Store owners try to spring back

Until this year, sisters Jennifer Rhode and Tish Mendik had no problem selling the expensive, spring-supported shoes that line the walls of their Z-Coil franchise stores in Omaha, Des Moines and Boulder, Colo.

Of the 218 Z-Coil shops in the United States, the duo's Omaha store has consistently been one of the company's top-performing locations since opening in 2003. The Des Moines location, in business since 2005, had been successful, too, doing nearly $600,000 in sales its first year.

In 2005, the Omaha siblings sold so many of the shoes, which the manufacturer claims reduce back and joint pain, that they won a trip to South Korea, where they toured the company's production facilities while rubbing elbows with corporate executives.

The days of booming, six-figure monthly sales for the three stores combined are now a faint memory as Rhode and Mendik battle eroded consumer spending and the daily struggle of choosing which bills to pay and which to put off for another week or two.

The sisters are like many small business owners struggling to hang on until economic conditions, and sales, improve. Rhode and Mendik say their fate now lies in the hands and pocketbooks of consumers.

“I don't want pity. I don't want charity,” Mendik said. “But people need to support small businesses. They need to help us survive.”

Business at all three stores peaked in 2007, the sisters said, when combined sales were as high as 700 pairs each month. In dollar terms, that totaled more than $160,000, given the shoes' hefty price tag of between $230 and $310 per pair.

In contrast, the three stores sold a combined 206 pairs last month.

And a sale doesn't always stay a sale, Rhode said. More customers are returning their expensive purchases because they need the money to help pay other bills, she said.

Overall, sales are down 31 percent compared with 2008 and nearly 40 percent from two years ago. The stores have sold 70 pairs of shoes so far in December.

“It's going to be slim pickings here for a while,” Rhode said. “You don't know one day to the next if we're going to make our house payment this month, or whether we can buy inventory.”

Mendik and Rhode aren't alone. Through the first week of December, consumer spending in the United States was down 21 percent compared with last year, according to a Gallup tracking poll that interviewed 3,375 adults.

Rhode and Mendik said they're ready to fight through the decline.

“I feel like fighting. I don't feel like giving up,” Mendik said. “I feel like we're supposed to be here, but if people don't start being positive and start shopping there's only so much you can scale back. Eventually you have to say, ‘OK, I'm done.'”

Loyal Omaha customers hope that day never comes.

Leo Venteicher, a club manager at Prairie Life Fitness Center at 132nd Street and West Center Road, said the shoes have allowed him to keep running while alleviating pain in his knees, hips and back.

Since he started wearing Z-Coils more than four years ago, Venteicher said, he has purchased 12 pairs, including tennis shoes, hiking boots and dress shoes.

At 6-feet-6-inches tall and 275 pounds, the 48-year-old Venteicher said he was ready to give up running before trying out the Z-Coil brand.

“It felt like bone on bone when I would run,” he said. “It was painful enough where I would have to stop doing what I was doing because my body told me to stop.”

A $150 pair of Nike running shoes didn't help, Venteicher said. The only solution has been the Z-Coil shoes, said Venteicher, who also is an avid basketball and racquetball player.

“It was frustrating as a male going on 50 years old that I had to think about quitting. These shoes will allow me to keep playing.”

The economic slowdown is a trend that has hit all the company's stores, said Dave Frank, executive director of sales for Z-Coil and a partner at the Omaha, Des Moines and Boulder stores.

Companywide, sales are down 25 percent to 30 percent, he said.

“This past year has really been rough for small-time retailers,” Frank said. “We can't keep people employed.”

Rhode and Mendik have eight full- and part-time employees at their three stores.

Rhode said the company has been flexible with stores facing financial hardship. Z-Coil recently provided $10,000 in inventory and told Rhode and Mendik to pay when they could.

“You can't ask for much more than that,” Rhode said.

The sisters have laid off two workers from each of their stores this year. That's forced them to travel more and work additional hours on the showroom floor.

“We were to the point that we were doing so fantastic that I didn't work any showroom hours at all,” Mendik said. “I had so much to do in ordering and payroll, and I had enough people who could work the floor.”

Like many employers, the women said laying off people is the hardest thing they do.

“I have to keep it together and keep the business going because I'm responsible for these people's livelihoods.” Mendik said. “To say ‘I can't pay you anymore,' it's crushing.”

Help could be on the way for small business owners like Mendik and Rhode.

Last week, President Barack Obama announced plans to help small businesses obtain loans through the Small Business Administration and hire workers by using leftover funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

After helping to save large banks, financial institutions and automotive manufacturers with the first wave of TARP funds, Obama said, he will work with Congress to pass legislation to create incentives so small businesses keep and hire employees.

In the United States, small businesses account for about 65 percent of jobs.

Mendik and Rhode said applying for an SBA loan is an option if conditions don't improve.

For now, they hope discount sales, advertising and having customer appreciation events will help see them through.

“We're here, we're fighting,” Mendik said. “Our product has such great value for a lot of people.”

Contact the writer:

444-1414, ross.boettcher@owh.com

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