The prodigy pays off

Discount Store News, Dec 8, 1997 by Laura Heller

At just 37 years old, Larry Mondry is responsible for merchandising at one of the nation's fastest growing retail chains. Executive vice president of merchandising of CompUSA Inc. is a pretty weight title for one so young; so to what does Mondry attribute his quick rise up the corporate ladder?

"Right place, right time," quipped Mondry, who, by his own account, has lead a charmed life.

"I'd like to think there was some talent involved, but you have to admit that a certain amount of luck has to do with it."

But no one helps grow a business from $250 million to nearly $6 billion in sales on sheer luck.

"I was also hungry, always driven," Mondry told DSN. And he was always one of the youngest amongst his peers.

Jokes about child labor laws aside, Mondry began his tenure at the age of 12, working in the back rooms of Highland Superstores in his native Michigan. Highland was owned by a distant relative and afforded Mondry the opportunity to learn his trade from the ground up.

By age 14, he was on the floor, selling small appliances and calculators. By the time he was in high school, he was working 40 hours per week as one of the company's top salesmen.

Mondry graduated from Boston University and was offered a job as a buyer for Highland in then emerging computer category. But Mondry, uncertain of his path, opted instead to remain a student.

So he went back to school for an MBA, a task that actually proved to be more daunting than working with computers.

One semester later, he called Highland back.

With the computer buyer job filled, Mondry took an assistant buyer position in what was then a new category. "Maybe you've heard of it, video cassette recorders?" Mondry said.

Mondry attributes some of his success to familial connections and the fact that the buyer he assisted kept getting promoted. "I just rode his coattails," Mondry said.

In reality, Mondry quickly achieved success due to his own abilities. By the time he was 25 years old, he was responsible for between $200 million and $300 million worth of business and was named senior buyer, vp of merchandise at age 27. He eventually held the title of vp, national merchandise manager at Highland.

He was lured away in 1990 to CompUSA, then Software House. It was the only interview he'd ever been on, having worked at Highland ever since a family member arranged for a job during his adolescence. Although he admits to having been terrified, Mondry aced the interview and landed a position as CompUSA's senior vice president and general merchandise manager.

He joined the company at the beginning of its rapid expansion, but subsequent financial ups and downs in the computer industry have allowed Mondry to experience both an uncertain future and unqualified success.

He remembers a time when the company did a juggling act with its bills, playing what Mondry called "vendor bingo," or the "who should we pay this month and who can we make wait" game.

"We didn't have a buying staff; stores were merchandised and ads were run based on co-op dollars rather than what we [should have been promoting]," he said.

A lot has changed since then. CompUSA now has 139 superstores in 62 metropolitan areas and is testing the waters in smaller markets as well. Corporate and small business accounts, service contracts, training centers, government and school contracts, CompUSA Direct Internet and catalog ordering, the built-to-order CompUSA PC, and even a recent foray as an on-site reseller at Northwestern University in Chicago all contribute to double-digit sales growth and record increases quarter after quarter.

Mondry has helped the company grow from eight stores and $250 million in sales to almost $6 billion per year.

He instigated the new interactive digital camera display now popping up in CompUSA stores nationally. Based on early camcorder sales methods, the camera centers offer customers the opportunity to pick up and use each digital camera in the store. Most other retailers are merchandising the new products under glass, inhibiting sales.

At CompUSA, photographic scenes are mounted over the circular display. Consumers can snap a picture, which is then transmitted by cable modem to a PC and printed out by a store employee. This hands-on selling approach is helping boost the department's sales and is one that CompUSA is betting will help make digital cameras hot sellers going into 1998, Mondry said.

Business solution centers are another Mondry project, launching a dedicated department within the store to fully serve the small business and home officer user. The center features high-end PCs and notebooks for business applications and consultation, training and service centers that target this growing market.

The CompKids center -- a feature in all CompUSA stores no matter what the size -- was a Mondry brainchild as well.

Merchandising 139 CompUSA superstores is a daunting job, but Mondry's youth serves him well. He claims he rarely sleeps, a condition he attributes primarily to the fact that he has three children, the youngest just 7 months old.