A Retail Life

Michael Callahan was a veteran store manager for City Lights, a national consumer electronics and appliances retailer. He was an attractive forty-nine-year-old man with a warm and seductive charm. He looked, dressed, spoke, and carried himself more like an art director or an executive of a successful Manhattan advertising agency than a manager of a retail store. His strongest attributes—and a key element to his professional success—were his people skills, his ability to choose the right people and teach and motivate them to do what he wanted them to do.
Rick’s Electronics was a newcomer to the world of consumer electronics retailers. From its conception, it declared war on the well-established national giant, City Lights. Rick’s prided itself for not having commission salespeople and promoted the concept as an advantage to lure customers away from City Lights.
Michael Callahan had a great deal of experience in dealing and competing with Rick’s Electronics. When City Lights decided to open its first store in a new Midwestern market dominated by Rick’s Electronics, MC was the store manager for the job. He had no idea what life had in store for him when he accepted the assignment.