Arthur Martinez, Sears Outsider, Grew Up With No Catalogues Around
How much of an outsider is Sears Merchandise Group chairman Arthur C. Martinez?
Consider this: His Brooklyn, N.Y., family neither shopped at Sears nor ordered from the Sears catalogue.
“There was a Sears store in Brooklyn, but it was outside our trading area,” he said. For his family, “it was downtown Brooklyn department stores and neighborhood stores.”
The son of a wholesale fish dealer and an Irish immigrant mother, neither of whom went to college, Martinez said he first encountered Sears when he got married, moved to the suburbs and needed appliances and home furnishings.
A year ago, he became the first outsider to head the Sears Merchandise Group.
Martinez graduated from Brooklyn’s Polytechnic University in 1960 with a bachelor of science degree and worked for Exxon Chemical Co. He received an MBA from Harvard in 1965, then moved on to positions with International Paper Co., Talley Industries and RCA Corp.
In 1980, he joined tony retailer Saks Fifth Avenue as senior vice president and chief financial officer. That’s where he got his first taste of retailing.
“I love the tempo of the business. I love the day-to-day nature of it,” Martinez said. “It’s a little frightening at times--you open the doors every day and you’re never sure if people are going to show up--so it’s wonderful but terrifying from time to time.”
He remained with Saks after the chain was acquired by the U.S. arm of British American Tobacco and became chairman of the conglomerate’s retail division, which also included Marshall Field’s, J.B. Ivey and Bruener’s stores.
He oversaw the dismantling of that division in the late 1980s, then became vice chairman of Saks, a position he held until moving to Sears.
He sounds like he’s in retailing to stay.
“What I love about this business and what I love about consumer businesses is that the customer is talking to you all the time, every day. The feedback loop is very fast. The very dynamism of the business is compelling.”
