Fifth-generation, Collinsville, Ill.-based Glik’s has been in business for more than 125 years. The fashion retail chain’s 72 stores serve smaller communities in 11 states throughout the Midwest, and the company employs about 700 people.
Over the course of its history, Glik’s has experienced the ups and downs of retail trends and opened stores in a variety of settings. Today, however, the family believes they’ve found their niche.
Getting Through Tough Times… With a Little Luck
Joseph Glik started out selling merchandise from his horse-drawn wagon. In 1897, he opened the first Glik’s store in the bustling trade hub of St. Louis. Joseph’s son Morris wanted to join the business, but at the time, a retail store was largely a one-man operation and there wasn’t much for Morris to do. Joseph noticed that many people were coming to the store after crossing the Mississippi on the ferry, so he suggested Morris open a new location on the other side of the river. In 1902, Morris opened a 700-square-foot store in Madison, Ill. “When Joe passed away, all that merchandise moved over to the Madison side really because that’s where Morris felt confident. He knew the market, he had built his community there and wanted to form his roots in southern Illinois,” says Jeremy Glik, women’s general merchandise manager and a member of the fifth generation.
By 1925, business was flourishing, and Morris built a 10,000-square-foot, two-story department store across the street from his original shop. Along with clothing, he sold home goods and sporting goods. Each day, Morris would walk from his home in St. Louis to the riverfront, where he would take the ferry to work. Several other businesspeople walked with him, and they all liked to stop in the brokerage house and trade stocks before resuming their commute.
When Morris intuited that an economic downturn was coming, he pulled his entire portfolio out of the stock market before the crash in 1929. Thanks to his investment earnings, Glik’s was able to survive the next three years of the Depression despite losing money on the business. Morris extended credit to customers so they could continue to buy necessities like clothing for their families.
Morris’ son Joe entered the Navy and served in World War II. After Morris passed away in 1945, it was up to his wife Elsie to carry on the business. The Glik’s associates met Elsie at her house to help come up with a plan for the transition. They told her, “’We will be here full force to help you shuttle this business to the next generation, but we need you to commit to keeping us afloat and being involved in some way,’” Jeremy says.
Joe returned from the Navy and worked in the store part-time while attending college, then assumed leadership of the business. In 1954, a St. Louis developer approached Joe about opening a store in a new strip center in Granite City, Ill. Joe was hesitant. The strip center would be just 10 miles away from the Madison store, and he worried it might cut into his existing business.
“[The developer] goes, ‘Joe, listen, let’s give it a try. If you don’t like it, you just throw the keys back at me and we’re done.’ Well, it was a complete success,” says James Glik, vice president and a member of the fourth generation. Joe had a sister, but she wasn’t interested in being a business owner. So Joe bought her shares and gained 100% ownership of the company. He continued to expand Glik’s over the next few decades, growing it to 12 stores in strip centers.
‘I’ll Call You When I’m Ready’
Joe had four children: Bob, Jeff, James and Judy. When they were in their teens, he had a meeting with them and laid out his expectations. James recalls that Joe said, “You’re welcome to join the business, but you got to have the passion and you got to want to do it. Here’s what you got to do: You got to go get a four-year degree. Go work two years in a related business, and I’ll call you when I’m ready.”
Bob worked for another retailer, then joined Glik’s. Jeff followed a few years later. He noticed that the inventory in Glik’s stores wasn’t very focused; they sold a little bit of everything. Jeff advocated for introducing denim and updating the women’s department with new brands, introducing products you’d expect from a fashion retailer rather than from a traditional department store section.
As the women’s department evolved, the menswear department was stagnating. Joe made James an offer to work at Glik’s and oversee the men’s area. James wasn’t sure if he was ready to enter the family business. He was immersed in his work for a department store in Denver. But he recalls that Joe said, “Hey, I need you now. Your brother’s doing this, and I need someone to balance out what’s going on here.” So James came back to Glik’s.
Judy followed a few years later and spearheaded a one-price clothing concept in which all the items were under $10. She grew that discount chain to about 14 stores. Glik’s ultimately closed the chain, though, as retailers’ discount practices evolved. Bob and Judy left the company to pursue other careers, leaving Jeff, who became president/CEO, and James to lead the fourth generation.
Glik’s moved on from strip centers and established stores in malls, which were an exciting place to be at first. But after a time, the novelty wore off. Neighboring retailers in malls were larger companies with deeper pockets, and high rents and difficulty hiring made the mall business less financially viable. Glik’s ended up exiting the city malls and opening stores in smaller towns.
In the early 2000s, Glik’s began entering resort communities along the coastline of Lake Michigan, a move that allowed the company to enjoy bustling sales well before the fall holiday rush. Traditionally, retailers say they go from the red to the black on Black Friday. For the 18 Glik’s stores that are now in resort towns, 65% of sales take place during the May-through-August resort season. “As soon as we started jumping into these communities and expanding that business, we now go from the red to the black in July. It really is Christmas in July,” Jeremy says.
From Startup Employee to NextGen
Jeremy was enthusiastic about the business as far back as kindergarten. While his classmates said they wanted to be firefighters when they grew up, Jeremy named “buyer” as his future profession. His first experience helping out at Glik’s was sorting coat hangers, a task that was assigned to him after he asked Jeff, his dad, for a new pair of shoes. “That was an example, at such a young age, of, ‘Work for what you want and it’s a great outcome … I’m not just going to hand it to you on a silver platter,’” Jeremy says. In high school, he held summer jobs in the warehouse.
