Before Target was Cool

It ran ads touting its prices on motor oil and candy bars. This blast from the past aired in 1979. Dig the feathered hair-do!

Stick a Fork in It

Market week is officially over. I haven’t seen or heard anything in the past couple of days at variance with observations I posted earlier in the week. (Scroll down to read them.)

I’d say at least 40% of the showrooms were dark today. I passed others in which displays were already being torn apart to be boxed and shipped out for style reviews.

This being the first February major market there was a lot of griping about the cold all week. The arrival of snow & sleet on Wednesday only made matters worse.  One retailer who hails from a more temperate area of the country is said to have vowed no member of the company’s buying team will ever touch down at a February market again.

Conversely, a couple of suppliers endorsed the timing as an improvement — although neither was thrilled to find himself in the northeast in the dead of winter.

JCP: The Next Chapter

I find it interesting that following a multi-year rebranding under former ceo Allen Questrom, J.C. Penney is launching another under current ceo Myron Ullman, who took the helm a little over two years ago.

Not that that’s a bad thing. More retailers could do a better job of freshening their image with the public — before their financials go soft. JCP is doing it with 15 consecutive quarters of sales increases to brag about, and bully for them.

You can read the The Dallas Morning News’ report on its new campaign here.

Wal-Mart Close-Up

Consultancy Retail Forward is holding a webinar later this month on you know who.

Topics include:

• Who’s shopping the store?
• How does that compare to the company’s market strategy?
• What are Wal-Mart’s key merchandising, pricing and promotional strategies and how are they being executed?
• How does the company’s recent performance compare with the industry and key competitors?
• How does performance differ between Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart’s namesake stores?

Presenters are Frank Badillo, Director of the Retail Forward KnowledgeBase™ and Senior Economist, Sandy Skrovan, Senior Vice President and Director of Retail Forward’s Wal-Mart World™ program, Dina Roldan, Senior Consultant, and Mary Brett Whitfield, Senior Vice President and Director of the Retail Forward Intelligence System™

The Shoe’s on the Other Foot

I decline to tally how many columns I’ve written over the past 20+ years. But today, I’ve been treated to a new experience — a mention in someone else’s column.

Slip-Sliding Away

Today was probably the last heavy day for market traffic, made even heavier by the mixture of snow and frozen rain that fell unceasingly throughout. Tomorrow is my last full day of appointments.

I heard from several suppliers that buyers with late afternoon appointments crowded into showrooms earlier than expected so as make an early exit.

The Weather…Again

Well, when I left tonight’s last market party around 8 p.m., it had begun snowing. It’s two hours later now, and in Manhattan, it has stopped.

Not much in the way of accumulation where I live at the foot of Manhattan. But the local weather forecast calls for freezing rain, sleet and snow tomorrow morning, followed by heavy snow for the late afternoon/early evening. Looks like it’s going to be a sloppy day.

The mood of the market so far — it’s okay. People say the business is challenging; but they don’t say it as though that’s a new thing. They say it as a fact of life. Most companies I’ve visited seem to have figured out their strategies.  As I mentioned in last night’s post, suppliers appear to be much more flexible than they were two or three years ago.

More confirmation this week that suppliers are finding niches outside traditional volume channels. People are talking about business they’re quietly doing with mattress stores, furniture stores, independent retailers, Internet retailers, drug stores, automotive stores, grocery stores and hotels.

Here’s the great thing about suppliers spreading their wings: I firmly believe that those who are now playing in other arenas are going to wind up developing unique, niche products that work their way back into the mainstream. I feel we are on the brink of a creative revival.

Design notes:

Champagne is the new pink

Champagne is the new fawn

Flocking

Silk

Linen

Tailored looks

Edited assortments

Lined curtains for value add

Design question of the day: Is black & white giving way to black & ivory? As a pure statement, it seems to be heading that way. Alternatively, the black & white story is moving ahead with a bang of red.

I’m laying bets that the next step for black & white is a splash of teal…or aqua marine…or citrus.

Everybody Talks About the Weather…

Officially day one of the New York market week — day two for your correspondent. Confirmation from many quarters that today, Tuesday and Wednesday are to be the heavy days in terms of retailer traffic.People fretting all day about the winter storm expected on Wednesday and what impact it might have on appointments.

As of this evening, the forecast has shifted from a full-on snowstorm to early morning snow followed by a day of heavy rain. Not pretty, to be sure. But as I noted in my post yesterday evening, as a harbor city Manhattan often escapes dire weather predicted to beset it. May hold true again this week. May not.

The mood of the market thus far: when you strip away all the palaver, it’s pretty much business as usual. Challenging? Yes. Is there some good, creative product out there? Yes again. Is there a lot of careful, same-old in new skin product? Yes. Gotta hedge your bets, after all.

What stuck me today was how much more fleet and flexible suppliers have become. Maybe they thrust into a new category 10 months ago and it hit. They’re blowing it out on the showroom floor. Maybe it didn’t hit. It’s wiped off the map as though it never happened, and they’re on to the next thing.

I’ve got the sense that much of the dead wood has been cleared away. At the same time, relative newcomers (read: off-shore) are salting their ranks with domestic vets who know the market. I think we’re passing over a threshold here.

Today’s cool stuff:

Glass/stainless steel bath accessories at WestPoint.

“Kimono” window ties at TexStyle.

“The Perfect Sheet” at Dan River. Here’s the beauty part: The “perfect sheet” is whatever you say it is. It’s Marketing 101. And hallelujah for that.  

It’s February. It’s New York. It’s Market Week.

Hard to believe that Sunday is Day 1 of market. But by all indications, in the second go-round of what is supposed to be a Monday-Friday market week most retailers are refraining from weekend appointments. Most folks I’ve spoken to consider that a good thing.

I talked to a couple of people this evening at HTT’s market kick-off party who said they’d had several retail appointments today. All others had two to four. Today, for many, was about sales meetings and supplier get-togethers.

BTW, I’m hearing reports that it’s more like a Monday to Thursday market week, with Monday to Wednesday heavy on the appointments, and Thursday standing in as mop-up day. Out-of-town suppliers gripe that the locals (read: BBB & LNT) insist on preview appointments Thursday and Friday, thereby dragging them into town for a weekend of nothingness.

Lots of complaints today about the February timing — almost exclusively to do with the cold. As of last night, there has been a change in forecast, and Wednesday is expected to be a day of snow, sleet and/or rain. Yes, people are freaking, fretting, kvetching and kvelling. But with Manhattan situated on the harbor, honestly, anything could happen. Or not.

I’ve only scratched the surface of showrooms thus far (one appointment last Thursday, three on Friday and a full day today), but in terms of trend, here’s what I’m seeing so far:

Chocolate

Velvet

Printed velvet

Large-scale Jacobians

Large-scale paisleys

Large-scale damasks

Medallion motifs

Textured surfaces (as opposed to heavily embellished surfaces)

Botanicals

Regarding bling, still important, but the volume has been turned waaaaay down.

Design quote du jour comes from Jared Clark, designer of Tommy Hilfiger Home: “Black & white is turning into what happened with animal prints. It’s not a trend anymore, it’s a standard.”

Throw in a splash of red (and Jared did), and it bears out what I’ve seen over the past few days.

More after tomorrow night’s round of market parties.

Stay warm!

Wal-Mart will stick to regionalization strategy

The Log Cabin Democrat has a piece out on this week’s Wal-Mart Managers Meeting in Kansas City. You can read it here. 

P.S. The Democrat is a newspaper based in Conway, Ark., not a political organization. Just in case you were wondering.