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Christmas Tree Shops co-founder Doreen Bilezikian ’61 shares story
By Nanette Cormier
Doreen Bilezikian '61
Doreen Bilezikian ’61 remembers when she coined the phrase “Don’t you just love a bargain” in the early 1980s as the slogan for the Christmas Tree Shops, the business she co-founded with her husband, Chuck. But it wasn’t until her marketing team added the “jingle” that the phrase became synonymous to New Englanders with “amazing stuff at unbelievable prices.” Like fairy dust, music brought the words to life, “so that women making dinner in the kitchen would race to the T.V. to see what was on sale,” says Bilezikian.
Someone to be proud of
A graduate of Boston Teachers College, Bilezikian was the featured interviewee at the University of Massachusetts “Someone to Be Proud Of” event on April 7 at the Newton Marriott. She was the first UMass Boston alumna to be interviewed by series co-host Glenn Mangurian, UMass Amherst ’70, MBA, ’73, who created the event to highlight UMass graduates system-wide. In introducing Bilezikian, Chancellor J. Keith Motley said, “the daughter of immigrants, this distinguished alumna’s story resonates deeply with the pathway of so many of our current students. With determination to succeed, astute business sense, and a wealth of ‘people skills,’ Doreen Bilezikian has built one of the most well-known retail establishments in New England.” The Bilezikians sold the business in 1993 to Bed, Bath, and Beyond for a reported $200 million.
Bilezikian says that her teaching degree was a “passport” to a career which began in social work. At the time, few other careers embraced women. She worked for the City of Boston Welfare Agency and the Massachusetts Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children before ever thinking about entering retail. Chuck Bilezikian worked at Gilchrists Department Store. While vacationing in Yarmouth on Cape Cod one Fourth of July, the Bilezikians, with two young sons in tow, met the owner of Cambridge Coffee, Tea, and Spices, a struggling gift shop. “Did they want to buy a business?” By Labor Day 1970 that store was theirs, and soon the family was living in a three room apartment atop one of three fledgling Christmas Tree Shops in Yarmouth.
Baptism by close-outs
“Thirty-seven years of on-the-job training” were kicked off that summer as the family built the business by extending its summer-only schedule, making the leap “across the bridge” to Pembroke, and transitioning from a “closeout-only business” to negotiating directly with vendors in China to create specially designed products. Bilezikian’s first trip to Hong Kong followed soon after President Nixon opened the border. “China is the factory for the world,” she says, and she estimates that she and her husband traveled there over 50 times total, with additional trips to Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand for commerce during the 1980s and 90s. Bilezikian believes the distinctive niche for the Christmas Tree Shops has been the corporation’s relationships with vendors who could deliver on product, quality, and price.
When the store’s merchandise expanded from after-the-fact holiday decorations and they considered a name change, it was too late. Though the original name was slightly odd, enormous good will was now associated with “The Christmas Tree Shops.” In fact, before one recent speaking engagement, a woman in the audience excitedly raised her hand. “Before you say anything, I have to tell you”—the woman volunteered—“for twenty bucks, you are cheaper than a psychiatrist.” Such is only one of a slew of legendary stories of shoppers, both women and men –Chancellor Motley, says he’s the one in his family who loves to shop there– who come to buy one thing and come out with fifteen “whether you need them or not because the prices are so good!” says Mangurian. It hasn’t hurt the business that that public opinion of closeouts went from shabby to chic over the past few decades.
A new family “business”
Running a company with one’s spouse presents challenges, and Bilezikian admits that these were difficult to negotiate. The family’s formula for success was a division of labor, with both Doreen and Chuck contributing their comparative advantage. Hers was buying and marketing, his was operations, real estate, and creating a shopping experience that was pleasing to the customer from stores adorned with the colors of Cape Cod and seaside architecture. A key ingredient for success she says is to separate personal and business life.
Today that balance is managed differently, with the daily whirl of sales and numbers quieted. Bilezikian feels a void without the camaraderie and busyness to which she grew so accustomed. The Bilezikian Family Foundation has filled this void and has become a new shared endeavor for the family. Not surprisingly it supports social causes – food banks, museums, and health and human service agencies – the very types of work which drew Doreen Bilezikian’s interest as she studied education at Boston Teachers College almost fifty years ago.