The Age Curve: How to Profit from the Coming Demographic Storm

Chapter 25. Case Study: No Leg to Stand On—A Levi’s Footnote

Retail is detail. Retail can get into your blood. It takes a special disposition to work retail because the pay is not good, the work is difficult, and the hours are long. But some people like it. I was one of those people. I worked in a popular New England retail jean store called Bob’s Surplus while I was in high school and for a few years after I got out of college. Bob was a brilliant merchant and I learned a great deal from him.

One of my most memorable lessons was the result of a conflict between Bob and the giant Levi Strauss and Company. Levi’s jeans sold like hotcakes and Levi Strauss insisted that its product be sold at the manufacturer’s suggested retail price or we didn’t ...