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October 15, 1999/5 Cheshvan 5760, Vol. 52, No. 7
Owners lend personal touch to customer-friendly enterprise
CHRIS GARIFO
Staff Writer
When Andie Morrison and Sandy Turner tell a potential customer they're willing to sell the dresses right off their backs, they're not kidding.
As owners of A&S Discount Jewelry and Accessories, they're walking and very much talking models for their wares, which include "unique" designs in handbags and dresses. In fact, when some women saw Turner wearing a red cruise dress while walking through a mall and asked her about it, she took them to the A&S showroom, where she literally took off her dress, sold it to one of the women, and then went home wearing another dress from the store.
When Morrison and Turner, friends for nearly 30 years, hold an open house this weekend, Oct. 16-17, for their business at 3249 E. Indian School Road, Suite 3, in Phoenix, they will be officially realizing the dream they've shared almost since they first met at a Women's American ORT meeting. (Although the open house celebration is this weekend, they have been selling their wares for the past six weeks.)
Morrison, 53, says they sell "things that we like or we think are interesting or fun," which means you won't necessarily find in their showroom items representative of the latest trends.
"We love what's here," Morrison says. "We're kind of off-the-wall a little bit."
Customers will find plenty of elephant-themed handbags, since Morrison loves elephants - "because they're positive and we both like things that are happy and positive" - and Betty Boop handbags because Turner, who claims to be 29 forever, is a fan of the curvaceous cartoon chanteuse.
A&S, however, is not a typical women's boutique, in that customers can't simply stroll in and look around. Instead, customers have to make appointments on weekdays, or come by on weekends, when A&S is open for walk-ins. Another service the partners offer is professional shopping for their clients.
"We'll look in your closet and then go to the showroom," says Turner, who also works full-time as a receptionist/coordinator for MCI Telecommunications Corp.
Morrison also has another career as a real-estate broker in business with her husband, Gary. The couple own the Hillcrest Building where the A&S showroom is located.
"We can keep our prices low (because) we own the building," says Morrison, the mother of two grown children, Debby and David.
A&S will operate under the concept of helping the customer look her best, even if that means being honest to the point of not selling something, the partners say.
"We're not going to say (a customer) looks terrific (in something) if we know she doesn't look good in it," says Morrison, a member of Temple Chai, though she's considering switching to Temple Kol Ami.
The two are confident they'll be successful in their new venture because, they say, they have good taste and have already started making money.
"We haven't opened yet and we've already had customers," says Turner, a former sisterhood president at Temple Beth Israel and the mother of two, Gwenn and Sean. She says they've easily made $1,000 in the past six weeks, although she doesn't have exact figures.
The two want customers to think of their business as truly unique. "We're not trying to be a retail store or boutique," Morrison says. "We're here to offer our taste and creativity and fun to women."
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