“We’re reinvesting in Puerto Rico. By having a bigger footprint, we’re constantly hiring and creating new jobs. We have always believed Puerto Rico has a lot of growth potential, and now we’re actually seeing it,” assures Mr. Jim Taubenfeld, President and CEO of Me Salvé.

Indeed, in the last few years, Me Salvé started an ambitious expansion process to transform their 100-store apparel chain into a major department store concept covering the apparel, home, and beauty segments. With their new concept stores, Me Salvé has managed to expand their product offerings and their physical footprint, which has gone from 5,000-square-foot stores to 8,000 to 20,000-square-foot stores. The results have been more traffic and a larger customer base.

Their strategy has been twofold. On the one hand, they have maintained their successful traits. Their business strategy remains the same: “to offer high-quality goods at a very affordable price”; and they continue to manufacture many of the products they offer, so they keep that competitive advantage. As Mr. Taubenfeld explains, “We do a lot of our own manufacturing, so we have products in Me Salvé at everyday low prices that you will not find in other department stores.” On the other hand, since they also started introducing new products from prestigious brands, their customer base can enjoy bargain hunting as well, all while increasing existing customers’ loyalty. “We still maintain the same everyday low prices that we traditionally had, so this expansion has made us more competitive both within our own customers and the wider market,” says Mr. Taubenfeld. Since Me Salvé established its first new concept store in 2019 with the Plaza Centro store (the first to be rebranded), they have already transformed 40 stores, and they don’t expect to stop any time soon. As Mr. Taubenfeld says, “Our plan is to continue developing our traditional stores into new concept stores. We have our eyes on several locations this year to continue this conversion process.”

Furthermore, while this expansion process takes place, Me Salvé has been going through another, equally meaningful transformation. Two years ago, they started a business training program for their own employees after realizing the key role the private sector can play in addressing some of Puerto Rico’s more pressing challenges, such as education, and wanting to contribute to improving the quality of life of Puerto Ricans. The program is part of the work being developed by Me Salvé’s own foundation, and it offers employees the opportunity to learn and develop business skills and everyday life skills, which enables them to take on social issues. “It’s literally a mini university class about everything in life in two weeks,” states Mr. Taubenfeld, explaining that classes are developed by both in-house personnel and outside guests, who are mostly business professionals and motivational speakers that also focus on family and socially oriented subjects.

So far, the program has already completed its first round, focusing on employees at the management level, who in turn are overseen by supervisors that make sure they apply what they have learned to increase store efficiency and overall well-being. “Our managers are in charge of 10 to 30 people in each store, and we wanted to improve their skills in order to maximize efficiency and get the best performance we can at the business level and personal level from each person. The idea is that everyone benefits from team success at work and at home,” assures Me Salvé’s CEO.

In addition to their in-house training program, Me Salvé is widely recognized throughout the island for its community-focused initiatives. Firstly, they invest heavily in supporting the health and education needs of their employees and their families. For instance, they provide educational materials for children, including laptops, as well as university scholarships and other education-related financing. Moreover, in the last couple of years, they have collaborated with over ten different organizations to support a wide array of causes by promoting donations or purchases. Among these organizations, they continuously work with Da Vida – Puerto Rican League Against Cancer, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the Red Cross, SER de Puerto Rico (a nonprofit supporting children, youth, and adults with physical disabilities and autism), the Cancer Society, and the Alzheimer’s Association. They also support sport-related initiatives, like their recent alliance with the FBPR (the Puerto Rican Baseball Federation), where they sell the national team’s T-shirts and caps to help finance future competitions. As Mr. Taubenfeld proudly states, “Me Salvé is one of the most, if not the most, socially conscious organizations in Puerto Rico. We raise anywhere from $1,000,000 to $3,000,000 a year for all sorts of social responsibility needs on our island.”

Given their enormous success and their commendable Corporate Social Responsibility policies, what started in 1981 as a mere retail apparel store has now become an essential part of Puerto Rico’s economy and a perfect example of the advantages of believing in the island’s potential. Like Mr. Taubenfeld says, they will continue investing in the island “because we believe that is the best way to grow, and it is an investment that’s going to come back to us in a very positive way.” Even on a personal scale, Me Salvé CEO’s Puerto Rican bet seems to have paid off: “I’m living proof of this. I was living as an attorney and CPA in Miami and was presented with an opportunity in Puerto Rico. I saw its potential and I moved here during 1994. And if I was presented with the same opportunity today, I would do exactly the same.