Local Costco’s 20% Expansion Could Mean 100% Aggravation for Shoppers

I shuddered after reading an article in my local newspaper, the Staten Island Advance, regarding Costco’s plan to expand its busy Staten Island, N.Y., store by 20% (21,000 sq. ft.) and reducing precious parking space by 10%. The reason behind the expansion: to make room for large appliances that are currently available at other locations and to store more inventory.

That seems fair, but according to the Advance, this Costco location “ranks among the top 15% of the company’s 529 stores worldwide when it comes to customer traffic and sales.” The parking lot already resembles a carnival-style bumper-car ride; I can’t imagine it getting any better. Cutting 76 out of 808 parking spaces will be a problem for customers—and, perhaps, for sales, too.

The parking lot is always busy with drivers and shoppers coming and going with carts in tow—not to mention the line at the gas pump—and there are only two ways to enter and exit. I learned to steer clear of this area and do my shopping at the local supermarket or out-of-town Costco (there’s one only 25 minutes away in New Jersey).

After this expansion (which is still being reviewed by the New York City Department of City Planning Commission) I wonder if shoppers will flee and find another wholesale club with more parking; or if they will battle the Staten Island crowd to buy the new stock of large appliances and inventory that awaits them inside.

Costco’s president and CEO Jim Sinegal told the Advance that the store plans to use off-site employee parking and will work with City Planning to improve traffic flow in and out of the lot. Driving aisles will be widened and a pedestrian-friendly grass buffer will be added around the perimeter.

Wider driving aisle and a grass buffer still sounds like less parking to me; and it may not be enough to bring shoppers like me—who want to get in and get out—back into the store.

—Jennifer Mosscrop

Football and Business 1.0

A new release earlier this week from the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association’s 2008 Super Bowl Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey touting $9.5 billion in expected Super Bowl related consumer purchasing evoked personal memories of a time back in the 1970s when my father displayed an unusual interest in the fortunes of the Philadelphia Eagles. Born in Poland, my father emigrated to the United States in 1939, and became a small apparel manufacturer selling to many retail chains across the country. By no stretch of anyone’s imagination could he be considered a sports fan. He barely comprehended baseball, let alone American-style football.

Yet, on this particular day he came home expressing the hope that the Philadelphia Eagles would win their game on Sunday. Flabbergasted that he even knew that Philadelphia was playing, my brother and I asked why he favored the Eagles and not their rivals that week.

It was Business 1.0, he replied. If the Eagles won, a Philadelphia-based chain had guaranteed an order of 100 dozen green and white sports T-shirts, the team’s colors. If they lost, he’d be stuck with the piece goods he already had in inventory.

My father’s economic interest in the outcome of the game did not, however, carry over into an interest in actually watching the contest. He was spared the disappointment of seeing the Eagles lose.

—Murray Forseter

Abercrombie’s Latest R-Rated Gambit

I'm beginning to think that Mike Jeffries is letting his penchant for controversy get in the way of his good sense. I say this because Jeffries, the 62-year-old CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, is a micro-manager of his company’s various brands. By all accounts, not a thing gets by him when it comes to shaping the brand experience for customers. So there is little doubt in my mind that the Web site for Abercrombie’s latest brand—an intimate apparel concept called Gilly Hicks Sydney—was not launched without his input and full approval. The site contains video that is nothing less than soft porn.

Don’t get me wrong—I’m no prude. And I knew that Abercrombie, a company that has never left much to the imagination would likely get carried away in its new role as an underwear marketer to teens. The retailer also is a master at self promotion.

The new site’s landing page asks the question: “Are you old enough? Our site shows a lot of skin. Therefore, you must be at least 18 years old to enter this site.” After that, an age verification screen pops up. But as any kid or teen knows, such firewalls are a joke. The one on Gilly Hicks is no exception. It’s easily defeated. My friend has already seen her 13-year-old daughter and her friends ogling the sexy clip. Once on the site, Abercrombie certainly delivers on its promise, with video that show a bevy of young gals and guys (but mostly gals) frolicking with each other on the beach.

The video is beautifully filmed, and the models are attractive to the max, the girls golden and the guys super fit. But as the clip goes on, they are also quite naked, with lots of bare breasts and backsides in full view. What’s most upsetting is that they are naked just for the sake of being naked. The video certainly isn’t selling anything—unless it’s sex. That would be less objectionable if the targeted audience was adults. But it’s not. It’s young teens. And the last thing this group needs, at least in my mind, is some adult R-rated fantasy. There’s got to be a better way of selling underwear.

Check out the video at www.gillyhicks.com. I welcome all feedback; I'm curious to hear what you think.

—Marianne Wilson, mwilson@chainstoreage.com

Comedian Moves into IKEA

IKEA’s recent marketing campaign, “Home is the Most Important Place in the World,” shows consumers how it could add extra comfort to the places where they live. So when New York City resident Mark Molkoff, 31, found himself temporarily homeless (his apartment was being fumigated), he asked IKEA if it could provide a temporary and comfortable home for him. And one more thing: He wanted to record video from the makeshift living quarters daily.

The company said yes.

The comedian-actor moved into the IKEA store in Elizabeth, N.J., on Monday and plans to stay until Saturday. He will be living in the store for all hours of the day and will eat his meals in the restaurant. His wife decided to stay with relatives.

“My apartment is 80% IKEA anyway; it would be like living at home,” Malkoff said in the video posted on his Web site, www.marklivesinikea.com. The site is updated daily with recap videos of his day at the store.

Malkoff, who currently works as the audience coordinator on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," is best known for his video "171 Starbucks," in which he is shown visiting and consuming purchases at each of the coffee chain's locations in Manhattan in one day.

