Lechmere goes soft with HomeImage concept

Discount Store News, Sept 2, 1996 by Laura Liebeck

MIDDLETOWN, N.Y. -- Lechmere, the hard lines retailer, last month debuted six new format stores called HomeImage that eventually could replace the current Lechmere prototype.

The six home goods units are considered a test. No additional stores will open this year or in 1997, Rob Claxton, vice president of HomeImage told DSN.

The units are located here, and in Holyoke and Springfield, Mass.; Wausau, Wis.; Montgomery, Ala.; and Saginaw, Mich. Middletown and Holyoke are mall stores and the rest are either freestanding units or in strip centers. All six stores were originally to open as Lechmere stores. The Springfield store is a converted Lechmere unit, said Claxton.

"This is a laboratory to test as many new concepts as we can and roll out all or some of the concepts to Lechmere," said Claxton.

Officially named HomeImage by Lechmere, the stores average 45,000 sq. ft. and offer 9,100 skus of home-related merchandise such as housewares, bed and bath, major appliances, mattresses, home and office equipment and furniture and consumer electronics, plus 30,000 music titles in a contemporary setting aimed to please a wide customer profile, but particularly 18 to 54 year olds, slightly more male-than female-oriented, with higher-than-moderate incomes, Claxton said.

The store's merchandise assortment is presented in five concept shops divided by theme and feature "selling stations" or "solution centers," areas within departments that help consumers resolve design, product and price dilemmas.

The store's departments include HomeOffice, HomeEntertainment, HomeWares, HomeComfort and HomePlayground, which is located in the center of the store. HomeEntertainment is considered the "hub" of the store and features interactive CD-ROM games, music listening posts and video game kiosks. This hub also serves as a transition area between the two sides of the store: soft home and hard home.

Overhead TV monitors playing music videos or background scenes with soft music are positioned throughout the entire store and in the "hub."

"HomeImage will provide a one-of-a-kind shopping experience because it offers focused merchandise for today's lifestyles," said Bernard Brennan, chairman and ceo of Montgomery Ward, parent of both Lechmere and HomeImage "We believe that HomeImage is a new and exciting concept in retailing that's designed for our customers and the way they live today. It's they one place they can go to find deep assortments of the best brand names, and get excellent value for their money."

The look and feel of the HomeImage store in Middletown on grand opening day last month was light and airy, with a contemporary flair. The store is outfitted with fixtures and tables in natural wood veneers on the soft home side, and in sleeker, darker hues on the hard home side. White tile floors lead customers around the store. Some departments (bed, bath and CE) are carpeted, while others (housewares and home office) have natural wood floors. The lighting is bright with a combination of fluorescents, track lights and spots that help focus customer attention on the featured merchandise or soften the look of hard goods like CE and major appliances. Vignettes are widely used to encourage ensemble or bundled purchases.

By design, the store is a blending of departments, not the rigid separation of specialty shops at Montgomery Ward and Lechmere. Adjacencies move shoppers easily from department to department. For example, housewares moves gradually into major appliances, which goes into mattresses, then into bed and bath, followed by RTA furniture and home office, then into photo and consumer electronics, if a shopper begins in soft home.

Special features in the store include sound rooms for speakers, listening posts for the latest music releases, computers set up with CD-ROM games, video game terminals and Internet access in an area called "Surf the Web." Even the vacuum cleaner display is furnished with electrical outlets so customers can try the different models, all of which are displayed on thick pile carpeting.

HomeImage by Lechmere has been in the works for more than a year. The store uses the merchandise mix of Electric Avenue & More, also part of parent company Montgomery Ward, with common Lechmere departments, such as photo, housewares and mattresses. Home textiles has been added to the mix. This store, though, is a lot more focused than a typical Lechmere and provides a decidedly more upscale shopping environment than either Montgomery Ward or Lechmere stores.

Pricing appears competitive with area retailers on popular items. What HomeImage does, though, is place "price digestible" merchandise at the aisle to draw customers into a department and to the progressively more expensive merchandise at the department's center and along the walls.

Key to the departments:

* HomeOffice: Features seven computer stations of bundled systems from basic to top-of-the-line. Each bundled system, however, is available with options to upgrade and customize to a customer's needs. Setup is available for a fee. RTA furniture is a part of this department and features 25 different desks and 11 chairs, and prices that stretch to $600.