CROCKER PARK, WESTLAKE, CLEVELAND, OHIO

LeAnna, my partner for thirty five years, suggested that if we are going to be installing an 18,000 square foot retail complex in our new building, that perhaps we should go out and do some homework by evaluating some of the more upgrade stores in the area.

Thanks to a recommendation from Joe Grimm we ended up in Crocker Park, an outdoor shopping complex that is more professionally developed and thought through than any other retailing complex I am aware of.

The stores that particularly impressed us were:

1. Z Gallerie
2. Arhaus
3. Norwalk Furniture
4. Smith and Hawken

We didn't make it to the Bombay company.

I was humbled by the degree of excellence in design, decor, merchandising, presentation, layout, and overall ambiance these successful retailers portray.

From the style of flooring, ceiling, lighting, point of purchase display - it made me realize as a retailer how far we have yet to go.

It will be a challenge for us to put our new Gallery together in a manner than remotely compares to these stores. Some of the more daunting decisions that we will be faced with are decisions that we will not have the option to go back and make over.

Crocker Park gives us a standard to which we can aspire - and with assiduous input from the next generation of management within P. Graham Dunn perhaps we can come close to the excellence exemplified by these retailers.