One of the most popular discount shoe brands in America was founded by two cousins in Topeka, Kansas in 1956. Payless always offered a better price on footwear than their competitors, while keeping their margins intact. Their secret? They figured out a way to cut costs significantly: they hired less people. Most department stores at the time kept shoe boxes stashed away in dusty back rooms and relied on their employees to help customers choose the right pair. Payless reframed the shopping experience. They got the shoe boxes out of the backrooms, arranged them in open displays in their stores, and let people choose for themselves. As strip malls cropped up across America, Payless’s popularity skyrocketed.
Fast forward to 2012: Payless had 4,300 stores worldwide and an impressive $2.4 billion in revenue. Over the years, from its 800-person headquarters in Topeka, the company had fine-tuned complex systems to pull off an intricate feat of merchandising and supply chain management. It off ...
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