Bananas

Mel and Patty did.

Everyone thought Mel and Patty had gone bananas. They’d quit their jobs to travel, have fun … start their own business … they just didn’t have any idea about what that business should be.

One day Mel came back from a trip to Australia wearing a cool British Burma jacket he’d found at a surplus store … the material and cut were great but Patty made some adjustments … soon everywhere Mel went in San Francisco people stopped him to ask where he’d got the great jacket … Mel and Patty knew what business they wanted to be in. So they started looking at military surplus stores … and armed only with the last $1,500 they had in their bank account they started their clothing business with absolutely no businesse experience at all

Their first purchase was a whole pile of khaki shirts with unusually short sleeves for $1.50 each … they tried selling them at a flea market for $6.50 but sold just 5. Now others might have given up … but not Mel and Patty … the next weekend they changed nothing but the price … doubling it to $12.95 .. and sold 102 shirts … they were in business soon opened their first store … and then another one … five years later they sold out to the Gap and did pretty well.

Today, the retail chain Mel and Patty started because of an old jacket found in a surplus store in Australia has over 600 stores around the world … Banana Republic

Banana Republic is a great idea … because understanding the value of what you are selling makes all the difference.