Courtesy / Bull Moose
Bull Moose’s store in Waterville, one of 11 in Maine and New Hampshire.
August 31, 2022
New Bull Moose CEO envisions collaborative retail and arts opportunities
Courtesy / Bull Moose
Shawn Nichols, president and CEO of Bull Moose, envisions new collaborations for the music and entertainment retail chain.
In January, Portland-based music and entertainment retail chain Bull Moose became 100% employee-owned, creating an employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP, for more than 180 employees in 11 stores.
Shawn Nichols became president and CEO, titles previously held by Brett Wickard, who founded the chain in 1989 and stays on as chairman. The retailer sells books, movies, games and pop culture items.
A lifelong Mainer, Nichols joined the Army after high school, attended the University of Maine at Presque Isle, then began an extensive retail career. He joined Bull Moose in February 2021 as vice president of operations.
Nichols said he sees great opportunities for Bull Moose to become more active in the New England community of artists and to expand beyond its current footprint in Maine and New Hampshire.
We asked Nichols how those ideas are rolling out. Here’s an edited transcript.
Mainebiz: What’s your background?
Shawn Nichols: Pretty extensive retail exposure with some of the largest retailers in their respective areas. I was a store manager for Sears and Staples, a district manager with Walmart special divisions, a district manager for Starbucks, and a regional director of store operations for Goodwill of Northern New England.
MB: How did you land at Bull Moose?
SN: Like most people throughout Maine and New Hampshire, I’ve always been keenly aware of Bull Moose, as well as a life-long customer. My first connection from an employment standpoint came due to our previous sister company FieldStack – a Portland-based retail solutions software company also started by Brett Wickard, the founder of Bull Moose. I have a close friend who thought I would be an asset to FieldStack. But when I reached out to Brett, he thought Bull Moose — and here we are.
MB: What does Bull Moose consist of now?
SN: We have 11 brick-and-mortar retail stores in Maine and New Hampshire, and our web store. The number of employees fluctuates, but right now it’s just north of 180. Our largest categories continue to be music — vinyl and a slight nostalgic resurgence of CDs and cassette tapes — movies, and a close third is actually books.
MB: You mentioned new opportunities for the company. Tell us about that.
SN: We have three goals. We are absolutely interested in and open to increased and expanded collaborations throughout New England, to include cross-market collaborations with other retailers — think store-within-a-store concepts, perhaps a 'mini-Moose' or 'Bull-tique' if you will — carrying today’s new releases, yesterday’s deep catalog hits within another retailer’s space, while at the same time we’re carrying a selection of their merchandise in ours. If the brands complement each other and it benefits our combined customer base, then it might be a win for local and regional retail.
Or perhaps it’s a collaboration with a local museum, brewery, sports team. We certainly understand the value of our brand and understand the power of joining together with other New Englanders to support each other, share growth opportunities, and give all of our customers more access to the brands they love.
This is also a fantastic way for local retail to compete with national chains, working together to provide the experience that a modern consumer wants and expects.
MB: What’s the status of that idea?
SN: We’re in the discovery phase with the hope that, in 2023, we can start linking with other New England brands.
MB: Goal No. 2?
SN: Building community through the arts. This has always been a special part of the Bull Moose history, our story of growth over the years — and the last few years, due to the pandemic, we’ve slipped away from this part of our culture. While music labels and publishing houses merge at the national level, it is decidedly important for independent retailers to provide a platform for local and emerging artists.
Bull Moose is making a newly energized commitment to build community through the arts in New England – we are currently in production and exploring platforms to showcase local musicians. We are in the early stages of discussing how we can play a role in advancing the visibility and reach of other art forms as well — local filmmakers, authors, painters, crafters. Bull Moose is uniquely positioned throughout New England to play an active role in these vibrant art scenes by working with the individual creators, establishments, events, towns, states. We can absolutely due our part to build better communities, connected communities through art.
MB: Goal No. 3?
SN: Investing in employees. The current 2022 turnover rate nationally for retail sits at 60.5%. For 2022, Bull Moose reduced its turnover to 50%, and that number appears to be trending down month over month. Contributing factors implemented over the last year include:
• Conversion to an ESOP employee-owned company.
• Instituted a store manager advisory council that meets virtually once a month to discuss performance and tactical direction.
• Instituted an ESOP committee, comprised of one primary and one alternate representative per store, that meets virtually once a quarter to formally bring forward employee thoughts and hear strategic direction.
• Re-enforced our open-door culture — any employee can call or email senior leadership at any time with thoughts, concerns, questions, ideas.
• Launched an “ideas mailbox” where employees can submit via email their ideas around driving revenue, controlling costs, making it easier to be a customer, making it easier to be an employee.
• Held a “Start, Stop, Continue 360” review in which every employee at every level was encouraged to submit: the top three things we should start doing immediately and why; the top three things we should stop doing immediately and why; the top three things we need to continue doing.
• Implemented our “Drive to $15” — a phased approach to make our minimum starting rate $15 per hour, which we completed in June.
• Asked all employees to participate in choosing our new “Core Values and Behaviors” — respect, dependability, communication, collaboration, openness, passion.
• Full company review/update/rewrite of every policy document, handbook, standard operating procedure document — all following the same format for ease of use and absorption.
• Hired a new vice president of HR.
MB: Other plans?
SN: We’re shifting to meet the customer where they’re at — exploring different store concepts, varying layouts, right-sized category selections, new cities and towns, embracing “retail-tainment” – the fusion of retail and entertainment — where the customers shop for the experience and feeling they get from our stores.
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