It’s not easy running an island institution, but Jonice Hughes makes it look that way. Sitting behind the desk in her small office tucked away behind the overflowing counters at L & C Milliner Department Store, Hughes juggles phone calls and traces orders, puts a rush on some items promised for Carnival, answers queries from staff, and never misses a beat as she relates the history of the store and her involvement with it.
After operating smaller businesses in Contant and Savan, Leslie Milliner and his wife Claudia opened the department store on Seventh-day Adventist Street in the 1950s. Claudia died soon after, and he later remarried, but he kept the store’s name.
By the time Hughes moved from Anguilla to St. Thomas with her husband and four children in the early 1980s, the store was a landmark on the local business scene and Milliner was a prominent businessman.
“I started with Mr. Milliner in 1983,” Hughes said, working first as a store clerk. Soon she was promoted to floor manager, then office manager, and eventually assistant manager. Meanwhile, she had earned a degree in business administration at the University of the Virgin Islands.
In 2005 Milliner decided it was time to retire. Hughes said some people urged her to take over the store, telling her she already knew how to run it after her many years of experience there, but she was hesitant.
“The doors were actually closed in November” 2005, she said.
Hughes talked it over with her family. She and her husband Clifton Hughes, together with daughter Minerva Hughes, formed a corporation they named Cutting Edge Apparel, and in 2006, they reopened L & C Milliner.
They retained far more than the name, though they have made a few changes. Merchandise is confined now to the main floor (the second floor is available for rent) and some of the household items the store used to carry, such as curtains, sheets and towels, are no longer available, though there is still a large selection of notions and fabrics.
Hughes has concentrated on clothing and hats, purses and other accessories. Ladies lingerie is the most popular department, she said. But she offers virtually all types of clothing for women and girls and “everything for men… We do the Dickies line for men and boys.” There is also a toddlers department, and plans for a new section for infants.
The store has arguably the largest on-island selection of “church” dresses and suits – outfits that are both dressy and modest. It also carries school uniforms, both ready-made and fabrics for those who want to sew their own.
“We try to keep up with the cultural fabrics, or madras,” she said, noting it is especially popular as people prepare for Carnival celebrations.
“I believe in staying competitive with your prices,” Hughes said, which is tricky when some of the competition are members of national chains that save overhead with volume buying and are able to muscle their orders ahead of smaller outlets. Nevertheless, she said she caters both to the bargain buyer and to the customer who wants quality that lasts.
What really sets the store apart, Hughes believes, is its customer service. The staff is friendly and customers are loyal.
“I just listen and learn” from the customers themselves about what they really want. “When I go on buying trips I take the customers in mind.” She’ll sometimes purchase a particular shirt or dress for a specific customer, knowing he or she is going to like it.
“You have to keep up with the trends,” she said, and that applies not only in fashion, but to marketing as well.
A lot of Caribbean people maintain a U.S. address just for freight forwarding, so they can more easily shop online and from catalogues, she said. Hughes wants to build on that idea. She envisions using the store’s Facebook page to showcase items and take customer orders. St. Thomas residents could then shop online and simply drop by the store to pick up their purchases.
Moreover, Hughes sees L & C Milliner serving customers on other islands. In fact, she says, it could become the Caribbean Connection for stateside suppliers to reach residents throughout the island chain – without losing touch with the regular, walk-in customers who have supported it for decades.