The fourth generation sat their teenage kids down and explained the path to the business to them, just as Joe had done. The requirements were largely the same: Get a four-year degree in a relevant field. Work for an outside business in the industry for two years (and you can’t be let go). Out of all the cousins, Jeremy and James’ son Elliott were the most interested in careers at Glik’s.
Jeff advised Jeremy to lean into his quantitative skills, and in college, Jeremy majored in marketing with a business information and analytics minor. During breaks in the school year, he completed a few marketing internships at other companies and also spent some time working on marketing for Glik’s. He and Elliott both had the chance to sit down with all 12 members of Glik’s management team and talk to each of them.
As graduation approached, Jeremy applied to jobs, but opportunities were slim. Although he wanted a full-time job, he accepted a merchandising internship at Shinesty, a startup that was reselling party apparel. The timing was fortuitous because Shinesty’s merchandise manager had just left and its buyer had been let go. After only four weeks of reporting to the CEO, Jeremy was promoted to junior product line manager, a full-time position. From there, he moved up to senior product line manager of Shinesty’s underwear subscription box. He worked on analytics and built out new systems.
When the two years were up, Jeff called him about working at Glik’s. But Jeremy had growing responsibilities and equity in Shinesty, and he was learning a lot. He wasn’t ready to leave. “Ultimately he said, ‘Look, we say two years. I think I can give you three, but I really need you back,’” Jeremy says. A long-time Glik’s employee was nearing retirement, and the company needed an exit plan for her. Jeremy’s return to the business was key to that plan.
Jeremy worked at Shinesty for the third year, then took a sabbatical and prepared for his new role at Glik’s in 2020. He worked with a consultant at Collaborative Strategies in St. Louis, and at her recommendation, he read the book “The First 90 Days”. He took some tests to assess his strengths, as did Elliott, who was also joining the business.
The transition was very smooth because there was no need for a getting-to-know-you phase. “I already knew everyone. That was a huge plus. I had come to visit the office tons of times. I had grown up working with these people,” Jeremy says.
He spent his first 90 days learning the systems he would be using as a buyer and developing a list of 10 projects to propose to Glik’s executives. Those items ranged from logistical upgrades to articulating the company’s values, which he and Elliott agreed was crucial. “Our first meeting together set our number one priority as culture and really how do we take us to the next generation, to make this a place we want to be at work and where others thrive and want to come work. So it was a no-brainer that we had to launch Mission, Vision, Values,” Jeremy says.
Glik’s leadership team approved the project, and they worked with Collaborative Strategies to develop a roadmap. They surveyed everyone in the home office plus all the store-level managers, then brought the results back to the consulting firm. The survey responses were largely in agreement, so little refining was required. They decided on the mission, “Enrich the communities we serve as a fashion leader to our customers and as a responsible employer to our family of associates,” and they identified the company’s core values as honesty, commitment, adaptability and gratitude.
For the first year, Jeremy set about showing that he could succeed as a buyer, which was straightforward to do with KPIs. “I right away proved that I could take work off of Jeff’s plate, which was the number one goal— he was managing so much of the business — and that he didn’t need to watch over me,” Jeremy says.
He then moved up to the role of merchandise manager. In addition to managing the women’s area, he’s worked on developing new tools to solve some of the buyers’ pain points and pursued other strategic projects. While he expected to focus mainly on the product, he’s realized that he has a passion for the business as a whole. “I don’t stray away from working with other departments. I want to learn what everyone’s doing and how, cross-functionally, I can be the best partner. And that’s helped me to build a lot of processes from a merchandising lens that help the entire company,” Jeremy says.
It’s a significant contrast with his previous job, where he was working at a startup that had no history. He wants to innovate here, too, but in a way that respects the company’s long tenure. “The greatest challenge is implementing change without shaking the bones of this organization,” Jeremy says.
Independence in a Turbulent Industry
Glik’s got its start in a downtown store, and after several detours, it’s back on Main Street. “We’ve really gone full circle in the retail world. We’ve gone from downtown to strip centers, we’ve gone to malls and now, we’re going back into downtown communities or small markets. And that’s really where we found our niche,” James says.
Looking ahead, Glik’s family ownership gives it the flexibility to confront future challenges. It’s also helpful for attracting and retaining talent. “Our most successful associates that we have today are the ones that have been through the wringer, the ones that have been through layoffs, Chapter 11s, credit hold, those type of things. When they come back here and they discover that this is really what retail’s about, you can buy what you want, you do what you want. We have the support and the backing to do it,” James says.
Reflecting on his hopes for Glik’s future, Jeremy refers back to the company’s mission, including the commitment to be a responsible employer for its associates. That might entail opening new locations. “The responsible employer part for me means that it needs to be a healthy place that isn’t pushing people like a private equity firm might push a company for profit, but it also means that we need to stay financially responsible. And to do that with the cost of business rising, we do need to grow. We don’t need to grow by 10 stores a year. We need to grow and continue to improve sales to keep the bottom line where we’re at, which we’re very happy with,” Jeremy says.
Wherever the company goes next, it’s entirely in the family’s hands. That autonomy is rare among retailers today, and James says the Gliks embrace it. “We have a path to growth, we have a path to keeping ourselves private and keeping ourselves in the family, which really is good for your morale and your people to know that we are not the next private equity buyout.”