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COVER STORY
Good
Neighbors
For 60 years Paulson's has helped its customers make their homes
their castles.
By Howard Shingle
Chicago,
IL, has always been a city of neighborhoods, many of which still
carry their founding names—Lakeview, Logan Square, Portage
Park—and each has its own residential area and business district.
Cutting through many of these diagonally from the near north side
to Chicago’s far northwest reaches is Milwaukee Ave., one of
those great stretches of business and community development that
serves a host of residents, some of whom have lived in these neighborhoods
for years while others are rediscovering the merits of city living.
And here is where they find Paulson’s Paint, Wallpaper and
Window Fashions.
Paulson’s opened in 1945 as a paint store and, although it
moved in 1965, it is located today no more than a quarter-block
from its original site. Many changes have taken place since then.
Paulson’s featured wallpaper back in the days when it was really
popular. In 1984 Jon Norden, nephew of the company’s founder,
came on board and he and two partners, Urban Comes and Rick Stephanie,
formed a second corporation in 2000 and opened another store—this
one in Forest Park, a reborn western suburb.
The biggest change, though, may have been bringing hard window treatments
to Paulson’s at the end of 1985. “It’s been a real
success story,” Norden says. “Within the last few years,
we’ve become a decorating store. We have salespeople who will
go out and pick your colors, window treatments, wallpaper and pick
your paint.”
Paulson’s window coverings offering focuses on hard treatments.
Wood blinds are its specialty along with vertical blinds, cellular
shades and sheer window shadings. But the company is adding a soft
touch. Take Roman shades. Paulson’s has sold more this past
year than in the past 15 years. “This is what’s been so
incredible about the whole thing,” Norden explains. “I’m
starting to move into the soft treatments a little bit—the
valances, the swags, anything that can be mounted on a board or
a plain rod. We’re getting into that business. It’s just
one thing leads to the next.”
“When we found window treatments it was like the fourth leg
of the business. Finding the window treatments has really solidified
us,” Norden continues. “We can play at any time. If paint
was up and window treatments were up, the other product lines could
be down a little bit and it didn’t make any difference, we
didn’t miss a beat and our business continued to grow.”
PAINT IS KING
About 25 percent of Paulson’s total business is window coverings.
At Paulson’s paint is king. “We are a paint store first
and foremost. We sell paint,” Norden says, and the paint end
of business is “wonderful.”
In 2000, he and his partners went to see the rollout of Benjamin
Moore’s new line of Color Preview. “They brought out all
these strong colors and we looked at each other and said, ‘Man,
you’ve got to be nuts. There’s no way people are going
to buy these.’ And it just took off from there. From the year
2000 it just hasn’t slowed down at all,” Norden says.
This interest in paint and in redecorating has been an ideal lead-in
for Paulson’s window treatment sales. Customers who come in
to buy paint look around while it’s being mixed—and they
see the window coverings displays. “We can bring the paint
right over to the window treatment and say. ‘Look how this
would look with the right window treatment.’
“Paint is huge and we get a lot—a lot—of walk-in
business, and when they come in they see that we have the wallpaper,
the window treatments and the sundries. We’d like to be their
one shop—you don’t have to go any further than Paulson’s,”
Norden says.
He will admit, however, that things have been better for wallpaper.
In fact, faux painting techniques have taken a bite out the business,
“but it’s starting to run its course.”
“We’re hoping, believe it or not, after the last six or
seven years of wallpaper hitting rock bottom, that it will find
its way back up. We carry a full line of books. We probably have
over a thousand books of wallpaper here. It has always been a nice
business here at Paulson’s, but it just dropped off—probably
50 percent. That’s what really brought us to window treatments.
“We’re really thinking, with all the positive signs we’ve
been getting here, we’re thinking—and let’s put a
real high note there—that wallpaper is definitely on its way
back.”
NO NONSENSE
It’s not fair to think of Paulson’s only as a neighborhood
store. At the very least you have to see it as an ever-expanding
neighborhood. “I’ve done two homes this year; one in Wisconsin,
one in Michigan. We go anywhere,” Norden says. Perhaps it is
this attitude that makes Paulson’s such a good neighbor.
“I’m not necessarily looking for the high-end customer,
but sometimes I just have to pinch myself. I find myself in Lake
Forest, in Inverness doing two-, three-, four-million-dollar homes.
How did they even hear about me? We’re just very low-key.”
The greater Chicago area has seen a lot of new construction recently
“and remodeling galore. It’s unbelievable,” Norden
says. “All the young people are moving back. We are so diverse,
there are so many different types of industry and so many different
types of jobs and companies I’ve never really felt the effects
[of an economic slowdown]. One thing we’ve always talked about
in the paint business is that we aren’t affected if the economy
is bad because people will spend the money to fix their homes. Their
home is everything. It is their castle.”
Paulson’s window treatment salespeople, who in addition to
Norden include Lisa Moser, JM Pronek and Sue Knowles, work residential
areas just as diverse—some with a high concentration of professionals
living there and other neighborhoods that are mostly blue collar.
