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“Everything was in a glass case, and you couldn’t touch anything,” says Steve. “With a camera bar, customers can touch the cameras, handle them, and read all the bullet points. It’s like going into a restaurant, being handed a menu, and then when you’re ready to order, someone comes over to get your order. You might have a couple of questions, but you’re basically ready and you know what you want. I had a real struggle changing over to that concept. I had long-term associates tell me how wrong I was to be doing this. But if you see it, and you know it’s right, you just have to do it.”
The same philosophy holds for the company’s scrapbooking solution. “No one’s seen anything like it,” says Steve. “We’re really onto something here. The whole thing behind our new store is to provide a different experience than what you’d get anywhere else. Hang out, get a cup of coffee, scrapbook—you’re going to like it so much, you’ll pass up the other guys.”
The Cordle clan is interested in possible national expansion, but right now their short-term strategy calls for deliberate, steady regional growth done the right way. “We’re very interested in being national, but we have a simple regional plan right now,” says Steve, “We currently have a 200-mile area, and I think the worst thing you can do is go outside that area and not be able to service it properly. I suppose there are exceptions, but our immediate gameplan is here. Our plan is also to do it with our own money—we buy all our own real estate. Even if you have to move, you can sell the building and get your money back. It’s a good foundation.”
Dave credits his brother’s insight and willingness to take risks for much of the company’s success. “Steve is the one who had the vision to make this happen—he was always willing to try a lot of different things,” he says. “He saw it and made it happen.”
Cord Camera is reaping the benefits of these carefully thought-out risks. “The business is better today than it ever was, for us,” says Steve. “Our photofinishing is up over last year, the scrapbooking is really doing well—everything’s going the right way.”
And that inherited pioneering spirit, always adaptive to an ever-changing environment, refuses to quit, even as Cord Camera enjoys the huge success they’ve experienced with their scrapbooking studios. “Scrapbooking is huge, of course, but in 10 years, will it be scrapbooking, or will it be something else?” asks Dave Cordle. “If it is scrapbooking, we’ll still be there, but if it’s not, we’ll be into whatever new thing is on the horizon.”
