David Rosenthal: evaluation

Transcript context

…Yeah. I did not understand when reading this book when he kept referencing stores that were not stores where you walked around and got your own stuff off the shelf, that that is a modern concept. That is crazy. I don't know exactly how the department store model worked like JCPenney or Sears where Sam had worked, but it was also not really what we're familiar with. I think when Sam was working as a salesman in Des Moines at Penney's, it was an even higher touch version of this, I believe, where a customer would come into the store, the salesperson would greet them, escort them around, and curate their shopping trip. Very, very different experience. Butler Brothers—Sam's having this conversation with them—are like, well, probably, you want a Ben Franklin franchise, and it just so happens that we've got the perfect store for you in the little town of Newport, Arkansas. The current owner of the Ben Franklin franchise there wants to sell. Newport is a little town of about 7000 people. It's in eastern Arkansas. If you know where Bentonville, Arkansas and Walmart are today, it's not in eastern Arkansas. Sam is like, great, I'll take it. Now, you have to ask yourself, it is 1945 in America. The war has just ended. Unlike 1945 in Japan like we talked about with the Sony story, retail in the US is booming. Everyone's coming home, there was the G.I. Bill, everyone's got new homes, everyone's starting families, and there's a lot of stuff to buy.…

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