Shaffer, Donald S. 1943–

Donald S. Shaffer 1943–

Former president, chief operating officer, and acting chief executive officer, Dollar General

Nationality: American.

Born: 1943.

Education: University of West Virginia, BS, 1965.

Family: Married.

Career: Sears, Roebuck and Company, 1969–?, various positions; ?-1989, general manager of Detroit region retail stores; 1989-1994, national manager for women's apparel; Sears Canada, 1994-1997, president and chief executive officer; Western Auto Supply Company, 1997-1999, chairman and chief executive officer; Heilig-Meyers Company, 1999-2000, president and chief operating officer; 2000-2001, president and chief executive officer; Dollar General, 2001-2003, president and chief operating officer; 2002-2003, chief executive officer.

■ At Sears, Roebuck and Company, Donald S. Shaffer moved through the ranks holding various positions, including general manager of the Detroit region retail stores. He joined the executive ranks with his appointment in 1989 to the position of national manager for women's apparel. This appointment was a defining point for Shaffer's career with Sears and beyond. As Sears continued its restructuring into the 1990s, Shaffer alternately took on the leadership of Sears Canada and the Sears subsidiary Western Auto Supply. His guidance helped to redefine both organizations and laid the groundwork for their more recent strong market positions. When he ended his career with Sears, Shaffer took on leadership roles in two more companies in need of major change—the furniture retailer Heilig-Meyers and the discount retailer Dollar General.

THIRTY YEARS WITH THE SAME COMPANY

Like many of his generation, Shaffer began his career with a long-term commitment to one company. For 30 years Shaffer's success as a manager and executive was tied to the success of Sears and its affiliates. Sears had insignificant roots. In 1886 Richard Sears, a delivery agent, bought and then sold an order of watches that had been refused by a Minneapolis jewelry store. Growing from this almost accidental beginning, more than a century later Sears was operating more than eight hundred mall-based retail stores and auto centers, more than 1,200 stores in non-mall specialty retail markets, and operations that included product installation and repair, home improvement, catalog and direct response, and online shopping.

Shaffer joined the Sears team when the megaretailer was at the tail end of several decades of major expansion that changed the company's focus from mail-order to retail outlets and turned a catalog retailer into a conglomerate. In the 1980s and 1990s, the rapid growth enjoyed by the company since its inception slowed markedly. The resulting restructuring eliminated approximately eight hundred field management positions and provided incentives for early retirement to hundreds of associates. In 1989 Shaffer was one of six national managers appointed when the retailer refocused the structure of its retail business units into vertical groups. Under the new structure district managers and retail stores were accountable to and reported directly to Shaffer. This arrangement enhanced business-to-business expertise within retail departments.

As the national business manager for women's apparel, Shaffer was responsible for "implementing the business group's plans, goals, and directions through regional and district business managers," according to Weekly Home Furnishings Newspaper . The chairman and CEO of Sears Merchandise Group, Michael Bozic, said in the same article, "The new structure will allow us to better execute strategies that will make us more competitive and more profitable." Bozic gave Shaffer the task of being a creative, responsive, efficient, and accountable executive, goals Shaffer apparently reached, because he was named president and CEO of Sears Canada in 1994. Sears Canada was one of Canada's largest multichannel retailers. In the year 2000 the Canadian retailer operated 125 full-line stores, 176 specialty stores, 1,500 independently owned catalog agents and dealer stores, a merchandise catalog with a circulation to 4.1 million households, and online shopping.

CAREER EXPERIENCE LEADS TO TURNAROUND EXPERTISE

Shaffer remained at Sears Canada until 1997, when he became chairman and CEO of the troubled Western Auto Supply division of Sears. Under Shaffer's leadership, this wholesaler of auto parts merged with Advance Auto Parts. Shaffer's brokering of this merger set up a win-win situation for the two major auto parts chains, providing Sears with a 40 percent share in Advance Auto Parts and taking the Western Auto Supply parts stores under the Advance umbrella. According to the Advance Auto Parts 2001 annual report, the merger negotiated by Shaffer secured the position of Advance Auto Parts "as the second-largest retailer in the automotive aftermarket…. This acquisition alone almost doubled the number of stores we operated and expanded our trade area by 20 new states in the Midwest and Northeast. Within eleven months, six months ahead of schedule, we converted 545 [Western Auto Supply] stores into Advance Auto Parts stores" (http://www.advanceautoparts.com/investor/financial_info/index.html?page=/investor/financial_info/AR_menu.html).