Listen to the interview here!
Gerard Russo
Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece. Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project, Berks County Living. Today I am with Gerry Russo of Fifty-Fifty Tuxedos. Gerry, welcome to the Get Inspired! Project.
Gerard Russo: Thank you, Toni.
Toni: Tell us a little bit about yourself, Gerry.
Gerry: I graduated from Central Catholic and Penn State, and I originally wanted to go to school to become a landscape architect. Back in high school, my brother and I never saw my father much at prom time, so I said to my brother, “Why don’t we go down to the store and help Dad get home a little early so we can spend some time with him?” That was about 1976 – and we’ve been helping ever since.
Toni: That was a decision that changed your life, didn’t it?
Gerry: Yes, kind of. You get hooked on the customers.
Toni: Let’s go into the first question of the Get Inspired! Project. What does inspiration mean to you?
Gerry: Inspiration to me is a form of motivation. Motivating to work six and seven days a week, to continue my grandfather and father’s business in a way that they would be proud of. To wait on a customer no matter how long it takes with courtesy, respect, patience, satisfying their every need is very motivating.
Toni: So motivation equates to inspiration for you.
Gerry: Yes.
Toni: Is that something that you can absolutely feel when you’re inspired by something or someone or your business?
Gerry: Oh, yes.
Toni: Your business has been in business for how long?
Gerry: Since 1929.
Toni: Oh my gosh! There must be a lot of motivation and a lot of inspiration behind this company.
Gerry: Yes, there is.
Toni: Is it palpable? Can you feel it still?
Gerry: Oh, yes. There’s pictures of my grandfather and father everywhere, and they put in six and seven days a week for 50-55 years straight.
Toni: Oh my gosh – that is a legacy!
Gerry: That’s pretty motivating.
Toni: That is! So you’re inspired by their legacy?
Gerry: Yes.
Toni: That’s very cool.
Gerry: Waiting on one customer at a time.
Toni: That’s the motto – one at a time.
Gerry: Yes. Building a relationship – that’s what business is all about.
Toni: Does it inspire you to do the same in other areas of your life then as well?
Gerry: Yes, it does.
Toni: How does that happen?
Gerry: We just had a 35th class reunion. Just trying to get people to come to a class reunion is quite a project. That’s actually harder than being in business, believe it or not!
Toni: So why weren’t they inspired to come to the class reunion?
Gerry: That’s pretty good … I don’t think we have a long enough time to talk about all that.
Toni: Oh, okay, okay.
Gerry: It’s interesting, though.
Toni: Let’s go back to the legacy and what inspires you. How do you put that type of inspiration and that motivation into practice here in Berks County? Can you give us some examples of that?
Gerry: What motivates me with a customer is when they come and pick a tuxedo up, they’re getting married on a Saturday, they come in on a Thursday, they pick it up, they try it on – we try everything on, from the bow tie down to the shoes, and if it’s not right, we’ll make it right, right on the spot. If I have to shorten a pair of sleeves 1/16” for a fellow who’s real particular, I will do that.
Toni: There’s a word that’s running through my head right now listening to you, and that’s “care.”
Gerry: Yes. A lot of care.
Toni: So you’re inspired to do a great job, but I would imagine based on the longevity of your business and what you do – and you’re in the people business as far as satisfying those customers …
Gerry: Yes, we are.
Toni: There has to be some level of care there.
Gerry: Yes, a lot of care.
Toni: How do you transfer that inspired care into other people that work with you?
Gerry: They just observe. The customers will tell you what they want and how they want it, and it’s our job to fulfill those needs.
Toni: Gerry, since you’ve been doing this for a very long time, can you give me an example of how focused you’ve had to be on your customers with that level of care, how has that transferred into maybe something else that you do for Berks County? Do you find yourself having that level of high expectation of care in other areas as well?
Gerry: To be honest with you, continuing this business that my grandfather and father started takes an awful lot of effort. It’s six to seven days a week, at prom time it’s 15 hours a day for two months straight. It’s a lot of work, and you’re lucky to be standing at the end of it. I don’t have a whole lot of energy. If you want to do some things with your family … I don’t have a whole lot of energy for anything else. I’m so focused on this business. We’ve been doing business for almost 84 years, and I try not to let my dad down and my grandpop down.
Toni: See, that’s inspiring to me listening to you – that level of dedication and care. To be that honest about it … what I’m sensing from you is, “Toni, I don’t have time to care about anything else right now except for keeping this alive.”
Gerry: I really don’t. But then on the other hand, I say to myself, “When I retire, I want to get more involved in the church. I want to get more involved in politics. I want to get more involved in organizations.” People ask me to get involved in things every month, and I just don’t have the time, because customers take up a lot of your time. When you’re waiting on customers all day … you have a bride and groom come in, and sometimes you’re with them for two hours trying stuff on. They want to see what they’re going to look like on that important day. It’s about service. You can get a tux anywhere, but when you come to our store, you’re going to get the best service you’ve ever had. I guarantee it.
Toni: So there’s that care and experience again. Who in Berks County inspires you?
Gerry: I thought about that, Toni.
Toni: So who is it?
Gerry: I couldn’t really think of anybody. The only person I can think of is my grandpop, and my father. Just trying to do things the way they did it, building a relationship with customers. When you do that, the customers just … we have notes and pictures for the last 84 years in our store that customers send us. Pictures of wedding parties and notes thanking us for the great job that we did, and that inspires me a lot. To get somebody to sit down and write a note, you have to touch them.
Toni: So your customers inspire you.
Gerry: Right. In fact, we had a competitor in our Reading store about 20 years ago, and we have a big bulletin board with all these pictures and these notes people send us. He said to me, “Where did you get these pictures and these notes?” I said, “Customers send them to us.”
He said, “I never got one of those.”
Toni: That’s pretty amazing, isn’t it? That’s eye opening. It’s important for people that are listening to your interview to know that this is not a promotional interview. This is your life.
Gerry: Right.
Toni: This is what inspires you.
Gerry: This is what we do.
Toni: This is what you do.
Gerry: Customers are our life.
Toni: That’s right. The experience, the care, the legacy – all of that.
Gerry: Right.
Toni: What motivates you … that’s really amazing, that all of those years are wrapped into what makes you tick.
Gerry: When I go in a business and I get terrible service, I just want to grab the owner somewhere and just take him off to the side and just tell him, “This just isn’t working here. You need somebody else here in the front.”
Toni: And you are not inspired by that person?
Gerry: No.
Toni: What do you want your legacy to be?
Gerry: I want my legacy to be that we were a company that always put the customer first. For example, every Saturday morning I go in half-hour before we open and I call every groom personally – no matter if we have two weddings or 15 weddings – I call each one personally on a Saturday morning to make sure that everyone in the wedding tried their tuxedo on and if everything is satisfactory. If it isn’t, we will run something to their home if they need a larger shirt or longer pants, whatever they need. We’ll make it right, because that’s what we do. That’s our business. Service. We’re in a service business.
Toni: You know, there are going to be people and other businesses that are listening to your interview, and this legacy is about care, experience, and as you said so emphatically, service. It’s all wrapped up in all these years of your business. I can feel it, and boy, that’s what this interview was all about. You are inspired by a high, high level of service. I appreciate you being part of the Get Inspired! Project, Gerry.
Gerry: You’re welcome, Toni. Thanks for having me.
Toni: Thank you so much.
