An 80-year-old Ohio ice cream counter is becoming a national franchise without outsourcing its central ritual: every parlor still makes the product on site. The constraint is also the pitch.
SHOE SHOW, INC. is a privately held, family-owned footwear retailer based in Concord, North Carolina. Founded in 1960 by Robert and Carolyn Tucker, it sells branded shoes, handbags and accessories for the whole family at value prices through roughly 1,000-1,200 stores across 47 states under the Shoe Show, Shoe Dept., Shoe Dept. Encore, Shoe Show Mega, Burlington Shoes and Shoebilee! banners, plus a growing online store. The company runs a centralized distribution and store-support operation from Concord and moves about a million pairs of shoes a week.