Jerry Pearson remembers a life-changing conversation he had nearly 40 years ago.
It happened not too long after Pearson opened his first luggage store in the Bon Marche shopping center, as he tells Business Report in its new cover story. An insurance agent had come into the store and for whatever reason, the two men began talking about GM&O, a railroad company that had shuttered seven years earlier.
“He told me if GM&O had been in the transportation business rather than the railroad business, airplanes would now have the name GM&O on them, instead of Delta or American,” Pearson recalls. “That sunk in. I never forgot that.”
The lesson for Pearson was clear: Evolve with the industry if you want to survive.
“I’m in the retail business, not luggage,” Pearson remembers thinking.
Realizing he couldn’t rely solely on travel gear—although it’s what he knew best—to survive in the world of retail, Pearson ventured out. He evolved. He took risks. Most of his hunches—though not all—paid off.
Luggage remained his expertise, but over the years Pearson got into real estate investments while also seeking out interesting products and brands—some you would hardly associate with a traditional luggage and travel business—that often kept his business afloat when times got tough. His tagline became “Pearson’s: Where you always find the unusual.”
Fast forward a few decades, and Pearson is now in the process of evolving once more as online shopping continues to disrupt traditional brick-and-mortar retailers.
While he had more than a dozen stores across three states at one time, he’s down to just one today: his long-time Jefferson Highway location in Baton Rouge. In December, Pearson’s Travel World announced it was downsizing its retail store and turning its focus toward internet sales.
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