Editor’s Note: CNY Executive Q&A is a feature appearing regularly in The Central New York Business Journal, authored by guest writer Jeff Knauss, who is president of his own digital-marketing firm. In each edition, Jeff chats with a different executive at a Central New York business or nonprofit, with the interview transcript appearing in a conversational Q&A
Editor’s Note: CNY Executive Q&A is a feature appearing regularly in The Central New York Business Journal, authored by guest writer Jeff Knauss, who is president of his own digital-marketing firm. In each edition, Jeff chats with a different executive at a Central New York business or nonprofit, with the interview transcript appearing in a conversational Q&A format.
In this issue, I speak with, Alan Poushter and Lewis Radin, owners of Ra-Lin, afamily-owned discount electronics and appliance store based in Syracuse.
KNAUSS: What differentiates Ra-Lin from big national competitors?
POUSHTER: Mainly our people. Our people are a lot more experienced and know a lot more. I always like to say that our biggest competitor is probably Best Buy, which I believe came into existence in 1993. I always say that my employees have been here longer than that. We have specialists in every department — people who just know TVs, people who just know major appliances, people who just know cameras. This is their whole lives, the product. If you came to buy a TV in the 90s and you come back to buy a new one now, you’re probably going to get the same sales person. The competitors are not going to be able to say that.
KNAUSS: What do you look for when you’re hiring an employee?
POUSHTER: The best thing is, I haven’t had to hire most of my key positions because our employees have been here a long, long time. So luckily, it has not been that big a deal. Most of the key people have been here.
KNAUSS: Why do you think that employees stay with Ra-Lin for so long?
POUSHTER: Well, I think because we treat them more like a family member than an employee and we treat everyone well. We’re all in it together to help the cause.
KNAUSS: What’s your favorite part about working in retail and also, what’s most challenging for you?
POUSHTER: y favorite part, no doubt, is working with the customers. It’s always nice to hear different stories, and 99.9 percent of the people are good people. The hardest part I would say, even though we have such longevity with our key employees, is making sure we are taking care of employees. The other hard part is doing the advertising and promotions, especially as we know now that has totally changed.
When I first started, there were three TV stations: Channels 3, 5, and 9, that was it. That was really it for a long, long time. There were four or five radio stations. Everyone read the newspaper.
Now, of course, the Internet has become much more important. I’m sure even what was good in advertising on the Internet 10 years ago isn’t where you would want to be now.
KNAUSS: How would you describe your leadership style when you’re managing your folks?
POUSHTER: I let our employees do what they think and try to give people a lot of rope. Usually they will use it right, not always, but it’s key to let people be creative and let them do what they think is the best. I’ve been lucky to have a lot of good people around me so it made that part of the job easier.
KNAUSS: Tell me a little bit about the history of Ra-Lin and how you became the owners.
RADIN: Well, in the early 1950’s my father, Bernie Radin, was working as a door-to-door salesman in the Binghamton area. What did he sell? Anything he could get his hands on. They paid him off week by week. So every Friday night, he would go around knocking on doors, going up to the 3rd, 4th, and 5th floors. These were the days before elevators were invented and selling to people who buy things on time, which is how things were done in the pre-credit card world. He figured that there might be a better way to make a living and he found another gentleman in Herman Zeitlin, who felt the same way, and they decided to go into retailing together. They moved to Syracuse.
When Herman Zeitlin was driving to Syracuse, his floorboards had holes in the bottom of his car. He could see the road when he was driving up Route 11 to move here. They were starting at the bottom, and they opened up their first store in Mattydale in October 1953. A couple of months after that, they moved to Butternut Street where the shopping mall is right now and they were there until the late 1950s and then in the early 1960s, they moved over here to Burnet, which is where we are to this day.
Things grew little bit by little. They were selling baby furniture back then because there were lots of babies. They knew people in the drug wholesaling business. We would sell bicycles, you know, products we haven’t sold in years and years. So we got into some things, got out of some things, stuck with some things, and it was very much of a trial and error kind of operation. There was not really a lot of a game plan to it but they worked very hard and were open six days a week. They were smart and lucky, and things grew from there.
KNAUSS: How did you get in? How did you become a part of the business? Obviously your father had started it. Is that something you always want to do is get into the family business?
RADIN: When I would first come here, when I was a kid, it kind of scared me a little bit. I was a child and I would work here but, let’s put it this way, I didn’t work with a lot of enthusiasm. I would do deliveries. I stocked shelves, but again not with a lot of enthusiasm. As soon as I started working here, more part time but for real, I did start liking it because I could see the energy, all the activity, the fascinating back and forth between the sales staff and the customers. It kind of sucked me in.
KNAUSS: Do you see any big changes coming for Ra-Lin on the horizon?
RADIN: Well, there are a lot of interesting products that are coming forward. We’re going to start carrying drones pretty soon. We’re in negotiations for that. That’s early but that’s going to be a big category. We’re looking at selling 3D printers, and also using 3D printers in our photo-processing department.
On the appliance side, we’re looking at more appliances that are part of a connected home. This includes the things that will take cooking instructions, cooling instructions, timing instructions and are more interactive than current appliances, because this is a business that hasn’t changed a great deal.
And in the next three to five years, it will go through a lot of changes.
About the author: Jeff Knauss is managing partner & president of a digital-marketing firm, DigitalHyve.com, and has always been interested in hearing successful executives’ stories. He lives in Camillus with his wife Heta and son Max. For more, check out his blog at www.CnyCeo.org
