Law and Order magazine
Who says cops are cheap?
By Heidi Howell
A
paradigm shift has recently taken place across the law enforcement
community. Due to global security threats, the addition of special
teams and other factors, buying habits of officers at uniform stores
have radically changed.
“If you look at the old days, uniform
stores evolved from tailoring shops that made uniforms for local law
enforcement departments,” says Dan Costa, CEO of law enforcement gear
manufacturer 5.11 Tactical Series®. “Officers just went to uniform
stores to pick up their A-class uniforms: shirts, pants, jackets and
duty belt supplies, and that was all. It wasn’t a retail environment.”
Over
the past 20 years, federal, state and local public safety departments
have expanded their arsenals of special teams. These include SWAT, bomb
techs, air marshals, K-9 and HRT, to name a few. Many new plainclothes
and undercover units have been added as well. The additional teams have
new needs for clothing and gear. Their special training regimens also
result in a demand for additional products and equipment. Standard
uniforms have become just one segment of a larger marketplace.
Many
uniform supply stores that had focused solely on supplying uniforms to
local agencies weren’t aware of the new needs of these special teams.
When 5.11 Tactical brought it to their attention, many shops still had
no interest in stocking the non-specified tactical clothing that 5.11
felt their customers needed.
A few years back, Dan Costa began
calling on Miller Uniforms & Emblems Inc. in Austin, Texas. It took
three visits before co-owner Bob Miller would consider stocking 5.11
gear. “He said no to us every time,” Costa recalls. Today, 5.11
consumes approximately 80 percent of Miller’s floor space, and his
sales are off the charts. “The addition of 5.11 has been a blessing,”
Miller says. “Customers used to stand around waiting for alterations
and patches to be sewn on. Now they don’t just stand around, they shop
the 5.11 section of the store!”
This same scenario resonates
across the industry, as uniform stores have begun to change the way
they do business. Kinsco in Longmont, Colorado, has given non-spec’d
5.11 products the prime location in its store.
“5.11 told us
about their pant cubes and other fixtures, which ultimately were going
to cost about $20,000 to fill with product,” says owner-partner Greg
Schumann. “That made me nervous. Within a week of receiving the
displays, I complained to staff about the pant orders not coming in.
Actually, the pants had come in, but people were seeing them
merchandised in cubes and buying two or three pair at a time. We just
couldn’t keep anything in stock,” he recalls. “People were buying them
before I even saw them come in!”
Schumann says his shelving
originally came from an old hardware and ranch store. “It was a bunch
of cream-colored metal shelves with signs taped to them. We’d put up a
sign and wait until somebody asked for a product,” he says. “Now our
store is professionally merchandised and looks a lot more like a
department store. The merchandising now makes it easy for our customers
to purchase these new impulse items.”
With 5.11’s assistance,
uniform stores are beginning to follow the lead of large retailers. For
example, at Lowe’s and The Home Depot, one can buy not only paint,
nails, flooring and lawn mowers, but also gardening supplies and major
appliances. “Everyone wants to save time,” Costa says. “By utilizing a
one-stop-shopping approach at uniform stores, officers can get
everything they need in one place – which can cause explosive retail
sales.”
To help uniform stores meet the demand for more
competitive, user-friendly environments, 5.11 developed a Full Line
Dealer process and a retailing kit that is significantly improving how
stores stock and merchandise. “The way you see pants at the mall are in
pant cubes, clearly labeled by size and color,” Costa says. “Guys don’t
want to try them on, they want to quickly find what they want and buy
it. A full 60 percent of 5.11 pants that are sold by our dealers are
not for duty. They sell just because the end-users want to wear them.”
Along
with approximately 200 others, Kinsco participates in the Full Line
Dealer program, which includes free fixtures, a merchandising plan and
customized catalogs. Greg Schumann credits the program with getting his
merchandising efforts off the ground. He says customers will often see
items in the ads or catalog, such as 5.11’s polos or TDUs (Tactical
Duty Uniforms), and come into the store and find them on mannequins and
racks. Schumann says having products and catalogs out and available has
doubled his sales.
Uniform stores that choose to stock only
uniforms are missing a big opportunity. “As law enforcement officers,
we want everything yesterday,” says Sergeant Chris Waites of the
Middlesex Sheriff’s Office in Massachusetts. “You see something in a
catalog or online and you want to check it out in person – touch, feel,
smell and look at it – and see what it’s about before you buy.” But the
items Waites has been looking for aren’t at the uniform shop, which can
be extremely frustrating, he says. “Often, I end up ordering the item
and deciding if I want it after it arrives.”
