For the past two years, cost-cutting and cutbacks have been watchwords for Barneys, the chic New York retailer mired in Chapter 11 reorganization.
Although the chain’s future is unresolved, Barneys is plowing ahead with plans to expand its Chicago store.
Barneys is adding space for its housewares department, Chelsea Passage, said Barneys spokesman Jason Weisenfeld. By early June, the first freestanding Chelsea Passage will be housed in a separate Oak Street storefront east of Barneys, previously occupied by bedding retailer Private Lives.
The expanded space will be filled with a wider range of artisan-crafted dishes and glassware, as well as high-end linens, end tables and lamps. It also will feature more kids’ clothes, including a line by Italian knitwear maker Missoni.
In Chelsea Passage’s old location, Barneys will double the space for its high-traffic cosmetics department, bringing in new lines and enhancing the presentation of others, including Kiehl’s and Philosophy, Weisenfeld said.
Upstairs, a Vera Wang bridal boutique is quadrupling its space and moving up to the fourth floor.
Where’s the remodeling money coming from? Even though cash remains tight, Barneys is using $10 million in its capital budget to remodel four stores, including Chicago’s, explains Barneys President Tom Shull.
He admits Barneys misunderstood the Chicago market when it opened here in September 1992. Clothes were too dark, winter clothes arrived too late and some styles were too edgy. Ditto the sales associates.
But the company is investing in a major effort to better customize its offerings for each store. For example, Chicago customers will be offered more colorful options than their New York peers. And Chicago assortments will include more size 10s and 12s than those sent to Beverly Hills, where svelte customers snap up more size 8s.
Barneys also is pushing its private-label credit card and developing programs to reward frequent shoppers.
Those efforts appear to be paying off. Barneys’ same-store sales rose 13 percent last fall, compared with single-digit increases for some competitors.
Barneys’ fate is still to be decided by the bankruptcy court. But at least it sounds like Barneys has its eye on the ball again.
Store count: How many flagship stores can one retailer have? If you’re Ralph Lauren, the answer is four.
There’s the Polo flagship in New York, of course. This summer, three more “flagships” will open within a month of each other, including one in Chicago next to Banana Republic in the 700 block of North Michigan Avenue. The others will be in Palm Beach, Fla., and London.
The new Polo store here will be the chain’s largest.
The expansion spells change for Maureen Basse, the respected general manager of Lauren’s current Chicago boutique. Basse is leaving Chicago before the new store debuts, decamping for warmer climes and to be closer to family in Palm Beach.
But she’s not leaving the Lauren family. Basse, who spent 12 years in Denmark managing the boutique empire of Birger Christensen, will become the general manager of the new Palm Beach Polo store.
Make that flagship.
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Sports talk: Baseball is out. Basketball is in. So says the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association.
Sales of basketballs, backboards and accessories, excluding shoes and apparel, grew 21 percent to $156 million in 1997, according to the trade group.
But sales of baseball equipment were flat last year as amateur participation in the sport continued to decline. It continues to suffer from bad feelings about the 1994 players’ strike and an image that baseball isn’t “cool,” the sporting goods makers said.
Please don’t tell the Cubs fans.