A surprisingly new style for Sears: Homelife, Sear's new power furniture format, is unlike anything seen before at the nation's largest retailer - includes related article - HomeMarket Trends supplement

Discount Store News, Oct 16, 1989 by Mary Ellen Kelly

A Surprisingly New Style for Sears

Homelife Furniture Store by Sears: If they didn't tell you, you never would have guessed.

The first freestanding Homelife store opened in Madison, Wis., last month, putting the nation's largest retailer on track as a powerful force in the U.S. furniture industry.

A similar Homelife unit was opened as part of a mall addition at the Sears store in Fresno, Calif., in late August.

Jerry Hand, vice president of Sears' home fashions group, noted, "Early indications in Fresno show we are able to sell the better merchandise . . . Previously we were more commodity oriented."

Like Brand Central - Sears' electronics superstore concept - Homelife can either stand on its own or be incorporated into an existing Sears. When the elements of Homelife are worked into full-line Sears stores, the furniture department will be gutted. From florescent lights above to tile floors below, the dramatic decor will spotlight furniture brands and merchandising that are unlike anything the consumer has seen before in Sears.

Hand said Sears' goal is to attain sales of $300 per square foot and double its furniture market share with Homelife - whether freestanding or within a Sears store. Margins are expected to be in the high 30 percent range, or about the same as the old furniture department. However, the margins will be made on sales of higher-ticket, branded goods.

"Furniture is a destination purchase," Hand explained. "In most Sears stores we have under 10,000 feet, while the average competitor has 40,000 feet. When this is the industry average, you don't play. You're not in the game."

Eric Saunders, senior executive vice president for wearing apparel and home fashions, added, "The larger format of the Madison store provides greater flexibility for assortment and presentation than our current in-store space allows."

Sears' chainwide average for home fashions departments is 7,800 square feet.

The three prototype sizes created for the Homelife format are 12,000 square feet for small or remote towns; 20,000 square feet for smaller urban markets; and 40,000 square feet in larger urban markets.

Market competition is also a factor in determining the prototype size warranted by a given market. Hand and other executives are currently examining each market "to determine where we need to be with the furniture concept."

In some cases, it will be necessary to eliminate furniture departments from existing Sears stores when a freestanding Homelife would compete with a Sears furniture department. In fact, this is what happened in Madison. The two Sears department stores in the market phased out furniture when the freestanding Homelife store opened.

The store interior was the creation of Connie Post, a designer who is currently based in High Point, N.C. The goal, according to Hand, was to create an "art deco feel with a sleek contemporary design."

The tiled flooring of the store's central aisle coupled with grand archways and statues harken back to art deco motifs. Black and white fixturing brightened with "diner" pink and green accents enhance the art deco ambience while not detracting from the furniture vignettes.

The "rooms" of furniture are defined by decorative walls with window frames that allow the shopper to see "outside" into another collection of furniture.

In leather goods, a platform edged with brass railing elevates these high-ticket items above living room settings. The result is a leather department that resembles a loft, and sofa/coffee table groupings that look like sunken living rooms.

The layout is similar to a treasure map. The consumer is pulled through the store by using eye-catching displays that act as clues to the kind of furniture a shopper will find at the end of a walkway.

For instance, a robotic Red Riding Hood and a wolf dressed in grandmother's clothing are stationed at the entrance of a juvenile furniture vignette. A functioning Wurlitzer jukebox is against the back wall of an area merchandising dinette sets. A rough and ready jeep appears to be driving out of the ready-to-assemble furniture area.

Trac lighting is sparse; most of the light sources are from lamps that accessorize the vignettes. The result is warm amber lighting in home-like settings. The stark spotlights add interest to more typical displays like rows of rockers and recliners.

The merchandise offered includes living room, dining room bedroom and family room and bedding. The lighting and decorative accessories that accent the room displays are also for sale. Lighting is an area that will be given more of its own department in the future, Hand said.

Dresher, American Drew and Barclay are among the national brands offered. Ready-to-assemble furniture is represented by Bush and Sauder.

Sears has broadened the price range it is willing to sell in the Homelife environment. An RTA typewriter/printer stand with autumn oak finish by Sauder priced at $59 is among the lower-ticket furniture pieces. Toward the upper end is an $1,800 Singer ensemble including four bowback sidechairs, a table, and a china cabinet in a white wash finish. Hand said upper-end upholstered furniture will be expanded in the future.