Thinking Outside the Box

Ross-Simons’ management had what Bender calls a “mid-range goal”: to be as aggressive as they could be without a huge loss.

The company has been pleased with traffic and sales figures so far: As of last December, year-to-date Internet sales had jumped 400 percent over the same period the prior year, and in one week in December topped out at $186,000. Darrell Ross, president of Ross-Simons, points to a significant milestone the company reached on Dec. 1, 1998, noting that “On that day, Internet sales exceeded through-the-mail sales for the first time since www.ross-simons.com was launched.”