American Rag Talk

Tonight I went to the talk from Mark Werts, founder of the American Rag stores. The majority of the talk was devoted to a slideshow walkthrough of the La Brea location here in Los Angeles. As one of his associates clicked through the slides, Mark commented on the various pieces in the location and tied them into his business philosophy and model. Personally, I felt that the end of the talk devolved a bit. He promised a discussion of current trends, but instead I got a mindless espousal of globalization and a short by pretty nonsensical statement on how the west is "in decline". Nevertheless, the vast majority was quite interesting and he made a couple points on retail that I had never really thought about. Firstly, he showed a couple items that they stock, but do not really sell, such as music CD's, and expensive hand-blown glasses. The idea is that these items aren't so much to generate revenue as they are to reinforce the store's image. Furthermore, he interestingly said, "I try to find what no-body wants". As he clicked through the slides, it seemed that each found piece in the decor was some cheap and inexpensive knockoff. Rather than attempting to fill the store with high-end bits, Werts used discarded, seemingly-worthless knick knacks to create a consistent but eclectic look.