HOWDY DUTY

Riding in her mother's shopping cart, a little girl held her arm out as she passed Edith Hornbuckle near the inside entrance to Wal-Mart Supercenter, located alongside Interstate 55 at Cape Girardeau.

Hornbuckle smiled, selected a "Wal-Mart Happy Face" sticker and carefully placed it on the youngster's arm.

"Thanks," said the youngster who displayed a smile of her own.

"A lot of youngsters look for the happy face sticker when they pass here," said Hornbuckle.

Another Wal-Mart customer stopped to ask about exchanging a purchase. Yet another asked where the electronics department was located.

Hornbuckle had the right answer for both. She is one of a new growing crowd which started cropping up in Wal-Mart stores in the early 1980s and has now spread to a number of other businesses, including some auto dealerships.

"I'm a people greeter," said Hornbuckle. "This is something I like to do. I worked as an assembly line operator in a hat factory for years, and this is a big change of pace. I like people and enjoy talking to them."

Tracy Moriarty agrees.

Moriarty, a graduate student at Southeast Missouri State University, has worked as a "people greeter" at Cape Toyota-Suzuki, 835 S. Kingshighway in Cape Girardeau, for three and a half years.

She meets potential car buyers on the lot.

"Most of the people I meet are really nice, and they seem to appreciate a greeter," said Moriarty, "I usually say, `hi, welcome,' and chat with them until a salesperson is free. I'll offer them brochures and coffee."

People greeters are fairly "new kids on the block" for retail merchants.

The late Sam Walton triggered the concept in his Wal-Mart stores across the nation in 1980.

Tom Coughlin, in the book, "Sam Walton: Made in America," tells how Wal-Mart came to have "people greeters."

"Mr. Walton and I went into a Wal-Mart in Crowley, La., back in 1980," said Coughlin. "The first thing we saw as we opened the door was this older gentleman standing there. The man didn't know me, and he didn't see Sam, but he said, ~`Hi! How are ya? Glad you're here. If there's anything I can tell you about our store, just let me know.'

"Neither Sam nor I had ever seen such a thing, so we started talking to him. Well, once he got over the fact that he was talking to the chairman, he explained that he had a dual purpose - to make people feel good about coming in, and to make sure people weren't walking back out of the entrance with merchandise they hadn't paid for.

"The store, it turned out, had trouble with shoplifting, and its manager was an old-line merchant named Dan McAllister, who knew how to take care of his inventory. He didn't want to intimidate the honest customers by posting a guard at the door, but he wanted to leave a clear message that if you came in and stole, someone was there who would see it.

"Well, Sam thought that was the greatest idea he'd ever heard of. He went right back to Bentonville and told everyone we ought to put greeters at the front of every single store. A lot of people thought he'd lost his mind.

"Our folks felt that putting someone at the door was a waste of money. They just couldn't see what Sam and Dan McAllister were seeing -- that the greeter sent a warm, friendly message to the good customers, and a warning to the thief. They fought him all the way on it. Some people tried hard to talk him out of. They tried to ignore it.

"Sam just kept pushing and pushing and pushing," said Coughlin. "Every week, every meeting, he'd talk about greeters. He'd throw fits whenever he went into a store and didn't find one. Gradually, he wore everyone down and got his way. I'd say it took about a year and a half because they really resisted. But, Sam was relentless.

"I guess his vindication had to be the day in 1989, when he walked into a Kmart in Illinois and found that they had installed people greeters at their front doors."

A number of other big retailers -- large hardware stores and general merchandise outlets -- have followed suit.

"I remember when Wal-Mart first started the practice," said Terry Godwin, manager of the Cape Girardeau Superstore. "Louisiana was the first area to start using the greeters. I was working in a Louisiana Wal-Mart at the time."

Godwin said greeters have developed into a good practice for the business.

"Some people may have the perception that the greeters are really placed at the doors for security reasons," said Godwin. "Actually, they're really there to greet customers, provide directions to items in the store as a customer service. We have a total of 15 greeters here, and they're on the doors from 7 a.m. to midnight."

Godwin said Wal-Mart looks for people with "outgoing personalities," who like to talk with other people, for greeter positions.

"I have nothing to do with security," said Hornbuckle. "I talk to people. If I do see something that may not be right, I will call our security people."

Hornbuckle was the first full-time greeter hired in Cape Girardeau.

She has a number of duties.

"Number one, of course, is to welcome people to Wal-Mart," she said. "But, we also help the elderly and disabled, and we direct people by the nearest route to the department they want.

"I think it's a great practice," she said. "The people greeters are Wal-mart's front-end sources of information. We're the first people that customers see."

The greeters meet all types of people.

"Most are nice," said Hornbuckle. "I've been at this more than six years. But there's one incident that I recall even today.

"Three men entered the store one day, and I said good morning to them," she said. "One of the men snapped back, `I sure don't see anything good about it.'"

Hornbuckle said she didn't think any more about it. But about an hour later, the same three men started to leave the store when the one who had "snapped" at her turned and came back.

"I just want to apologize to you," he said. "You really made my day by speaking to me. I was having a bad day until your greeting."

"I always remember that," said Hornbuckle.

Toyota-Suzuki started using people greeters about five years ago.

"Historically in the car business, prospective customers have trouble getting waited on,' said Jack McDonough, of the Toyota-Suzuki dealership. "A lot of times, salesmen will be busy with other customers. We decided to employ greeters."

McDonough, who feels greeters are now an important part of his business, hires university students for the positions.

"It's not hard work," said Moriarty. "It's a job we can work around our college classes, and I enjoy talking to people."

For Moriarty, being a greeter also helps her prepare for her career -- speech and communications.

2-1-94 the Cape Girardeau Board of Education hopes to replace old buildings with new elementary classrooms, setting aside for now the idea of a middle school.

The board met in a work session Monday to again look at the direction the district should take.

"I think the issue that stands the best chance of passing is solving our elementary overcrowding, leaving the grade configuration as it is now -- K through 6," said Board President John Campbell.

At the end of the meeting, board members asked administrators to put together figures on how both Washington and May Greene can be closed while at the same time addressing overcrowding at the elementary level. And, if possible, the board would like to eliminate eight mobile classrooms now in use.

The board discussed the possibility of building a new elementary school and an addition to Jefferson Elementary.

2-1-94 McCLURE, Ill. -- A Southern Illinois nightclub that was the scene of a deadly altercation Saturday should have been shut down for repeated liquor law violations, an Illinois state trooper said Monday.

"Something should have been done," said Trooper Kenneth Calvert. He pointed out there's been a history of problems at the Hush Puppy Too tavern near the intersection of Routes 3 and 146 in Alexander County. They range from minors frequenting the establishment to fights, he said.