Roanne Miller will leave Grassroots Outdoor Alliance in August after guiding the organization through five of the most tumultuous years in specialty retailing history.
Contacted Thursday, Miller said she has no immediate plans other than to get some well- deserved rest. She will attend her last Outdoor Retailer show as Grassroots president next month.
“It’s been a fabulous job, but I’ve been in this industry for 34 years,” Miller told The B.O.S.S. Report in a telephone call from Park City, where she lives. “I’m going to take a break from work.”
Grassroots, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this year, provides purchasing, networking, advocacy, education and other services to independent, outdoor specialty retailers. Grassroots retailers have a particularly heavy presence in the Southeast, where its members include multi-store operators such as Great Outdoor Provision Co. (NC and VA), Half Moon Outfitters (SC and GA) and Massey’s Professional Outfitters (New Orleans). But its members also operate more than 20 stores west of the Mississippi, including Midwest Mountaineering in Minneapolis, The Alpine Shop in St Louis and Skinny Skis in Jackson, WY.
Grassroots has launched a search for Miller’s successor, who will have a tough act to follow. During Miller's tenure, the organization came out of the worst recession in generations and experience two of the country’s driest and warmest winters back-to-back. Yet, Grassroots increased its membership 78 percent to 50 retailers and 100 stores with combined annual sales exceeding $250 million, up about 40 percent since 2008. Grassroots also grew its list of vendor partners 76 percent amidst growing mistrust between retailers and manufacturers.
“You do not replace a Roanne Miller,” said Dawson Wheeler, owner of Rock/Creek and a Grassroots board member. “You honor her by carrying her legacy and accomplishments at Grassroots Outdoor Alliance forward. She was hired to fulfill a mission for Grassroots, and she far surpassed her goals.
Miller started in the outdoor industry in the late 1970s, when at age 19 she opened her own retail store in Denver. In 1987 she went to work setting up pro deals for Chouinard Equipment Ltd from a trailer in a parking lot at the company’s offices in California. From there she held positions at Patagonia, Levi Strauss & Co and Marmot.
When she joined Grassroots in fall 2009, the Great Recess had officially ended, but unemployment rates were still climbing and consumer spending was still falling. One of her first crisis was the near failure of a Grassroots retailer.
The recession only compounded growing mistrust Grassroots retailers were expressing toward vendors for selling direct – not only to consumers through their own dotcoms and brick-and-mortar stores – but to Amazon.com. In the 2010-11 period, Grassroots was urging all its vendors to halt sales to Amazon in 2011.
Miller’s greatest contribution may have been helping retailers and vendors feel their way through the rapidly changing retail landscape. She did this in part by expanding the annual Grassroots buying show into more of a networking, education and fundraising event where retailers and high level brand executives could deepen their relationships. Under her leadership, Grassroots also added a second winter show that enabled vendors to present their lines more fully and collect pre-season orders well ahead of their deadlines. Together, Grassroots members and vendors have raised more than $800,000 for local environmental and social causes since 2009.
“She has single handedly changed the nature of relationships between innovative outdoor retailers and like-minded vendor partners,” said Gordon Seabury, CEO of Toad & Co, which owns the apparel brand Horny Toad, which is a Grassroots vendor partner.
Miller said one key task of her successor will be to continue guiding members and manufacturers as the retail industry continues to morph. She sees successful specialty retailers forging deeper and deeper relationship with like-minded brands to essentially become their local marketing partners.
“For the vendors that can understand the challenges of specialty retailing and provide support that allows the specialty retailer to operate and present their product in a way only the specialty retailer can i.e.; with good terms and marketing support – Grassroots will remain a great partner,” said Miller. “Manufacturers need to make a decision and that's okay and I think that’s the difference between the conversation we had a year ago and the one we are having today. We understand the manufactures are going to do what the manufacturers are going to do
