SEQUIM — It’s a tiny store, a small town and a deep recession, but Sequim’s J.C. Penney is showing others in the chain how it’s done.
Penney’s, the fashions-and-home-furnishings emporium at 609 W. Washington St., has won the company’s highest honor for sales performance and customer service, CEO Myron Ullman III announced this month.
The store, which moved out of Port Angeles to its Sequim location 15 years ago, won the top prize in the district that includes all of Washington state and Alaska.
Only 93 of the nation’s 1,110 stores in five of 72 districts were selected as Chairman’s Award winners.
The publicly traded company posted revenues of $17.6 billion in 2009, and employs some 150,000 “associates,” including the 40 who work in Sequim.
Paul Quinn, manager of the Sequim store, gave credit for the award to his employees.
Being a “team player,” to him, is no cliche.
“I believe in empowering people to do their jobs and in letting them help run the business,” he said.
Micromanaging doesn’t work for him; having a common goal in mind does.
“If you don’t have that, you just don’t succeed,” added Quinn, who started as a stock boy at the Phoenix Penney’s in 1969.
A series of promotions led to his becoming manager of the Sequim store six years ago; he was named Store Manager of the Year in the Washington-Alaska district in 2009.
For that he was given a crystal vase; the Chairman’s Award included a dinner and dance in Dallas last month.
As a department-store manager on the North Olympic Peninsula, Quinn is acutely aware of the recession’s effects.
Increase after Gottschalks closed
When Gottschalks in Port Angeles closed its doors a year ago this month, he saw a roughly 15 percent increase in sales at Penney’s — and hired four of Gottschalks’ 30 laid-off employees.
At the same time, Quinn knows his competition lies across the Hood Canal Bridge in Silverdale and points east.
He hopes to cultivate a shop-Sequim-first mentality,” so that locals “at least give us the first opportunity.”
The most-asked question he hears, however, is “When are you going to build a bigger store?”
Sequim’s JC Penney is 29,000 square feet, Quinn noted, while Silverdale’s is 162,000 and the Tacoma Mall Penney’s is a sprawling 228,800 square feet.
Prospects for a bigger Penney’s on the Peninsula depend on profitability and other performance factors, he said.
Whatever the company decides, Quinn, 58, keeps an upbeat attitude.
To him, success “really comes down to a high level of customer service and customer loyalty. The community has embraced our store . . . and I love serving people, working with people.”
Quinn said he typically works seven days a week — including the day after Thanksgiving, when his store opens at 4 a.m. — yet he believes his wife, Janey, has had the more challenging jobs.
A dental hygienist, she took time away from her career to raise their son and daughter; now that they’re grown, she’s returned to work as a hygienist in Sequim.
“She’s my inspiration,” Quinn said.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
