PLATO'S CLOSET: NORTHWEST SAN ANTONIO, TX
Owner: Melanie Van Dyke, discusses her Winmark journey
How did you come to own a Winmark franchise?
We had a huge change of plans in my Husband’s career and knew we would need to do something different, so we uprooted our family and moved closer to “Home” and our family. When we moved outside of San Antonio the weekend before school started, I took my kids shopping and there was no Plato’s Closest in the city! I knew this was the opportunity that we were looking for. We went to Discovery day in January 2009 and we were “Open to Buy” by July 2009 – everything fell into place and it was an awesome blessing for our family and we are so thankful for the opportunity!
What is one thing you know now that you wish you had known when you first opened your store?
My degree is in Nutrition and I had come from teaching High School to Plato’s Closet, so I wish I would have known anything about retail and how to deal with lunatics! Not even High School kids could have prepared me for RETAIL - I know all of the owners just nodded in agreement to the last part of this – haha! This business has taught me how to really rely on prayer, very little sleep with a lot of laughter, and thankfully really great people that I have been blessed to work with... but as we all know there are a lot of CRAZY customers in this world!
Have you implemented any new tactics to keep your staff motivated and to help with employee retention?
Recruiting new team members has been the biggest challenge, but we also try to motivate and retain the team we currently have. Some of the things we do to help with Employee Retention: We pay an Anniversary bonus of $100 for each team members First Anniversary and an additional $50 for each additional year they have worked and it is payable on their Annual Anniversary Date. Like all PC owners, we feed our team A LOT, give out PC bucks for acts of kindness, picking up shifts, great customer feedback, etc... Provide “Birthday Coupons” for them to shop in the store, We celebrate “Employee of the Month”, have “Employee Appreciation Week” during Spring Break with daily new treats/surprises since our staff is working and not out having fun, we have monthly customer service contests, and staff picked themed dress-up Days that match our focus walls. We attempt to continue providing opportunities for growth within our store and verbally encourage them for who they are and what they bring to our team and challenge them to be the best people they can be while they are employed with us.
How has the partnership with JMM benefited your business?
I have worked exclusively with J Miller, primarily Terri Tiberi, since 2009 because of their vigilant effort to remain current with whatever modality it takes to advertise to our customer base that is constantly changing with each new generation. I have a monthly call set up to update, change or add to our plan based on what is going on in our store. If we decide to do a last-minute in-store event – J Miller ALWAYS pivots and makes the advertising happen for us! They are also really great people!