In his intro video, Malkoff said: “Would [IKEA] really let me crash in their pad? Miraculously they agreed,” he said.

As for me, I’m really not surprised. This past summer, the IKEA in Furuset, Norway provided free overnight lodging to shoppers for a few days last July as part of a promotional effort to become a temporary in-store hostel. The event received worldwide media coverage.

And seeing how Malkoff’s “171 Starbucks” video stint received national news coverage last June, his latest endeavor had to be a shoe-in as well.

Here is another video from Malkoff, showing his move into IKEA on Monday: http://youtube.com/watch?v=z3S5s3EITcQ

— Samantha Murphy

Hershey’s Times Square Hits the Runway

I’m a die-hard fan of the cable TV show Project Runway. I love the fun challenges, the creative fashions, and of course, the quirky contestants. Season four is well under way, but this week’s challenge had to be the best yet.

The remaining 10 contestants went on a field trip to Hershey’s Times Square (a.k.a. The Sweetest Place in New York). Their challenge: Create a look using items from the store as their raw materials.

Contestants had the run of the place and no budget. Like all Project Runway episodes however, there was a catch. “You have five minutes to grab whatever you can get your hands on,” said fashion guru and Liz Claiborne chief creative officer, Tim Gunn.

What was more hilarious than watching the contestants shove packages of candy, pillows, teddy bears and mugs into huge plastic bags, was watching them try to determine how to create a unique look based on Hershey’s candy bars, chocolate kisses, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Reese’s Pieces, Kit Kats, Twizzlers and York Peppermint Patties. The styles ranged from classic and wearable, to campy and downright ridiculous.

In the end, 26-year-old Jillian Lewis, a designer/illustrator for Ralph Lauren, was the only contestant brave enough to work with actual candy. She paired a sexy, strapless corset outlined in red and black Twizzlers with a mini-skirt that featured fringe made out of the red licorice.

While she got kudos from the judges (designer Michael Kors called the look “deliciously chic,” and Elle magazine’s fashion editor, Nina Garcia congratulated her on her hard work), 31-year-old Rami Kashou’s “fun, futuristic, yet girlie” halter-top party dress made of Twizzlers pillows and York Peppermint Pattie wrappers took this week’s top honor.

As always, the show had a bittersweet ending. A “sad brown dress,” according to supermodel host and judge Heidi Klum, got free-spirited Elisa Jimenez “Auf’ed” this week.

All of the contestants should be proud of their work, however. Hershey’s Times Square plans to auction off each designer’s look, and the profits will be donated to the Young Survival Coalition, a nonprofit organization dedicated to issues facing young women with breast cancer.

It seems this episode, called “Eye Candy,” wasn’t just my favorite. Each week the show sponsors a poll that asks viewers to text their vote. This week, when viewers were asked what was their favorite challenge, 60% said this was also their favorite.

This result eclipsed the 30% of viewers who preferred a challenge that required contestants to create a look for Sarah Jessica Parker’s Bitten line that is sold at Steve & Barry’s.

— Deena M. Amato-McCoy

Ed Brennan: The Penultimate Sears Man

I was on a busman’s holiday in June 1988, walking through the historic Filene’s Basement in Boston with my wife and two young children, when I heard the distinctive, clipped Midwestern voice of Edward A. Brennan behind me. Ed’s son, an executive with Filene’s, was giving his father, the chairman and CEO of Sears, Roebuck & Co., a tour of the landmark emporium under Filene’s flagship department store (Filene’s Basement had yet to be spun off). Though my informal attire—shorts and a white Polo shirt embarrassingly stained with a small spot of chocolate ice cream from a cone enjoyed just minutes earlier—hardly justified a hello, I stopped my family in our tracks and introduced them to the man who at that time was more powerful than any retailer, including Sam Walton (for the prior fiscal year, Sears boasted sales of $28.1 billion, almost double that of Wal-Mart’s $16 billion).

I first met Ed Brennan, who died at 73 two days after Christmas, in April 1980, just days after his selection by Sears chairman and CEO Ed Telling to head up Sears Merchandising as its president. Ed was just 46 years old, but he already had almost two decades of experience with Sears. Moreover, Sears blood coursed through his veins. His grandfather, father and several uncles were Sears men. So was his brother, Bernard F., who eventually would direct cross-town rival Montgomery Ward. Oh how the press and industry watchers pondered Thanksgiving chatter at the Brennan dinner table. Wonder evolved into wild speculation when word leaked that the two brothers had entertained the idea of merging the two ailing giants in a Quixotic attempt to reverse decades of decline at the hands of discount stores, home centers, and specialty stores, both the soft lines and hard lines types.

Ed had a puckish smile, not the brooding countenance of his brother, Bernie. He exuded confidence. He was a merchant’s merchant, comfortable talking about product yet financially competent enough to have been the executive in charge of launching the Discover Card when it was part of the Sears empire.

He seemed energized when talking about Sears as a “line merchant,” a retailer that provided customers with a full range of choices within a classification and not just a cherry-picked offering of quick sellers. But the business of retailing changed during his tenure. Customers actually preferred the more limited, more price-sensitive merchandise strategies of the competition. By the time Ed retired in 1995, Sears had tumbled to third place among retailers. Revenues in 1994 were $33 billion, just $1 billion behind Kmart but less than half the $77 billion racked up by Wal-Mart.

Ed Brennan was the last merchant to run Sears. His successors—Arthur Martinez, Alan Lacy and Edward S. Lampert—all came from financial backgrounds. The company’s decline, which began before Brennan took office, continues to this day. In 1991, Brennan introduced a “store of the future” for Sears. The future still awaits.

—Murray Forseter