• Font Size    
E-mail

Close Window E-mail This Page

Jake Jabs' Checklist for Beating the Recession

Required fields are marked with an asterisk(*)

The information you provide will be used only to send the requested e-mail and will not be used to send any other e-mail communications. Read more in our Privacy Policy

Send E-mail

   Print     Share +    Comments
Jul 17, 2009 6:13 am US/Mountain

Jake Jabs' Checklist for Beating the Recession

Written by Brooke Wagner

Reporting
Brooke Wagner
DENVER (CBS4) ― Jake Jabs may have one of the most familiar faces in Colorado, but a humble childhood paved the way for his success.

The president and CEO of American Furniture Warehouse grew up one of nine children in a poor Montana household. Jabs' father came to the United States from Poland, his mother, from Russia.

"I think with that background, they actually escaped communism, that I had a real belief in free enterprise
and free market. If you wanted to go out and work hard, you could make something of yourself," Jabs said.

Jabs has been vocal on the recession and what businesses have to do to beat it. In fact, you'll find his list on the AFW website, as well as posted in his stores.

"You have to keep your cost of business down, keep your overhead down, keep your expenses down, keep your labor and management down. Management (of corporations) got greedy, too, and they got big bonuses," Jabs said.

After owning a music store and a Mediterranean furniture business and factory, Jabs purchased the American Furniture Company in 1975. He reinvented it as American Furniture Warehouse, which now includes 12 stores. Jabs is hands-on with every day operations.

"I'm one of the buyers. I buy about half the stuff we sell, so I control inventory," said Jabs. "I haven't owed money to a bank in years, so you can sell stuff cheaper. You've got to run mean and lean. Frankly, we laid off a few people. We're hiring again now, by the way. We just hired 40 people."

As a buyer, Jabs said this is a great time for retailers to make deals.

"We're getting good deals right now with a lot of factories who need to move merchandise and because we're in a good position and we pay cash for everything."

Jab credits that lack of debt, investment in store infrastructure, and customer service, for seeing American Furniture Warehouse through six recessions.

"We're down about ten percent, which in the furniture business right now is pretty good," said Jabs. "We're going to survive the recession. We have no debt. We're going to be here."

Customer service is one of his main business tenets. Years ago, he parted ways with a partner he says didn't want to offer customer returns. Jabs said customer happiness and not over-selling are paramount to beating the recession.

"We're happy to give people their money back. What happens then is the chip is off the shoulder. You can figure out what the problem is and solve it," said Jabs. "If you don't have people recommending you, you're out of business today. I don't care what business you're in."

He believes keeping the price down for customers is a huge factor in surviving a recession. In his opinion, big U.S. automakers can't survive unless they can slash costs and offer competitively-priced vehicles. He also said, as he's watched retailers come and go, it's clear one of the biggest mistakes businesses can make is to expand too much or too quickly.

"Most, particularly public companies say 'I'm not going to spend thirty million dollars on a big warehouse. I'm going to open ten more retail stores. Sell, sell, sell,'" said Jabs. "They'll kind of throw it on the wall and see if they can get sales to stick. But the problem with that is, you disappoint the customers and the customers don't come back."

(© MMIX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Curious & Controversial News

Add Comment

here. here. Need a log in? Register here
  •  * Will not be displayed with comment
  •  * e.g. (http://www.mywebsite.com)
  •  
  • Click here to refresh with new letters

Show Comments (0)

Close Window Login


Close Window Flag Comment


loading...
You need the latest Flash player to view video content.
Click here to download.

Click here to bypass this detection if you already have the latest Flash Player.

Breakfast With Brooke

Top News Stories

© MMIX, CBS Television Stations Inc. All Rights Reserved.