Sample House sells charm with trinkets

08:37 AM CST on Sunday, December 16, 2007

At 95 percent lead and 5 percent eraser, is there anything as optimistic as the pencil? Yes. Amid the winner-take-all big-box stores such as Wal-Mart, tiny Sample House & Candle Shop has somehow stayed in business for 50 lovable years.

Sample House's annual gross revenue of $6 million would not register the slightest blip on Wal-Mart's massive $1 billion per day radar.

Nancy and Foster Poole have been involved in the Sample House since Mr. Poole became an owner in 1958.

But Sample House has something the big-box stores will never have - adoration.

And for 75-year-old co-founder and chief executive Foster Poole, that's enough.

Back in 1946, Foster Poole, an industrious 14-year-old growing up in the Park Cities, was a soda jerk in Snider Plaza.

Erle Rawlins Jr., a well-known Realtor and preservationist, was a frequent customer, and the two bonded over a shared interest in architecture.

Eventually, Mr. Poole sold real estate for Mr. Rawlins, and later he graduated from Southern Methodist University, served in the Air Force for two years and worked for his father.

Then, in 1958, Mr. Poole and Mr. Rawlins bought Sample House, a fledgling business at 2811 Routh St. that had only been open a few months. Mr. Poole has run the business ever since.

Today, Sample House's six locations bring a small-town feel to big-city shopping.

Its customers are 98 percent female, ranging from their mid-30s to still breathing.

Its product line is closer to anything than everything. From antique-style furniture, French lavender candles, kitchen hand towels warning "Chocolate makes your clothes shrink," marmalade-scented cinnamon sticks, diaries, The Tailgating Cookbook, walking canes, a Texas bingo game and fruit paintings to a sign that beseeches "Bless our garden," the Sample House's magic lies in the fact that a customer never really knows what she might find inside.

The Sample House might be better defined by what isn't there: virtually anything that downloads, produces a Soulja Boy ring tone or requires a battery.

The secret to its longevity is that Sample House fulfills wants rather than needs.

So how can a small chain that dismisses the hottest fads survive for 50 years while similar stores have failed?

Warmth, charm, and intrigue. Sample House stores are quirky, and purposefully so. Like a high-end flea market, customers never know what little treasures they might find.

Mr. Poole sometimes moves stuff around so frequent customers can discover items for the "first" time. Depending on your perspective, Sample House is marvelously junky or organized clutter.

Either way, the mystery is compelling and tends to generate business.

A therapeutic ambiance is shaped by Old Blue Eyes crooning, pleasing blends of candle and potpourri scents, and the old school charm of bric-a-brac.

In the all-important warmth department, the flash, metal and glass of the big box stores can't compete.

Candle power. When it comes to candles, customers know what they want - or want what they know. "Like perfume, candles are very personal," Mr. Poole says.

And since "Candle Shop" is in the company's name, Mr. Poole is adamant (well, as adamant as this gentle man gets) that his stores must be known for their candle selection. He offers 13 top-quality lines of candles, ranging, he says, from "affordable" all the way to "reasonably priced."

Candles generate 30 percent of the company's revenue. Another staple - greeting cards - outsells even the candles.

Mr. Poole describes the typical customer experience this way: "People laugh looking at cards, listening to music and smelling the aromas. People will buy 30 cards at a time."

Uncommon consistency. Many companies pride themselves on staying ahead of the customer buying curve. Mr. Poole is a contrarian: He wants his stores to follow, not set, trends. "If a customer buys a product, likes it, wants to buy it again, it needs to remain in stock." Up to 7,000 items are offered at any time.

Real-time point of sale software tells Sample House's retail buyer (Mr. Poole's son Bryan) when inventory is low. And Sample House keeps selling the same products long after a big-box store would move on to the next fad.

In a business that depends on customer loyalty, Sample House has developed solid relationships with customers. If a customer has a problem, she is sent directly to Mr. Poole or the other owners (his family) to solve it. That kind of C-suite responsiveness cannot be replicated by big-box stores.

Delighted employees are delightful. Employees are hired from a scant pool of customers and friends of employees, and Mr. Poole looks for happy people. Then they are treated with affection and kindness, which they in turn bestow on the customers.

Store manager Bridget Allen, a 19-year employee, raves when asked about Mr. Poole's management style. "He's made Sample House more family than business, a very comfortable place to work."

Mr. Poole takes a personal interest in each employee, supporting them in celebration and tragedy.

Sometimes that employee loyalty can be a little off the charts, such as the time when a Sample House worker went to a party, spotted a small painting that had been stolen from the store and decided to do some nifty reverse shoplifting.

Mr. Poole has fun with his employees. When one complained about some wooden thimbles that Mr. Poole bought, noting that no customer in her right mind would ever buy them, Mr. Poole paid an imposter shopper to buy them all. The employee apologized profusely at the next store meeting until Mr. Poole let her in on the ruse.

The average tenure of 20 or so employees in the general office (optimistically called World Corporate Headquarters) is 18 years. And perhaps Mr. Poole doesn't have the riches that come with a thousand big-box stores, but he has what they don't and never will have: enough.

Pauline Graivier is president of Dallas-based Verbal Communications Inc. Rob Hoffman is a partner with Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP.