CHERRY HILL, N.J. -- The look is everything at the newest Dry Goods unit, which opened here about two weeks ago.
The location fits neatly into the market area the chain's been developing with other units in Claymont, Elsmere and Dover, Del.; Vineland, N.J., and Northeast Philadelpia and Springfield, Pa.Filene's Basement stores offer men's, women's and children's clothing, shoes, jewelry and some home decor items including figurines, vases and frame prints.The chain promotes itself as featuring $600 famous brands."Most apparel is featured every day as 25% or 20% "Below leading department stores' regular prices." It's double ticketed with "compare at" prices.He would not divulge sales objectives for the unit other than to say that if the chain's current average of $200/sq. ft. or $16 million annual volume for the 80,000 sq. ft. of selling space here isn't exceeded, "we won't even break even."A special event is run every two weeks at which anywhere from 25% to 40% of the store is put on sale, according to Lynch.Based on a matrix prepared by a consultant, the company would also like to shift its customers base to include more families with children and to some extent older couples, noted vice president Edward Lynch.He and other chain executives do look for the new appearances to heighten the store's appeal among families with $20,000 to $45,000 annual household incomes and focus shoppers' attention on the apparel specialty areas mentioned, juniors et al, where merchandise is now segregated and classified much tighther.In the new store, ceilings are 12-ft. high instead of 15 and lighting recessed in place of the hundreds of yards of bare neon bulbs used in the last opening less than two years ago. Floors, except on the race track, are carpeted; fashion fixtures have replaced piperacks, for the most part. Fingerwalls separate and bolster the individual identities of juniors, full-figure and young men's.Industry analysts see the Cherry Hill look as fitting into a general trend among off-pricers to "clean up" in response to an increasingly promotional stance by department stores which has cut into their business in recent years.In Massachusetts, the "retail stock" assortment included private label items from the regional chain Cambridge Dry Goods in addition to national department store labels. Filene's Basement in Danvers also stocked some of its own private label goods under the Filene's name, which aren't sold in the department store division. A Filene's long sleeve woman's cotton shirt was tagged at $8.99.The newest Dry Goods anchors an $8 million center Fashion Square, at the intersection of Brace and Haddonfield-Berlin Roads. About 15 other small retail outlets will be tenants, Gully said.In expanding in 1984 and future years, management at Filene's Basement will move more heavily into "retail stocks" to help widen the gap between its assortment and the offerings of its off-price competitors, Naff explained.The Dry Goods is today heavily promotion oriented, a tack executives said they've had to adopt in recent years in response to department stores' more frequent ads. "They don't sell anything except on sale," Gully commented, "so we have to have sales, too, to beat them."His aim, he noted, is to keep average gross margins for the store at the chainwide 30% mark.Gully bills The Dry Goods as "not an off-pricer as much as a fashion discount store.""Ninety-nine per centk of our buying is direct," he said and buyers try to avoid lines and items where lack of continuity might be a problem.Other sources report that The Dry Goods, with projected 1985 sales approaching $110 million, has been a dull bottomline performerl with only marginal profitability last year and a loss in 1983.The SCOA Industries subsidiary spent $1.3 million in fixturing its seventh off-price apparel unit, according to president Richard Gully.In addition to a stronger emphasis on department store closeouts, the prototype stores will add a 55-ft. assortment of Ambassador greeting cards. The two newest units were slated to begin the test phase of the card program in December and continue into 1984 with an off-holiday assortment. All cards and wrap will be discounted 30% off the listed price at checkouts.Once fine-tuned, the new look will become the prototype for all future Filene's Basement stores, said mel Johan, senior vp and director of the division. The 14-unit chain, which added four stores in 1983, has more aggressive expansion plans for 1984 including pushing into new markets, he added.
The location fits neatly into the market area the chain's been developing with other units in Claymont, Elsmere and Dover, Del.; Vineland, N.J., and Northeast Philadelpia and Springfield, Pa.
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