By Meg Thornton, Editor

If you want to get in touch with Jack Tate, president of Baby Superstore, don’t expect to find him at the company’s headquarters. Tate doesn’t have an office. He hasn’t for decades.

If you then opt to go through a vice president of sorts, don’t bother. Baby Superstore has none. There are no middle management types, either. Thus, an initial attempt to make contact with “a company official” can be quite frustrating. “You can’t contact him. He’ll have to call you,” callers are told.

What is this. Some kind of rinky-dink, back-shop operation?

Hardy, although it doesn’t take a cynic to wonder. Baby Superstore ended last year with $60 million in sales, and sales for this year are $90 million. The nation’s largest chain of megastores for baby products, the privately owned retailers has 33 stores in 10 states, and counting. This year, four “smaller” stores (less than 20,000 square feet each) will close and 12 larger stores (about 25,000 square feet) will open. And by year’s end, all locations will be in what Tate calls “an enhanced depot” format, following the lead of Home Deport, Office Depot an Sam’s Club, sans the concrete floors.

If Tate’s company is so successful, why the “no office, no vice presidents” scenario? It’s because Tate embodies the true spirit of Quick Response. He has knocked down barriers that prevents him and other employees from being close to the ultimate authority — the consumer. He office, per se, is the Baby Superstore he’s visiting at the moment.

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