Cohen charts new Bradlees course - new Chairman and CEO Mark Cohen

Discount Store News, May 15, 1995 by James Mammarella

BURLINGTON, MASS. -- The "ship without a rudder" phase at Bradlees is over. In less than five months, under new chairman and ceo Mark Cohen, the 136-store Northeastern full-line discount chain is showing signs of revival. Having issued orders for rapid, sensible changes in merchandise presentation, adjacencies and "strikingly different" marketing, Cohen has won several early victories with customers, in categories ranging from dresses, foundations and bed & bath to watches and household cleaners. He has demonstrated to both vendors and Bradlees' staff that he knows where to take the troubled chain and will brook no decisions that show a lack of focus.

Bradlees has suffered four years of virtually no growth in sales, Cohen told DSN, and was being riven by internal confusion. But the intense enthusiasm and sure retailing vision of this former department store ceo are catching on. Quick fixes are underway, fresh faces abound in the upper ranks, and the optimism is spreading through the organization even in the face of what Cohen called the worst spring season for retailing he has seen in his entire career.

It is as though the soft-spoken, affable yet determined Cohen, an admiral astride the deck of a badly damaged flagship, has calmly shouted through the smoke, "I have not yet begun to fight."

The uplifting effect on the crew is noticeable. "The people there are really encouraged by the leadership he's bringing," said Jerry Socol, president and ceo of national footwear vendor J. Baker. "We can notice a difference in working with the people at Bradlees; the attitude is much more merchandise oriented."

By Back-to-School, the new Bradlees will undergo its first real trial. Cohen has set Aug. 1 as the deadline for all changes tested at the Burlington, Mass., location to be rolled out chainwide. In this 90,000-sq.-ft. suburban Boston store, Cohen and his invigorated merchants have scored impressive results across departments--without spending a dime on fixtures or signage, or having yet made major revisions in merchandise mix.

Among the changes and results, as measured against chainwide store averages:

* Dresses moved to front: sales up 200%.

* Watches moved to front of jewelry island: sales up 45%.

* Gondola displays lowered in bath, two towel walls built: sales up 45%.

* Selection of bras doubled: sales up 50%.

* An all-stock-on-the-floor position taken in miniblinds: business up 35%.

* One item rather than several ran on a circular cover, a girls' Easter dress: sold 60,000 dresses in one week over last year's 34,000.

* One item ran on another circular cover, 200-oz. Tide detergent: sold 67,000 and issued only 10 rain checks.

Cohen has slammed on the brakes in some areas. He halted plans for a new DC (estimated cost $50 million) until a complete logistics scheme is drawn up. He asked all merchants to print out volume and margin stats for all skus and coldly lop off the last page. He has called for an unsparing review of expanding businesses he sees as potential resource and margin-draining monsters," such as RTA furniture, storage containers and floor care.

"If you want to survive in this nasty world," he said, "you have to understand what you can count on after you gin the sales. If you're ginning the sales up in all the wrong places, you're left with no margin."

Cohen intends to exert a systematic review over logistics, execution and customer service, as well as a bolder, on-trend merchandising strategy. Internally, one message will be repeated over and over: "Pay attention" to trends, execution and friendliness in customer service. As this focus takes hold, Bradlees will play to its traditional strengths.

"We need to thrive on trend and excitement and aggressive promotion that is not Wal-Mart-like," Cohen told DSN. But he will prioritize mimicking Wal-Mart in one respect: moving merchandise directly from truck to the sales floor.

He pointed to Bradlees' assets: an adequate box, great locations and "a strong franchise with consumers" that he termed "a wonderment" considering past sins. Among the liabilities he is most concerned with erasing: a horrendous rate of rain check issuance (65,000 per week), lack of merchandising focus and an unclear direction on extending the core customer base.

All aspects of merchandise "ownership" are under review, he said, "Floor space, inventory, personnel and in some cases, vendors."

When, four months ago, he asked senior merchants to explain their assortments, the need for applying common sense became clear. "No one could articulate," said this former Lazarus Department Store ceo, "why we owned what we owned."

On a snowy day in mid-January, Cohen summoned all Bradlees' merchandise managers, buyers and planners to this 20-year-old store off Boston's beltway. As they straggled in for the first of what has become an every-Thursday meeting, Cohen stopped in the aisle opposite the intimates department. He was struck by the paucity of selection in foundations, as compared to a bloated sleepwear department.