“Everybody is actually the same. That’s what I love about
window treatments,” Norden says. “When people have made
the commitment to buy a window treatment they are going to buy.
They may tell you they’re shopping, but they’re going
to buy from somebody. They might as well buy from me.”
Paulson’s two locations draw different types of customers as
well, although all are treated the same. “When you have that
young 20-something, 30-something couple getting into their first
home in Chicago that’s costing them $400,000, there’s
going to be a budget. Not everyone is a millionaire. I can go in
and sell a blind by saying when you’re ready we can do more,
but let’s get your windows covered right now and let’s
do it right away.”
Over the last 60 years, Paulson’s has developed a solid reputation
with its customers. It starts with every employee. “It just
comes back to people,” Norden says. “Everybody who works
here is local, and we all just kind of found each other. It’s
like a big family. We support who supports us.
“For my clients, most of the time they just want a good value.
I read about all these companies that are in high-end, looking for
the million-dollar sale and that’s just not me. My dad taught
me as a young man to just do what I do really well so people will
want to do it over and over again, and that’s when you’ll
know you’re successful.”
Paulson’s window treatment business started small, offering
verticals, wood blinds and shades. But the products were priced
right, competitive and it became fun. The company’s main suppliers
are Window Fashions, Inc. for Springs/Graber products, Acme Window
Coverings for the Hunter Douglas ’Ette products and Lafayette
Interior Fashions for the soft treatments.
As in any metropolis these days, Chicago has its fair share of the
big box stores, but they don’t really bother Norden. He knows
their customers are not his customers. It goes back to the store’s
reputation. Paulson’s has always carried top brand paints.
His customers already know when they walk into the store that the
paint is going to cost $30 a gallon or more. “They accept that
because that’s what they want. They are going to get what they
want,” he says.
Norden recognizes that service is the way he can distinguish Paulson’s
from competition. “We have the same core of people who have
been here forever. If you have a problem—and I don’t care
if it’s paint or wallpaper or anything—we’ll actually
go to your house and take care of it.”
“We’re very good at what we do, and everybody understands
exactly how to do it. We’re not guessing. We’ve been here
for so long, and we live on our reputation. You’re only as
good as your reputation. People know that if they shop at Paulson’s,
they’re shopping at a very high-quality, no-nonsense type of
a store. And we will do whatever we can to keep your business.”
IT’S THAT SIMPLE
Another neighborly touch is personal contact. Paulson’s customers
are likely to deal directly with Norden who takes a very hands-on
approach to business, and he credits his partners for making that
possible. “Without them, I’m nothing. They run the stores
while I go out and do the window treatments.” When Norden is
not selling window treatments he’s probably unloading trucks,
mixing paint or doing payroll.
He also is the lead installer. “When I first started out it
was just me,” he says. “I would go to the house. I would
measure it, sell it and then install it.” Paulson’s has
since hired full-time installer Tim Gillespie and keeps all installations
in-house.
Norden’s installation skills were learned on the job, but when
it comes to sales that’s a different story. It’s what
he has been doing his entire career since graduating from the University
of Cincinnati, and he has brought some enthusiasm to Paulson’s
by concentrating on in-home sales consultations. “You have
to. That’s really the only way to really make the sale,”
he advises. “We have people come to buy the paint. When you
have the ladies and gentlemen come in to look for the wallpaper
and to buy the paint and then they see the amount of window treatments
that we have on display now—and we have almost every product
that we sell on display—when they’re in the store and
they see something, we’ll just follow them home if they’d
like.”
He also has learned a thing or two along the way. “The thing
I’ve learned, is when one of the salespeople sells with me,
we go back and install it together probably about 80 percent of
the time because it’s another opportunity to sell again.”
Paulson’s is a member of the Mid-America buying group. With
75 members, the group can purchase product and advertising in large
quantities making both more affordable. Norden calls it an incredible
marketing tool, “the muscle” behind Paulson’s advertising
efforts. With it the store has the means to advertise in the Chicago
Tribune 33 weeks a year. “That’s huge,” Norden says.
“Is it the biggest part of my business? I would like to think
not. I would probably say we get three out of 10 leads out of that,
the other seven are probably people who we have worked for before.
Referrals by far are your key.”
Paulson’s success is based on keeping customers happy—whatever
product line they are interested in. “Take care of your customers
and they’ll take care of you. That’s all you need to do.
It’s that simple. In this day and age we live in it’s
so fast and furious, my customers just want the convenience of me
being at their house knowing that their product is going to be measured
right, that they’re paying a fair price.”
“I’m not trying to set the world on fire,” Norden
confesses. “I’m just trying to be there when you tell
me to be there, give you a very fair price, follow-up and let you
know when the installation date is going to be and then put it up.
Probably one of the neatest compliments I ever had was from a doctor
in Evanston. She said to me once, ‘Jon, I love when you come
to my house because you’re always going to make it look a little
bit nicer.’
“When I came here I honestly had no idea that window treatments
would be the direction I would take,” Norden says. “It’s
truly my life right now.”
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