Success on a shoestring

In 1949, Emory University decided to give a scholarship to young Albert D. Maslia ’52BBA. That minor investment (books were not included) has been paying remarkable dividends for the university and the city of Atlanta ever since.

Rumored to be retired, Maslia maintains a work schedule that can be likened to that of a home improvement store employee working in the lumber aisle—after a hurricane. He has taken his lifetime of experience in retail and created a unique assortment of positions within the Atlanta community: consultant, teacher, board director, committee member, fundraiser, grandfather, synagogue president. And don’t forget tax assessor.

Sam Massell, president of The Buckhead Coalition and someone who’s known Maslia for many years says, “He’s a bit hyper, but some folks call that just a commitment. He’s not shy.”

Given such a personality, it’s no surprise that Maslia has thrived and flourished in the frenzied world of retail. Right out of Emory, he began a career with Rich’s Department Stores in the Junior Executive Training Program.

“I started out in the basement. In the shoe department. You couldn’t ask for anything worse than that,” says Maslia. Twenty-six years later, he left Rich’s while serving as senior vice president and a member of the board of directors.

Then it was on to more entrepreneurial pursuits with the Linen Loft stores and a chain of card and gift shops called Social Expressions, which he ran with the help of his two daughters.
After selling Social Expressions in 2000, Maslia established the Linen Loft and settled into Atlanta’s AmericasMart, the nation’s largest gift and home furnishings wholesale marketplace, as director of retail services.

Although a biography written by his sixth-grade grandson titled “My Hero” says that Maslia didn’t talk much before age four, the retail expert has been making up for lost time. At “The Mart,” Maslia’s outspoken, gregarious style makes for well-attended seminars with names like: “Learn To Think Like The Retailer—So You Can Outsmart ‘Em.”

A day in the frenetic atmosphere of AmericasMart is enough to send most straight home to collapse on the couch. Not Maslia. Some evenings he heads to Emory where he teaches retailing to BBA students, helping them to start thinking like the serious retail competitors they hope to become.
Says Bill Pendleton, CEO of Cornerstone Bank, where Maslia sits on the board of directors, “He strives very hard to help people wherever he can without saying ‘what’s in it for me.’ ”
—Grayson Daughters