Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save In 1939, Rogers Perlis opened a menswear store at the corner of Magazine and Webster streets in New Orleans, selling suits, sport coats and other apparel items to a well-heeled Uptown clientele. A lot has changed in the decades since. David G.
Perlis, Rogers' son, expanded the growing brand to the suburbs in the 1980s, branched into womenswear and launched the iconic Mardi Gras rugby and crawfish logo merchandise. Today, David W. Perlis, grandson of the store's founder, is running the clothier at a time when the business model of traditional brick-and-mortar stores is being upended by e-commerce and people dress more casually at home and for work — if they bother to go into an office at all.
In this week’s Talking Business, the third-generation Perlis leader discusses how he is trying to keep his legacy business, with its four locations and 44 employees, competitive and why the store recently invested more than $2 million renovating its flagship location. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Ten years ago, online shopping was going to bury brick-and-mortar stores.
You're still here. Were they wrong? Yes and no. On one hand, our online sales have been a little disappointing since COVID ended.
Online boomed during the pandemic, but for the past 18 months, it's been flat. But that's just one piece of the puzzle. The bigger story is that a lot has changed to the way we do business, and if you l.