Step Inside the RICARDO Boutiques

Creating a Mood

The RICARDO boutiques are the type of place where it’s nice to stroll around at your own pace, and choose objects and utensils to make your life easier and help you cook better. Here, we work closely with the magazine team so that every issue offers something new for readers to discover, from dishes to decorative objects, that they can find in our stores afterwards.

Everything depends on the layout and installation of the decorating elements. Under the watchful eye of Guillaume, our Visual Presentation and Merchandising Specialist, tablecloths, dishes and candleholders tell a story.

“It’s like a giant playground for me,” he says. “We create harmonious tables. In all of our stores, customers will find the same essence. We also change the moods often; there’s a rotation. Whether you like traditional, elegant or more rustic, you’ll find everything you need to get inspired.”

This keen interest in pretty tables comes from our president, Brigitte, who has a real passion for this. She likes to see this expressed both in the magazine and in the boutiques. We want to inspire our customers with our love of beautiful, simple things. Above all, we view it as helping them have more pleasant mealtimes and more harmony in their everyday lives.

Good Management

If there’s one winning condition for a successful business, it’s when everything is running smoothly. Whether it’s managing in-store purchases, staff support, marketing strategies or product promotion, Anicée, our Boutique Manager, ensures that everything runs smoothly and supports every department.

“When customers visit the stores and see smiling employees who are well informed, it heightens their experience and they feel like coming back. Our attendants are the best ambassadors for the brand. They know the products by heart. Customer service and after-sales service are very important in our stores.”

Inspiring Products

When you walk towards a RICARDO boutique, just a glimpse at our window display is enough to catch your attention. Then you just need to get through the door to discover a world of objects that’ll charm you at first glance. We’re all easily attracted by a large selection of products.

Whether you’re looking for a wooden spatula or candles to create a nice atmosphere in the dining room, you’ll find everything you need to brighten up your everyday life with local and foreign brands. To succeed, our team must get started well in advance to buy the products that cater to current trends and customers’ expectations.

“In our line of work, we’re always 8 to 9 months ahead of schedule when it comes to buying products and there are always three seasons that overlap,” explains Gaëlle, our Purchasing and Procurement Specialist. “So we have to anticipate what’s coming. Once a year, we go to a trade show in Toronto and buy according to what’s in season and what sold well in previous years. We try to estimate what will work and please our customers.”

For example, items to cook delicious recipes on the barbecue are ordered in August with suppliers so that they can be on display at the stores around mid-May the following year. Ordered in March, Christmas tablecloths and napkins start making an appearance on our shelves at the end of October. Everything is planned ahead!

Exceptional Sources

While the desire to fill our stores with a ton of beautiful things is never far away, we still need to be able to source and stock the items our customers want. This meticulous—and essential!—task is the responsibility of Mélanie, our Procurement Clerk. She manages the online store from A to Z with Gaëlle.

Whether it’s about receiving merchandise, managing orders or all the logistics surrounding sold articles both in-store and online, everything is closely accounted for so that we never run out of anything. Mélanie also creates the files for upcoming products, which allows her to have an overall view of future seasons.

Every week, Gaëlle and Mélanie look at the sales from the previous week and make sure to restock the shelves and provide variety. “There’s a lot going on in the store and there are always new products to check out,” explains Mélanie. “I love that we have so many items that vary according to the time of year. It’s inspiring!”

Christmas in Our Stores

The busiest time of the year in retail is the holiday season. It officially started on November 1, but we’ve been thinking about it for nearly a year and some products have been available in our stores since October 15. “People start getting ready for Christmas earlier every year. You can see it in a majority of businesses,” observes Anicée. “For our part, employees have already received all the information they need about the products and they’re ready to answer customers’ questions.”

Whether they’re looking to cook meat pies, put their plump turkey on a serving plate or add pretty plates in the colours of the season to their collection, we’ve got items to satisfy everyone’s desires. “People want to entertain,” says Guillaume. “They want to treat themselves to art of the table products. We’re here to make suggestions. Ultimately, our goal is to ensure that our customers are satisfied.”

So, RICARDO boutiques are places that you feel like visiting in person to treat yourself. They’re proof that it’s still possible to put forward a concept that attracts customers enough to make them want to go out of their way. All this is possible with a lot of imagination, good resource management, precise sourcing and clear values.

To find out about opportunities and job offers within the company, click here.