Fashion and Retail Predictions for 2009

January 4, 2009 05:00 PM | Comments (20) | Posted in target, fashion trend, walmart, michelle obama, costco, Target, Walmart, Michelle Obama, fashion predictions 2009, color trend

1. Michelle Obama will redefine fashion and the role of African American women (and moms) in fashion and in the media. She’s already inspired instant sell outs, cover stories, and probably helped saved J.Crew’s 4th quarter. Along with her husband, Mrs. Obama has inspired the recent collections of several TOP designers, including the use of more models of color.  First Lady Michelle Obama will continue to have a major impact on fashion and what (and who is) considered fashionable.

2. Wal-mart will be the top store to watch as it will be the only store to successful address the challenges facing middle (and coastal) American families. This isn’t to say that other stores can’t do the same, Target could if they focused less on being “cool” and more on being “cool AND useful”, but right now Wal-Mart is the only major mass market store which does not have to make fundamental changes in order to accomplish this goal.

3. The Bon-Ton, Kmart, Sears, JC Penneys, and several sports apparel stores (Champs, Footlocker, etc) will all close or face bankruptcy. All of these stores, with the exception of K-Mart, depend on a mall environment to stay alive and the mall, as we know it, is dead. K-Mart has been dead for a while, so at this point we’re just waiting for the funeral.

4. Big Lots, Salvation Army, Value City, Costco, Sams Club will all be hot stores in 2009. Costco will be VERY hot in 2009 and shoppers will find creative ways to get the most out of their membership, including membership co-ops.

5. Moms will be king. The marketing focus of several top brands will shift from the youth market to hip moms as more businesses realize that moms are the ultimate influencers, affecting the style and consumer habits of their kids, husbands/partners, and friends.

6. Lipstick, at home hair coloring systems, and nail color will be the big beauty sellers in 2009. These are quick, easy, and relatively inexpensive ways for people to change their personal style.

7. The mall will die. Malls, as we know it, will be dead and most will turn into outlet mall like structures (ex: the Bergen Mall in Northern New Jersey)- featuring the outlets of top retail brands. Even Saks Fifth Avenue, who for years have maintained a rigid distinction between its high-end stores and its outlet stores by referring to the later as “Off Fifth- Saks Fifth Avenue Outlets”, changed the name of their outlets to the equally cumbersome Saks Fifth Avenue Off Fifth.

8. Gray, black, brown, red, and dark blue will continue to be the colors to watch as consumers look for easy to wear colors.

9. Easy to care for fabrics will reign supreme as shoppers look for items that are machine washable, thus saving a ton of money on dry cleaning.

10. More designers will skip their bridge lines and head directly for mass market/lower priced lines. Rumors have already started about budget lines by Zac Posen and Doo Ri. I think the following designers will also do budget lines in 2009- Ellen Tracy (maybe a replacement for Isaac Mizrahi at Target), Tory Burch (Kohls? or Macys), Burberry (H&M?), Paul Smith (TopShop for Men?), Vivienne Westwood (Topshop or H&M), Donna Karan (Macys?).

Costco vs. Sam’s Club

November 22, 2005 12:39 PM | Comments (6) | Posted in costco, sam's_club

Comparing Sam’s Club to Costco is like comparing Wal-Mart to Target.  Sam’s club is located in areas where customers HAVE to budget shop and Costco tends to be located in wealthier suburbs, where customers have the luxury of choosing to budget shop, offers less selection and better quality, while the other offers more selection and a little less quality. One is the biggest seller of fine wines and the other is part of the company that is the biggest seller of well, everything.

From a budget fashion perspective, Costco is obviously the better store offering major discounts on big name brands like Calvin jeans for $22.99 and a great no questions asked return policy. Even its own house brand Kirkland, has clothing like men’s dress shirts that are comparable in quality to major department store brands like Marshall’s Fields and Nordstrom, with one exception— the Costco brand shirts cost 50% less.  However, what attracts budget shoppers like myself to the store is that Costco caps their markups at 14% over the price they paid for an item—significantly less than department stores (up to 50%) and yep, even less than Sam’s Club/Wal-Mart. Plus, employees at Costo make a ton more money than Sam’s Club associates—but as one person pointed out Costco employees often make more money because they live and work in wealthy suburbs where it costs more money to live.

Now, don’t go and cut up your Sam’s club card. Sam’s club has more locations and I think better deals on bulk items like toilet paper, bottle water, where brand name really doesn’t matter. Plus, Sam’s Club shares exclusive deals, like a limited edition Garth Brooks cd box set, with it’s sister store, Wal-Mart and the membership is about $15 cheaper than Costco.

Despite their great deals and bulk groceries (do you really need a 7 pound chocolate cake), I still think something is missing from these stores. Fashionistas will not want to head to the local Sam’s club en mass. With the exception of Calvin Klein jeans and nice dress shirts, the rest of the clothing selection leaves much to be desired. Which brings me to a major gripe about the clothing selection. I would estimate over 75% of the women I’ve seen shopping at my local Costco would be considered plus size, yet a majority of the clothing are in size 16/XL or below.

There are little to no signage on the aisles, so you often spend 30 minutes looking for peanut butter. Once you find the peanut butter, there’s a limited selection in terms of brands (buyers for the warehouse buy whatever brand they can get the cheapest for the week). Once you decide on a brand, then you have to wait 30 minutes in a check out line. However, I can see the appeal of the store, especially for families, with large grocery needs. For them, I say score a card, it’s worth it.