Hours removed from agreeing to a contract that would secure a location for Sissy's Log Cabin in Memphis, the jewelry operation's president was enjoying a beautiful spring evening downtown near the Mississippi River. Bill Jones surveyed the Memphis skyline, and for a brief moment his excitement turned to doubt.
"What on earth is an Arkansas boy doing over here in Memphis trying to put in a business?" Jones recalled asking himself in the moment.
Sissy's, founded 43 years ago in Pine Bluff by Jones' mother, Sissy, is long removed from the days when inventory would be gathered up at night and stored under beds in the family home because there was no safe in the 900-square-foot log cabin store. (Yes, there really was once a log cabin). Today Sissy's operates in three cities and has a strong profile outside of Arkansas despite having no locations outside the state's borders.
This month Jones and staff members are making final preparations for opening the Memphis store likely sometime in the first two weeks of October. In the meantime, there are commercials to film and inventory to select, something Jones was doing in California when we recently chatted.
Expansion is, for the most part, old hat for the family by now. It's the crossing the Hernando de Soto Bridge that gave Jones just a hint of heartburn six or so months ago in Memphis.
A Little Rock location was added in April 2010. A Jonesboro store followed in June 2011, and it was then that Memphis was first offered as a possibility.
Over the past three years, the Jonesboro location has been advertising in the Memphis market. Jones said several years worth of marketing across the river allowed Sissy's to build enough of a following that a spot in Memphis' Laurelwood Shopping Center on Poplar Avenue made sense.
Interest in Memphis increased with the availability of Rolex in the market. Only certain stores are authorized to carry the luxury brand, and once the rights were given up (or lost), Sissy's moved in to secure them for the Memphis area.
On the basis of Sissy's long-standing reputation with Rolex, it didn't take a lot of persuading to land the rights. Jones (perhaps modestly) estimates that Sissy's is among the "top half" of Rolex dealers nationally.
What being in that top half equates to in annual sales and what the chain's overall annual revenue is aren't questions Jones will answer. What he will tell you is that each store can carry up to an estimated $10 million in jewelry at one time. Feel free to use your imagination from there.
That Sissy's is adding a third location since 2010 would also seem to provide an indicator of how well the family business is operating. Hot Springs, where the family has a condo and where Jones spent summers fishing on Lake Hamilton, will get a store sooner than later. There was a time when Hot Springs was viewed as the next location after Jonesboro, but for now the Spa City, for a variety of reasons, has taken a back seat to the Bluff City.
Sissy's Memphis location will include a specialty Rolex boutique designed in Switzerland. None of the other Sissy's stores has anything like it, Jones said. Memphis also will be the first of the four stores to carry the Tudor brand.
As with its Arkansas locations, Sissy's will be advised by a board of local shoppers. Plugged-in women from around the community are asked to help with decisions ranging from ads and inventory to philanthropic opportunities.
This is part of the approach, Jones said, that has allowed Sissy's to become a competitor with jewelers not just within the local market but also, in Jones' view, in New York, Los Angeles and other larger markets.
It isn't unusual for customers to fly in from around the country to shop at the stores. Further connecting outside the mid-South is the goal of hiring a full-time webmaster and online expert in Little Rock. Jones said the Internet is viewed as the company's "fifth store," and he admits that the online presence has been "hit and miss."
Because of the in-person experience that accompanies buying jewelry, the online sales will generally take a back seat to the brick-and-mortar stores. Jones said it's a much more personal experience than the Internet can offer, and ideally the website will serve to drive traffic into Pine Bluff, Little Rock, Jonesboro and, in the coming weeks, Memphis.
"We're still very aware of where we came from," Jones said. "You never lose the humbleness of where we began, and I was reminded of that sitting in downtown Memphis and taking it all in that night."
SundayMonday Business on 09/07/2014