Retail entrepreneur: David H. Russell.

• Author: Johnson, J. Douglas
• Position: Indiana's Entrepreneurs of the Year

RETAIL ENTREPRENEUR

David H. Russell

DAR Group Investments, Inc.

Evansville

David H. Russell is all for fun, fun, fun. With him, it's "the Friday night fights and the Saturday matinee, darlin'."

Russell learned the shoe trade in a blue suit, kneeling before customers seated in orderly rows as they tried on different pairs he sedately trotted out from the stockroom. The second he could, Russell got out of staid, stagnant, straight-jacket selling and blew the lid off of tradition. In 1978, he invented his new way of marketing footwear-making shopping entertainment.

Russell's Evansville-based Carnival chain has since grown to 35 stores with more than 2,000 employees in Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, Iowa, Tennessee, Michigan and Missouri. And expansion continues to be the name of Carnival's game. Says Russell: We are looking very closely at Ohio and the South, maybe Georgia." His company, DAR Group Investments, inc., intends to expand by eight to I 0 stores a year.

How would you like to go to work where they turn off the jukebox and the boss stands on a stage at a microphone and gives away $10 bills, or where the Indianapolis Colts and the peppy cheerleaders show up for an opening? Russell says the freewheeling, hoopla atmosphere encourages customers to shop long and buy more pairs, plus-it keeps employees on their toes.

Behind the scenes, the hysteria is checked at the door and a seasoned group of serious, experienced experts run the sprawling company. They are alumni of buttoned-down shoe companies such as Brown, Florsheim and...