Three-and-a-half hours before the curtain rose Friday night on “Plaza Suite” on Broadway, Sarah Jessica Parker was holding court at her shoe store at 31 West 54th Street discussing retail culture, community and the power of human connection.
In a lively conversation with Ron Thurston, host of the podcast “Retail in America,” Parker shared her personal experiences as a shopkeeper; her love of shoes; how getting feedback from her customers differs from her stage and TV work, and how she feels the future of retail might lie in more intimate, mom-and-pop settings like her own.
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“I bought and loved shoes even before I played Carrie Bradshaw,” said Parker, dressed in a cream tweed jacket and pants and dotted black sandals with rhinestone buckles. “I would buy shoes that would last forever or sometimes they were of the moment.”
She said she learned so much about the footwear business from her former partner, the late George Malkemus, who grew Manolo Blahnik’s business in the U.S. and became her partner in SJP. He died last year.
Thurston, who is the author of the book “Retail Pride,” was kicking off a cross-country trip in an Air Stream and interviewing mom-and-pop entrepreneurs, store managers and store associates for his podcast. “The journey is to discover everyday retail heroes,” said Thurston.
While every city has its unique characteristics, Parker said: “New York is special. People come to take the biggest chance in the hopes they can swing a home run. It’s a city that very quickly lets you know where you stand. When you’re told ‘no,’ you want to prove the city wrong.”
Asked why she felt it was important to have a brick-and-mortar presence in New York, Parker said: “It didn’t occur to us to do anything else.” She started with a retail store in 2014 and added e-commerce three years ago.
Parker recalled that when she moved to New York in 1977, she used to travel on the tram to her home on Roosevelt Island. She would take the cross-town bus and travel up Madison Avenue and would see that every important shoe designer had a store. But growing up in Cincinnati, she said, twice a year her mother would take her and her siblings to the shoe store where they carried Buster Brown shoes. She would get a pair of saddle oxfords and patent leather Mary Janes. In the spring, she’d get perforated T-straps that were all white.
These days, Parker said she appreciates the relationship a retailer can build with a customer and how much you can learn by talking to somebody. You can find out what they want versus what they need, how they find the fit and how the brand stands up to the competition. “You learn that by being on the floor just by sharing stories and seeing their feet,” she said. “It’s been for sure the most joyous part of the work.” Parker said unfortunately due to the pandemic she hasn’t been in the store in over a year, and they’ve closed their Seaport location.