Kim BrattainFounder/ CEO, Kim Brattain Media · Award-winning Corporate and Documentary Film Producer

Andy Anderson- ReStore Lifetime Achievement Award Winner | Kim Brattain Media

6 Apr 2015 · 3 min

Watch on YouTube

2:50

The video is a tribute to Andy Anderson, the first ReStore manager in Michigan and a Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. Multiple ReStore affiliates and managers share personal anecdotes and observations about Andy’s lasting impact. He pioneered collaborative tools such as a statewide 800‑number and a dedicated website that enable stores to locate each other and share inventory. He personally consulted with small stores, offering phone support, strategic advice, and a five‑year growth plan that helped a Grand Rapids ReStore grow from $500K to nearly $1.5M in gross sales. His detailed accounting and point‑of‑sale guidance is cited as a model for operational excellence. Andy’s patience and consulting during financial hardships made otherwise non‑viable stores sustainable. Colleagues now use his name as a decision‑making heuristic – “What would Andy Anderson do?” – reflecting his cultural imprint on Michigan ReStores.

Chapters

Yes, very smart, very good idea.
And probably a very good margin.
Andy Anderson. But Andy was really the first person that I came across that said we need to work together as restorers. We have an 800 number in Michigan, so if you need to find a Restore, you can call that. He initiated that. We have a website in Michigan. He initiated that. We share product in Michigan. He initiated that. So Andy's very, very important to all of us in Michigan.
I haven't told him that yet. I'm a small little $1,000 a month store, and he took the time to call me, set me up, follow-up phone calls, give me ideas how to get our store going better.
He came to Grand Rapids and produced a 5-year strategic plan for us. We were about a $500,000 gross sales. At the end of the 5 years, we were going to be at $1.5 million. Last year, we just were shy of $1.5 million.
Well, the first time I met him, I pegged him as our best Andy was the first ReStore manager in the state. We were at the Detroit ReStore, and when I walked in, he presented me with these accounting reports, his profit and loss statements, his point of sale. What I like to say is if I had one Andy in every ReStore, we would be achieving what we don't even believe is possible.
Andy's legacy to, to the ReStores here in Michigan Well, through his patience, he has been a consultant to a number of affiliates, helped them through some difficult financial times, and enabled them to make their restores viable when it didn't appear they could be.
You go to do a project, you think, what would Andy do in this situation?
So when we're thinking big and we're thinking about making a change or growing even more, we say, what would Andy Anderson do? And then we do that.
Together, when we support each other, we're stronger than we are as individual stores. So one and one is two, but in Michigan, one and one is three.