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Marcy's shines up shoe repair shop image

By Berry Craig

Everybody knows the shoe shop image. A gray-haired guy with grubby nails and a grubbier apron is bent over a grimy, clattering old machine. Worn-out shoes are jumbled on dusty shelves. Everything smells like glue and shoe polish.

Then there is Marcy's Shoes and Quik Fix Repair in Merchant's Walk shopping center in Cape Girardeau, Mo. Cobbler Gene Benthal mends shoes on the latest European and American-made machinery in a tidy workplace that's tucked in the back of the store. Out front, customers wait in comfortable wooden chairs, wiggling their toes in soft gray carpet.

Marcy's Shoes and Quik Fix Repair, emphasizes comfort in its physical setup and the shoes it offers.

Marcy's is no hole-in-the-wall fixit shop. The store at 211 S. Plaza Way is a roomy 2,000 square feet. Owner Marcy Dockins also sells men's and women's footwear in modern, shoe salon-like surroundings.

"Shoes that are both comfortable and fashionable," she said. "They are for people who work on their feet and need shoes that not only feel good but look good."

Dockins started out fixing shoes in little Cairo, Ill., in 1977 and migrated to Cape Girardeau nine years later. Population around 36,000, Cape Girardeau is about 110 miles south of St. Louis.

In Cape Girardeau, Dockins branched into shoe-selling, which accounts for two-thirds of her business. She says that repair and retail are a natural combination.

"When we get you barefoot, we might try to sell you a pair of shoes while we fix your shoes," she said, grinning. "But we want you to feel comfortable in our store whether we fix your shoes or sell you new ones."

Comfort might be the key word in describing Marcy's. The store is homey. Blue and plum-colored wallpaper adds warmth and softness. Men's and women's shoes are brightly displayed on shelves and light wood-paneled walls that feature track lighting. While Dockins says the store is big enough to handle repair and retail under one roof, she said that Marcy's is a far cry from monster mall stores where customers can get lost in the lingerie when they're shopping for shoes.

Thoroughly modern Marcy's is the way shoe shops ought to go, the owner suggests. "If the shoe repair industry is to survive, it has to change its old shoe shop image," she said. "Our equipment is up-to-date and fast. We don't want shoes to sit on a shelf while a customer goes away for two weeks and comes back.

"We want our customers to come in, take their shoes off and get them repaired while they wait. Or, they can leave them, go off and shop for a while and come back."

In 1986, Dockins opened in Cape Girardeau's Westfield Shoppingtown-West Park Mall. Owned by Los Angeles-based Westfield America, West Park is a regional shopping center with a gross leasable area of 498,260 square feet.

Dockins stayed at the mall for eight years. "We only had about 900 square feet in the mall and we completely outgrew the store," she said. "We had shoes under the counter, over the workbench. We had no place to put the shoes."

Dockins also said she had started to notice fewer walk-in customers at her mall store. "That's why you are in a mall -- for high traffic. When it declines, there is no reason to be in a mall."

Dockins has nothing against West Park, but has no regrets about her move to Merchant's Walk, a strip center, in 1994. Owned by American Heritage Properties in Cape Girardeau, Merchant's Walk has a GLA of 13,345 square feet.

The company is glad to have Marcy's as a tenant. "She has an excellent reputation for quality repair work and quality shoes," said Barbara Horn, co-owner of Merchant's Walk with her husband, Paul Horn.

"Marcy brings a lot of business into the shopping center."

Horn also said that strip centers like hers often work well for small, service-oriented businesses. "You don't have to park a long way away and walk through a mall to get to a place like Marcy's. You just pull up to the curb, get out and go in."

Dockins said that since she migrated to Merchant's Walk, her men's shoe repair business has doubled. "As a rule, men don't like to shop in a mall.

"But they come here, lots of times on their lunch hour. They just love to mess around with the shoe polish and the brushes and talk to the fellows in the back while they wait to get heel savers put on their shoes. They're also bringing their wives' shoes in to be repaired. It used to be the other way around."

Dockins said she wasn't afraid of losing customers when she switched from a big mall to a little strip center.

"Ours is a destination business. We don't need to be in a big mall for people to find us. In other words, if people know and trust you they will come to you no matter where you are."

Lisa Houston, a marketing professor at Paducah (Ky.) Community College agrees that a small strip center can make sense for a destination business like Dockins'. "A strip center can be a good alternative to a downtown that may be dying and a big mall." In the case of Marcy's Shoes, she added, "the product is more important than the business location."

Houston also said that many consumers who abandoned downtown shopping districts for big malls are now finding their way to small shopping centers. "A lot of little shopping centers have what customers want without the hassle of having to park a long way from the entrance to the big mall and having to fight the crowds. At the same time, a destination business is often more convenient for parking and easier to find in a strip center than in a downtown area."

Dockins said many of her customers prefer a strip center to a big mall.

"A lot of women tell us they don't have the time to shop any more. They're taking one kid to soccer practice and another to dance class. With a strip center, they can pull up to the curb and shop for shoes or get their shoes repaired and be on their way."

Benthal agreed. "Some of our customers didn't like having to carry their old shoes through the mall to get them fixed. Whether they're buying shoes or getting their shoes repaired, our older customers especially appreciate being able to pull up and park right in front of the store without having to walk a long way from the parking lot like in the mall."

Some things didn't change at Marcy's with the move from the mall. At West Park, a blue electric sign promised customers, "While You Wait Shoe Repair." At the Merchant's Walk store, the same pledge is painted on a shiny wooden sign. "That's not easy because we get a lot more business here," said Benthal, a 28-year-old who also confessed that "a lot of people think shoe cobblers are all old men."

No matter how heavy the repair load, Dockins' stamp of approval still goes on every pair of shoes fixed in her store.

"When shoes are ready to go to the customer, I look them over," she said. "If it's a pair of pumps, I ask myself, 'Would I want those on my feet?' If it's men's shoes or children's shoes, I ask myself, 'Would I want to see my family wearing those shoes?' "

At Dockins' shop, shoes aren't just repaired, they are also cleaned and polished at no extra charge. "It's the little extras that count," she said. "We don't give customers back a pair of scuffed-up shoes."

A graduate of the Ball State University orthopedic shoe technician course, Dockins also does orthopedic and other custom shoe work in the back room repair shop. Out front, besides shoes, she sells dancewear and accessories.

Her only real competition in Cape Girardeau is Brown's Shoe Fit, Dockins said. Downtown on Main Street, Brown's is another fit-conscious store.

Dockins also said that most of her customers are professional women in their mid-30s or older, with incomes of $40,000 or more.

Unlike at some mall stores and footwear discounters, the self-service era hasn't dawned at Marcy's. The boss doesn't just sell shoes. She fits shoes, one customer at a time.