Retail Truths: The Unconventional Wisdom of Retailing

(Book). Retail Truths: The Unconventional Wisdom of Retailing is a collection of more than 400 street-smart lessons on retailing that Chip Averwater has gathered from his own experience in business, as well as from his mentors and retailer friends. Chip Averwater is chairman of Amro Music Stores in Memphis, TN, one of the largest musical instrument retailers in the U.S. He is a third-generation retailer and has spent nearly four decades building his own stores and working with other retailers on theirs. Chip has an MBA, has written for national retailing magazines, and has been a featured speaker on retailing at meetings and conventions in the U.S., Europe, Australia, and Asia. He served for 14 years as a board member and officer of NAMM, and served as its chairman from 2007-2009. Chip currently serves on the boards of several retailers and charities, is often called on as a retail advisor, and enjoys talking with fellow retailers about common problems and solutions. " Retail Truths should become a dog-eared companion to anyone who hopes to succeed in retail. It's packed with honest, straight-up assessments of successful retailing from selling to profits, from hiring and training to operating multiple stores. This is a book you'll be reading and adapting to your business for years." Music Inc Magazine "Based on long personal experience, Averwater concludes that a good salesperson can easily be five times as productive as a laggard, and says high-priced salespeople 'are an expense we want.' In a lengthy segment devoted to personnel, he offers a blueprint for hiring and retaining those top performers from how to screen out undesirables in the hiring process ('Less than one in 20 job applicants is a suitable candidate') to maintaining high morale ('A manager's words resonate for a while then fade. Incentives speak with every paycheck.')" Music Trades

Chip Averwater is an author, a business and management enthusiast, and retired chairman of Amro Music Stores in Memphis, one of the largest musical instrument retailers in the US.

His book Retail Truths: The Unconventional Wisdom of Retailing (March 2012) is a collection of more than 400 street-smart lessons on retailing that he gathered from his experience in business as well as from his mentors and retailer friends.

His book Great Managers Are Always Nice (April 2018) contends that there is never a reason for a manager to be less than nice and that nice always gets better results. Fictional manager Mike Mitchell demonstrates nice management in the most common and most challenging situations managers face.

Chip has been a featured speaker on management and retailing in the US, Great Britain, Germany, Australia, and China. (He is an avid traveler and sometimes agrees to speak internationally for travel expenses and the opportunity to meet the people.)

He and his wife live in Lakeland, TN, outside of Memphis. 

Learn more about Chip and his books at abbpress.com.