Word: retails
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Dates: during 1990-1990
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...protect the label's image, Gucci cut off the majority of sales to department stores, and now limits distribution of most Gucci products to the company's 143 stores (although watches, perfumes and sunglasses are still sold in department stores and other retail outlets). To restore old-fashioned quality, hand-stitched leather products are being emphasized. And across the board, prices have been raised an average of 20% -- a fact that seems not to daunt a new generation of Gucci loyalists...
...image-conscious times. Since 1978 the industry has mushroomed from just seven outlet centers to more than 280, with gross sales estimated at as high as $18 billion. Last year sales for outlets and off-price stores rose 10% to 12%, about double the rate of increase at ordinary retail stores...
...offer goods at 20% to 60% off the usual retail price, a requirement that is specified in the stores' leases and that distinguishes such discount centers from ordinary malls. Try on a $218 Ann Taylor dress, slashed to $69.90. Reebok Sole Trainers that normally retail for $85, at $55. Anne Klein II perfume at $17.95 instead of the usual $32. More than 1.5 million shoppers , have done so since Sawgrass opened its doors in October. "Everybody is looking for bargains these days," says William Cohen, 36, waving a pair of jeans selling at $30 -- half-price -- at the jammed Guess...
...earlier successes: Potomac Mills in suburban Virginia and Franklin Mills on the fringes of Philadelphia. Each attracts 1 million bargain-hunting shoppers a month. "Western is doing something daring and truly different, gambling that this might be the future of malls in America," says Terry Dunham, publisher of Value Retail News, which tracks the outlet industry from Clearwater, Fla. Western has plans for four more discount malls: near Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Ontario, Calif. Not to be outdone, Benderson Development Co., Western's main rival in megamall retailing, is building what it touts as "the largest manufacturers' mall...
...partly because they perceive the discount centers as out- of-the-way places, suitable mainly for tourists or big-haul shopping. Luxury department stores like Bloomingdale's and Saks Fifth Avenue take an elitist approach -- at least publicly -- and shrug off the challenge from outlet malls. "The competition in retail is always fierce, but our customer is not attracted to an outlet mall," says Carol Sanger, vice president of the Federated and Allied Stores chain, which includes Bloomingdale's, Burdine's, A&S and Jordan Marsh. She may be wrong about that. "I'd much rather go to a fancy...