Proud to serve: American Uniforms Sales Inc.

by Grant Rosenberg

Shamdasani, president of American Uniform Sales Inc., headquartered in Fayetteville, N.C. When his ability to recall this date so quickly is remarked upon, he chuckles and says matter-of-factly, “It was a very important day in my life.”

And how could it not be? On that day, Shamdasani not only entered the uniform business but also created a long-lasting enterprise that has given him and his family a successful shared livelihood for a quarter of a century.

These days, American Uniform Sales is a force in the public safety market, with four locations and a 40-person workforce. But it wasn’t always on this level; back in January of 1976, when the first location opened in Fayetteville, N.C., there were only two employees–Shamdasani himself and his seamstress. “The company started bidding and working the local area, within 10-15 miles of Fayetteville with their own municipalities, sheriffs’ and fire departments,” recalls Shamdasani. “Pretty quickly we established ourselves as a solid business entity, expanding out 50 miles or so.” Within a year, its sales area had grown to a 100-mile radius of Fayetteville.

On July 1, 1981, they opened a second facility in Alexandria, Va., after searching half a year for the proper location. “Our main criterion was to situate ourselves close to a visible entity, since Washington, D.C., is a very large metropolitan market. We found a site next to a major furniture company that was spending millions of dollars in advertising a year. So as soon as we opened and told people where we were, they instantly knew our location. It saved us tremendous marketing and visibility costs.”

The Alexandria location was the first of Shamdasani’s stores to be designed with a retail environment in mind. Two years later, the company bought the entire building. Eventually, it ventured into real estate for a few years, but ultimately refocused on uniforms. It also has expanded even further, and now has a total of four locations; in addition to Fayetteville and Alexandria, it has properties in Charlotte, N.C., and Philadelphia, Pa., as well.

“We are still looking at our business the old fashioned way, which means we have sales reps who are visiting our customers every day, both outside and inside sales people,” continues Shamdasani. Though many uniform retailers are beginning to phase out outside salespeople, he feels that outside sales is a very important and an integral part of their business. There are four outside salespeople in North Carolina, three in Philadelphia, with company General Manager John Kinlaw serving as the sales manager for the North Carolina operation. Says Kinlaw, “Our concept of doing business the ‘old-fashioned’ way is to incorporate the modern tools with [old fashioned] service. And that means having trained personnel in the field to deal one-on-one with the customers. We want to utilize all the modern elements available to us, but we wish to back that up with traditional service and trained personnel.”

American Uniform Sales is a member of the Military Affairs Council, a group developed by the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce in which the local business community interacts and works with the military community at Fort Bragg. The Military Affairs Council fosters a working relationship between the two groups.

Quality and service are the main hallmarks of the business, according to Shamdasani. American Uniform Sales offers such services as same-day alterations, which is no small task considering its relationship to the military. Individuals are encouraged to wait for the emblems to be attached to garments and trousers to be hemmed so they can walk out fully dressed in their new uniforms. “As a matter of fact, at all of our locations, our customers have been known to come with new cadets, new recruiting classes in numbers–it could be five, it could be 35–and we outfit them on the spot.” As part of this service to its customers, all the locations are very heavily inventoried and stocked with merchandise giving each the ability to outfit customers very quickly. “We do substantial business with military bases around the country as well, primarily on the internet.”