company in Arkansas, but I insisted that Scrapbooking was coming and the world could not live without green grass and trees. Low and behold green paper soon followed, along with the largest trend to hit the paper industry in years. I also could not stand seeing all the scrap paper that was not used during the manufacturing process go to waste. My mind tends to solve big issues overnight and I woke up at 2 am, shook Randy and told him we need to package the scraps into 1# scrap packs. We mocked them up the next day and the product can still be found in major retailers today. We sold so much scrap paper packs we were able to buy scrap from the market and reduce waste going into the landfills. 

Another example of thinking outside of the norm, was the way tissue paper was sold in the 90's everywhere. Long packs of tissue that took up so much space in the plan-o-gram. The tissue hung side by side and only about 15 packs fit per 2.5 foot section, not a great use of space. I asked our tissue manufactured if it was possible to fold the tissue in half and of course the answer was no, our machines do not do that. I asked a few more times with no as the answer each time. I wondered out-loud, why can't we fold it, put it in the bag and ship it, so we did. We changed the way tissue was packaged and sold throughout the world but not taking no for an answer. We were able to put 3 times the number of packs in the same space, expand the shoppers experience and introduce new tissue designs to the market with the new available space. This innovative thought process helped to earn us 15 feet of space in every Michaels Store for paper bags and tissue paper and this program soon made its way into every other retailer. 

During our time with DMD, the internet was coming of its own, but out of reach for most small to medium size businesses, $100,000 to start and online website and shopping cart. The rule of thumb was that you cannot sell online and compete against your customers, so we stayed away from the internet on the business side, but explored it personally receiving the new AOL discs to upgrade our computer and stay in touch. I was intrigued with the possibility, but other than purchasing concert tickets, asking jeeves or helping the kids do research for school, it didn't go much further.

After selling the company and spending a short time trying to be a part of the new business, Randy and I departed to see what the future would hold. We had the opportunity to seed a few startups, but one idea was very interesting was an idea that used wind-driven technology to clean water and improve the ecosystem of ponds, lakes and standing water. While it didn't make potable water, it improved the health of all that live in the water, drink from the water or irrigated by the water. After the first investment it was clear that the "idea" guy didn't have what it took to turn this into a going concern and with the investment being all ours, we found ourselves the owners of Outdoor Water Solutions. We had named the company, began branding it and had the opportunity to test the waters of life online as a manufacturer. Social media was just starting and rumors of something called Facebook were all the talk. We wrote articles that were posted, I helped to set up our first website with the help of others and I began to see what the internet had to offer. After selling our share to a partner who was much better versed in the agri and water markets, we took another breather to see what was next.

The entrepreneurial bug is never far away and we were bit again. By this time our non-compete had expired, our experience building a home opened my mind to voids in the market and I was ready to hit the market again, but this time a little differently. Canvas Corp was launched in 2009 with the focus being on the DIY/Home Market. What we found very quickly is there was no home for this market. Hardware Stores did hardware, Craft stores did crafts and all other stores could care less about DIY/Home products that they didn't already carry. We held our ground for a few years with the home decor products from innovative paint and wall filler to DIY room layout kits (this was before the internet had the option.) We placed some of the products, but we were very surprised how the buying and retailer market had changed. Buyers were no longer accessible, knocking off product was no longer shunned, but bragged about, and innovative ideas that were once sought after we no longer in vogue. The focus was on moving branded goods overseas to secure private label products at lower prices. American innovation would hold for a while as one after another, products were knocked off in favor of control and profits. 

While this change was disheartening, it also opened a new set of rules and invited exploration of what the internet had to offer.  We embarked on creating our website, blog, and social media outreach and whew what a whirlwind.  I had first-hand knowledge and lead the charge on bringing our brand to life on the internet for both the wholesale and consumer market and they loved it.  Our products transitioned into what the consumers wanted, while continuing to try and meet the needs of the buyers.  Our online sales began to show a significant contribution to the bottom line at healthy margins.  Working with a now sku intensive product offering of over 4000 items, getting organized, innovative, and creative had to be a priority.  

The market jumped up and down and while we learned so much, it was just not the same, we sold Canvas Corp in 2019 and found ourselves for the first time, in a long time not sure what to do next.  Randy decided to jump in and use his financial and operational experience to help local entrepreneurs and small businesses in the area.  For the first time in my career, I had no idea what I wanted to do next, but I knew doing nothing was not an option.  Maybe working in my identity or maybe I just enjoy the art of the entrepreneurial game.  

While this time felt very void of what I was supposed to be doing, it also allowed me to approach everything with a clear head, open mind and available time.  Having been exposed to so many possibilities online, I began exploring current technology, trends in websites and voids in the market.  I didn’t want to do what anyone else was doing, I never want to do what anyone else is doing, there is always room for something new, so that was my goal.  The most obvious opportunity I could see was to big or go home.

As 2019 came to an end I was pretty sure the world needed a new online pet store, and it had to be unique, unforgettable, and fun and that is where you journey began.  I soon realized that my love of merchandising, ability to organize and interest in the smartest technology would help me to create the largest online pet shop in the world.  The online space had no space constraints, no financial rules, and no market boundaries.  When I realized these things, everything started falling into place.  I realized the “secret sauce” everyone was trying to find to beat amazon was right under their noses, merchandising!

This realization came sometimes in v2 or v3 of the website, which caused me to rethink the entire concept.  No longer was I just trying to build a big pet online store, I also wanted to make it easier for the shopper to explore and find what they were looking for much easier than was currently being done.  I took the website apart and started again, but this time I created it in a brand-new structure that was unlike any other I had found on the web and when I liked it all together, added a search function and it went live, even a rough, hard-coded website provided a better and more unforgettable shopping experience than any other shop online.  Wow!  I filled the site with ‘one of everything’ pet and pet-people related, utilized affiliate links to remove the need for inventory and created a visually appealing space that was easy to shop.

I had kept the site quiet from everyone, including Randy, they only knew I was working on a pet website to fill my time and like most things people were not all that interested to find out more, so that gave me the freedom to quietly keep going.  The idea kept coming to me that this was much bigger than a pet store and if I could build the biggest online pet store, could I do it again with a different category, so I embarked on the office category and a few months later it was filled with over 10,000 products and growing.  Then it really hit me, what if we connected these stores and did this for all major categories and even smaller ones and then I knew I had something, the fist and largest online shopping mall every created.  

To truly answer the question why me? It took learning merchandising from best merchant in the world, Sam Walton, growing and being exposed to technology and its possibilities and having the opportunity to think about what I want to do next, with the focus always in the back of my mind is how to improve things, make people’s lives better and have fun doing it.  Oh, the possibilities!  Here is where we are going now

My passion, my experience, the team around me, my vision, how this can change online retail shopping for the world. How do we get better.  Buyers still today stay within the parameters of the plan o gram, even the online plan o gram or they open it up for vendors to toss anything their way without even vetting it, like all the rules went out the window.

Would love the change to create an opportunity new merchant to learn the trade, to set the pace for what online shopping should and could look like, the possibilities of what the platform makes way for and bringing together products and services to provide solutions.  Ignite innovation and passion.  

Utilize experience of running 3 different businesses to think outside of the box in every area from shipping and packaging to merchant assortments to marketing.  Once the platform is built, there are spaces to bring to life anything you can imagine. 

Today’s tech entrepreneurs may be proficient in coding and use of technology, but they often lack the experience of starting a business from the ground up, growing a company and leading a team.