I not only knew I wanted to go into retailing, I also knew I wanted to go into business for myself.

Expenses should never exceed one percent of our purchases.

The goal as a company is to have customer service that is not just the best, but legendary.

I had to pick myself up and get on with it, do it all over again, only even better this time.

Lose your smile and lose your customers.

I learned a lesson which has stuck with me all through the years: you can learn from everybody. I didn't just learn from reading every retail publication I could get my hands on, I probably learned the most from studying what John Dunham was doing across the street

You can make a lot of mistakes and still recover if you run an efficient operation. Or you can be brilliant and still go out of business if you're too inefficient.