From Retailer to Jobber - Nationwide Wholesale
January, 20th 2012
People become jobbers for lots of different reasons. There are dozens, possibly hundreds of scenarios why someone gets into the industry. In the case of Avi Kobi, the transition from retailing to jobbing was a natural one, as organic as it gets. He started selling clothing at the swap meets in and around Los Angeles when he was 13 years old. By age 24, Avi had opened and was operating five L.A. retail stores. His stores were tailored to the men’s Hispanic, hip hop and urban markets. As he started buying larger and larger quantities of clothes and began selling to other retailers, the transition from retailing to jobbing happened naturally. For the most part, he was already jobbing under a different title. Two years later, Avi was uniquely qualiἀed to start ‘officially’ jobbing menswear and founded Nationwide Wholesale, Inc. in 1998. While still operating his ἀve stores, Avi opened Nationwide Wholesale on The Alley in downtown Los Angeles. As the company grew, eventually more space was needed and it was relocated to the corner of 15th and Maple. At this point, Avi’s brother Ben joined the company to assist in daily operations until starting his own company, McQueen’s Wholesale.
Nationwide may have gotten its start with a certain niche market, but continued growth over the years has led the company to carrying all categories. In 2002, Cindi Brashear joined the company as National Sales Manager. She brought with her a background in apparel design and years of experience working in the better missy business and assisted with Nationwide’s expansion into the women’s and children’s categories.
“We really cater to all categories now,” said Avi Kobi, president and founder of Nationwide Wholesale, Inc. “We’ve expanded and grown into a strong resource in virtually every apparel category, and it was a very organic transition. It just made sense to do, much like how I transitioned from retail to jobbing.”
“We believe the keys to our success are the same universal keys to success in any business: Provide the right product at great value and maintain customer loyalty and confidence,” said Brashear. “We achieve this by always reἀning our buying skills, expanding our resources and of course, by making our customers experience of working with us an easy and pleasant one.
”When looking at Nationwide through a wide lens, it could be said that Avi, Cindi and the rest of the 15 person team who make the company go never rest on past success. This is a work ethic that dates back to Avi’s days as a teenager at the swap meets. They are committed to educating themselves to their customers needs and taking smart, educated and calculated risks when making buying decisions.
“Our regular customers have come to look forward to what surprises they will find at the Nationwide booth.
”Every business in every category has its own values and strategies that it adheres to in order to remain vibrant. Nationwide doesn’t concern itself with the glitz and glamour that many associate with all things Los Angeles:
“We don’t limit our buying to hitting specific price points,” said Avi. “We focus on great deals.”If focusing on great deals doesn’t encapsulate what the off-price industry stands for, nothing does. Specifically, they have identified two keys to the success of the business: Having the right merchandise at the right price and having solid relationships with the customers to sell it to. Enter the OFFPRICE Show.
“There is nothing more important than connecting in person with your customers,” offered Avi. “The energy of a tradeshow and the impression of face-to-face connection is an irreplaceable and essential tool of our trade. Thanks to the OFFPRICE Show, we have a high energy platform on which to do that.”
“Effectively standing behind our product is key, and last but not least, operating with integrity and consistency,” added Avi. “We strive to distinguish ourselves at every OFFPRICE Show with unique packages that are not available through any other sources. We cast a wide net. Sometimes it’s a top of the line menswear package, other times it could be designer swimwear.”
The company holds a belief that consistency is the most important element to weathering tough times and sustaining the better times. It has been a challenging past few years for most in the apparel industry, but it’s typically the companies like Nationwide Wholesale that wisely implement a focused plan and don’t stray too far from what has proved successful over the course of time that come out ahead.
It almost sounds too simple. Yet Nationwide has not only grown by leaps and bounds as a company, but also within the OFFPRICE Show. In just a few short years of exhibiting, they graduated from having one booth displaying menswear to a fully packed salon that is constantly buzzing with all kinds of apparel buyers from every size of operation. “By exhibiting at the show we have been able to expose Nationwide Wholesale to many buyers, both internationally and domestically, that we otherwise never would have been aware of. Exhibiting at the OFFPRICE Show has helped us develop enduring relationships that without the show would have been very challenging, if not impossible to achieve,” commented Avi.
A trade show can’t exist without its vendors and the expansion of the show’s “Taste” of OFFPRICE shows into the New York and Los Angeles markets have only helped Nationwide Wholesale by providing more opportunities to meet customers face-to-face. The system works.