Stores that have
added new merchandise and provided more positive retail experiences are
discovering a new world of profitability.
Retailers are ecstatic
about their success. 5.11 sales representative Jeff Sill notes, “None
of our dealers has ever said, ‘Hey, come over here and pull this pant
display out of my wall.’ Most are saying, ‘Hey, can I get more?’ It’s
just phenomenal what that pant display wall has done for these stores.”
By stocking and merchandising impulse items, such as t-shirts,
belts, tactical watches and other products, stores can offer customers
greater convenience and pick up valuable incremental sales without
adding floor space. “We’d always had little doodads sitting by the
counter like key rings, but we’d never thought of a pair of pants or a
polo shirt as impulse items,” Schumann says.
Brad Melvin, store
manager for Galls in Los Angeles, says, “I think 5.11 really filled a
void in our retail stores because they showed the opportunities and
potential that were available for generating incremental and impulse
sales.”
“We’ve gotten a lot more aggressive about doing
promotions,” says Mike McCourt, director of merchandising for Brigade
Quartermasters, with locations in Georgia, Missouri and Kentucky, as
well as catalogs. “5.11 is a lot more customer driven than most of our
other vendors in terms of going out and seeking feedback from
end-users. And they also use that feedback more than other vendors,” he
says.
Bob Ralph, co-owner of OMB, which operates a retail
store, catalog, website and traveling sales force out of Lenexa, Kansas,
calls 5.11 proactive and progressive. “They’ve made it fun and
interesting for the people creating the catalogs and the people
receiving them,” he says. “For example, their gift with purchase
concept has been very successful. The same promotions have been used to
ignite sales forever in other retail businesses, but never before in
the law enforcement business. The customer really can’t refuse. They
also get a good bang for their buck as far as product quality goes.”
Costa
notes, “State, federal and local officers and special teams now have
needs that didn’t exist a few years ago. They want clothing and other
gear not just for duty wear, but as part of the entire LE culture and
lifestyle.”
He continues, “Dealers used to say, ‘Your products
aren’t spec’d into any of my departments, so why should I bring them
into my store?’ To which Costa would respond, ‘Because the customers
want them.’”
Now that stores have seen the light, they have
embraced the paradigm shift that has changed the face of law
enforcement buying. “Uniforms will continue to be spec’d in, but
everything else needs to be merchandised to officers just like they are
to any other retail customer. Even the best-selling 3-pack undershirts
won’t sell if they’re not put in the right place in the store,” Costa
says.
“Many dealers are realizing they should support the
industry, because it’s going to be good for us all.” He explains that
at 5.11’s annual dealer meetings, important discussions include current
and future merchandising, catalogs, e-commerce and outside sales. “5.11
offers exactly the kind of support retailers need to generate continued
success in all these channels,” Costa says. “This is not a business
relationship, it’s a partnership.”
Evidently, cops are less
frugal than previously thought. A special agent for the FBI in Boston,
who requested anonymity, put it this way, “I have a budget. I buy for
about 20 of our agents. I typically purchase the best equipment out
there, regardless of the price. I can’t pay a premium, but if there’s
an item that I need and I can get it for a fair price, I’ll buy it.”
Sergeant Waites of the Middlesex Sheriff’s Office, adds, “Police
officers know they have to spend money for a good product, and I think
they’re willing to do so.”
“When we got into this business,
all we heard was, ‘cops are cheap; they’ll only buy what their
departments have told them to buy,’” Costa says. “We don’t think
they’re cheap, and we’ve proven that they will not only purchase what
they’re required to purchase, but also what they would like to purchase
as well. They’re just smart shoppers,” he notes. “Law enforcement will
pay a reasonable price for a quality product.”
About 5.11 Tactical Series®
Located
in Modesto, California, 5.11 Tactical Series creates innovative,
user-required products that enhance the safety, speed and performance
of law enforcement, military and fire/EMS professionals. Built on a
foundation of durability, quality and value, 5.11 Tactical’s team of
more than 200 employees leads the industry in delivering functionally
innovative gear, head to toe. The company was ranked #211 on the 2007
Inc. 500 list. Learn more about 5.11’s best-selling tactical clothing,
station wear, uniforms, outerwear, footwear and accessories at
www.511tactical.com.
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© HHWS for 5.11 and Law & Order magazine
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