By Anne W. Semmes
Scott Mitchell is a notable merchant in his hometown of Greenwich through his family-owned Richards clothing store on Greenwich Avenue. As of October 24, Mitchell was honored along with the Mitchell family with the Greenwich Historical Society’s (GHS) “History in the Making” award for “Three Generations of Retail Excellence and Philanthropy.”
Congratulating Mitchell on a Zoom call for the Award, he noted, “They asked to honor me, and I said, ‘Why don’t we honor the family?’ And they said, ‘We’ll do both.’ And ironically, that same night, we had a huge charity event up at Mitchell’s in Westport where half the family was to be and the other half’s down with me in Greenwich.”
Mitchell was there for the honoring, with the 2023 award-winning Alan Houston presenting the “History in the Making” award at the GHS dinner, and Al Roker, NBC Today anchor engaging Mitchell in a fireside chat. But to attend, Mitchell must fly across the country from Seattle, Washington where he is now based as director of five West coast Mitchell Stores “from Seattle all the way down to Palo Alto, California.”
So, what was the impetus for this Mitchell stores leap across the country? “Just more revenue. We started with Mitchell’s in Westport [circa 1958], then we added Richards through acquisition, then we added our store in [Huntington] Long Island through acquisition. Then we added the two Wilkes Bashford stores in San Francisco and Palo Alto, California, and then Marios in Seattle, then Marios in Portland, and Marios 3.10 in Bridgeport Village [Oregon].”
The Generational Effort
It has taken now four generations of the Mitchell family and their generous outreach to accomplish this across country stretch of stores. How it happens told Mitchell, is “When we buy a store, what do we buy? People and people, customers and the associates who take care of them…We get to know our clients, we get to know their families, we get to know what’s important to them.” And “Somewhere along the way that usually includes what they’re involved in philanthropically, which tends to help us and guide us with what we’re involved in philanthropically… And that’s what we’ve been doing for 60 plus years.”
“My grandfather [Ed Mitchell] was the president of Rotary in Westport,” he continued. “My father [Bill Mitchell] became the president of the Rotary board… He became a trustee of the Inner-City Foundation for Charity & Education for over a decade until the Catholic Church shut down the charity.… My Uncle Jack [Mitchell] was on the Yale Cancer Center Board and the Greenwich Hospital board. I was the chairman of SoundWaters and on their board for 15 years.”
Thank that family connection for opening that door to SoundWaters. “I was standing at the Bruce Museum with my Uncle Jack almost 25 years ago. And Len Miller, who is still alive and was the founder of SoundWaters, whose wife used to work for us at Mitchell’s, tapped my uncle on the shoulder and said, ‘Hey Jack, I want you to join the board of SoundWaters – this charity that I’m running.’ And Jack says, ‘Ask Scott. He just moved to Greenwich [from Westport].’”
“It’s underprivileged kids. It’s the environment and its education,” Mitchell told of SoundWaters. “It hits every bucket that I hold dear as a human, of giving back and helping kids with education, making it free for those who can’t afford it. And PS, I think our planet needs a little TLC, so that works out well.”
And just how that high end clothing store of Richards became a hub for fundraising and philanthropy, Mitchell spelled out. “We bought Richards in 2000. We had a couple of big parties to open the store, but again, I was on the YMCA board, I was involved in Rotary, I was involved in SoundWaters. The Alzheimer’s Association asked if we would do an event. I said, ‘Sure.’ The Greenwich Film Festival asked if we would do some events. ‘Sure.’ Because they are all my customers and friends that asked me to do it…They would provide the food and the wine, and we’d provide a free space…You can come to Richards and get some pretty nice cheese and crackers and wine from Whole Foods and have an event. And that’s money that’s not being taken away from the charity.”
Before COVID, Mitchell shared, “We were having 10 to 20 events a year.” But he noted, “We don’t do political stuff because we have members on either side of the political divide. But at the same time, we’ve honored politicians… SoundWaters did an event one year honoring Bill Nickerson…We were honoring them as people and as philanthropists, not as politicians.”
The Key to the Mitchell Stores Success
Aside from being a platform for philanthropy, how does he attribute the success of these now eight Mitchell stores? “The three most important priorities of ours are relationships, relationships and relationships. Now, what do you need to have relationships? You need customers.” He added, “I’m very blessed, my grandfather got off the train in Westport and not in Stratford or Bridgeport. Westport was a nice town to start a store. You need customers, you need associates, not just the sellers, the whole team of us, you need to have great people to be successful in a relationship business.”
And importantly, “We have to have relationships with our vendors, the people that sell us these fine products, the suits, the sparkles, the shoes, the bags, the jewelry, you name it. We focus on relationships. It doesn’t hurt that we’re nice people. It doesn’t hurt that we pay our bills on time. It doesn’t hurt that we pay our people well. It doesn’t hurt that we do what we say we’re going to do. But really the basis of what we do is founded in relationships. And from that has grown some really nice successes. And not just for us, but for the 400 people who work with us every day and make us look awesome.”
So, what’s fun about working for the Mitchell stores? “We get to meet cool people. Think of the people who walk in our door. Every lawyer, every doctor, every schoolteacher, the firemen come in, the policemen come in, the heads of industry come in. Pick any CEO of any company in Fairfield County, male or female, they all come in, their spouses, their kids over time. We get to meet really cool people who do interesting things.
“They’re coming in for some of the finest products in the world, and if you like nice stuff it’s not a bad place to go play on the playground, whether it’s a piece of jewelry or nice shoes or a belt or a cashmere sweater or a dress. You mix that together with people who want to come to work in your store. And PS, we have the finest products in the world. It’s the playground for big kids. It’s awesome.”
