Marcia Martindale steps out of her door in the morning and neighbours remark on her dress. They suggest she may have a date. She tells them “yes, with Martindale’s.”
She has translated her personal style into the fashionable boutique she has been operating for over 20 years, her signature choice of dress in evidence throughout.
“My sense of style is very simple and classic and because it is that way, I find I can accommodate a lot of people. I buy what I would like to see some person in. Also, you must have an eye for fashion,” she said.
Opening a lingerie shop was her dream as far back as age 19 when she lived in Canada. It was always her intention to return to Barbados and make that dream a reality. For 25 years now she has been back and thriving in the business that had always been her ambition.
While other similar businesses have failed, Marcia continues to be successful, overcoming hurdles along the way.
She started out selling lingerie, but today Martindale’s is more expansive in its lines. “I have taken a different road – lingerie plus clothing, which is giving the complete thing for women.” Realizing there was bigger scope beyond lingerie, she capitalized on a void in availability of classic clothing.
“When I buy, I like to buy things that would last the customer . . . something that you can keep in your wardrobe for years and go back at it again and again. I think that is a wise way to buy.”
This is no sudden realization. About a year before she opened her store she went to New York and knocked on doors of the whole lingerie district “because I felt when you open a store, it should be your signature.”
“I think this is why most stores would open and close because sometimes people just get a story from someone else but when it is your dream and it is part of what you want for yourself, and what you want to see another female wearing, you know what is needed.”
She remembers sitting down for an entire month, poring over catalogues and deleting the lines she did not want “because I was looking for a certain style”.
Never resting until she found exactly what she was looking for, she initially stocked Martindale’s with high-end lingerie, but said, “as I continued in business I realized that the styles changed and you have to change with the times.”
This is why she changes her lines every so often. Also, she recognizes that operating n the small island that is Barbados, “if you are not on your game you end up being like a duplicate of someone else”.
Marcia drew on her banking experience in Canada to develop the necessary business acumen, and remarked, “I think banking helped me with the foundation I needed to be successful,” though she confessed there were times when she did not see herself as such.
Before launching out on her own she chose to expose herself to someone else’s business when she first returned to Barbados.
“It is important to have some foundation working with someone else, so that you know where you want to go in business.
“I realized coming into a market you must know what that market is about and moving from overseas to Barbados I knew that I had to learn the market. That three years working with someone helped me to feel out the market.”
Of course there were challenges, financing being a major one for her as for any new business.
Now she advises young people going into business that “all new businesses have challenges in the financial area but your bank has to know you and know what you are about. You first have to build a relationship of trust with your bank manager, letting them know what you are doing.”
She also advised that “a lot of young people out there might have an idea but need a mentor to show them where they need to go in business and they should reach out to accountants for ideas and guidance”.
In addition she advocates having someone in place in the Customs department to act as an advisor to guide young businesspeople in Customs procedures.
After 18 years operating from the prominent Broad Street, Norman Centre Mall, Martindale was forced to relocate to the City Centre Mall, a move she described as “a great loss” in customers. Four years later, however, some of those old customers continue to find her at the new location, still getting that accustomed, excellent customary service.
Speaking to Easy a night last week at the end of another busy day, Martindale said, “in City Centre I have found a whole new clientele and business is building back to where it stood before . . . . I like where I am and that is key.
“ I always tell my staff it is retail therapy that you are giving. The customer who is buying an item for $10 must be made to feel just as important as the customer spending $100 and it is your job to make them feel extra special. Treat people with respect and give them good service.
“Service, service, service. Remembering people . . . remembering their kids, how they are doing” this is her mantra impressed upon anyone who works for Martindale’s.
She loves working in Bridgetown and has no plans to leave. The reason adds another dimension to her success.
She explained, “It is very important that people who work in The City get to know the people in The City. I think that we are in The City to do our part for people but some of us miss our calling.”
“I can write a book on the stories – kids that you see and you pull into your own and try to help, you realize there is a reason they are there.”
Her passion for the city extends even further. She misses the religious sounds once abounding there, and regrets the disappearance of church groups from the streets around Bridgetown.
“We have allowed the bad elements to take over The City. The churches must come back to The City for outdoor worship and show the vagabonds God is still in charge.”
To the critics who complain Bridgetown is a dying city she responds “I think it is unfortunate that people are thinking that way. They may be trying to create a North American atmosphere in Barbados with the move to malls outside Bridgetown but the foot trade and those bussed in will always be the life of The City and remains an important part of Barbadian culture that could be lost to a generation of children.”
At 58 Martindale continues to enjoy what she does.
“If I did not love what I do, I probably would be miserable but I feel good about getting up on mornings and coming to my store. I don’t think I can work anywhere else but in the City because I love The City.”
