It has a strong reputation for paying its bills on time and not cherry-pocking a manufacturers product line. But we could see that an Apple customer was very different from a PC customer. Now everyone does it. The backbone of the whole enterprise is the sales staff. Ms. Friedman says employees are hired less for their product knowledge than for their ability to fit into the family-focused atmosphere.
Training happens on the job, and salespeople are motivated through commissions.
Marty Singer, a 20-year veteran, heads up corporate sales. The company also advertises regularly in The Wall Street Journal and in specialty publications such as Stereo Review. In Not all the ad efforts are directed at bringing people into the stores. Started as a venture that Ms. Friedman could run from home after the birth of her first son, the business now mails out a 200-page catalog to 2 million customers every six weeks. The Friedmans recognize that retailing is on the verge of a major change as on-line buying becomes more mainstream.