Making waves with color: Fabric Place is shaking up the stodgy fabric business by introducing the superstore concept - HomeMarket Trends supplement

Discount Store News, Oct 1, 1990 by Jim Sullivan

Making Waves With Color

Fabric Place is shaking up the stodgy fabric business by introducing the superstore concept

After more than two years of planning and extensive market analysis, Fabric Place made its Connecticut debut in September with its latest superstore, the fourth in the chain.

Over 2,000 shoppers crowded the spacious, 31,600-square-foot location in Cromwell, Conn., about 15 miles south of Hartford.

The store is the latest in a retailing revolution that has revamped several industries, an attempt to bring modern retailing techniques to what were until recently stodgy and relatively small-scale retail sectors. The model might be office supply superstores, but similar moves have been made in other sku-intensive, low-velocity businesses like home furnishings (such as IKEA). The object, of course, is to turn them into high-velocity businesses through better environments and merchandising, and built-in discounts.

That description fits Fabric Place perfectly. The company has paid close attention to merchandise presentation, even to the point of installing color-corrected lighting to faithfully reproduce the exact hues of its products. The lay-out is an open, shopper-friendly racetrack with built-in "stop-off" points highlighting seasonal and other categories. And, where applicable, products are shown in coordinated groupings to make shopping (and add-on sales) easier. For instance, coordinating rolls of fabrics are shelved above each other, so easy mix and match decisions can be made.

Also, vignettes and room settings highlight virtually every department. Displays in plexiglass endcaps illustrate finished products made from materials on sale nearby.

And Fabric Place has grouped together a strong offering of product categories. Like its other three locations, in Warwick, R.I., Woburn, Mass., and its home base of Framingham, Mass., the Cromwell store runs the full gamut of home decorating products and fashion fabrics.

In addition to its full range of fabrics, the superstore's home decor department offers custom window treatments (which can be fabricated at home or by the company), alternative window treatments, wall overings (a new category), upholstery, furniture, lamps, pillows and bedroom ensembles. A yarns and crafts section features baskets, vases, silk flowers, seasonal ware and gift items. Lighting, flowers and pillows are massed out extensively, to "get people into the interior of the store," noted managing partner Bob Weitzler.

The company's dressware division is comprised of five main product groups: designer fabrics, basics, bridal, notions and sewings aids, and patterns. Fabric Place also stocks a full selection of sewing machines and accessories.

Additionally, Fabric Place stocks designer and staple seconds, for home decorating.

Added to the selection is intensive attention to service. The store employs some 120 full- and part-time employees, almost all being home decorators, seamstresses and/or craft hobbyists. Free seminars are held regularly in various departments, and classes are available in sewing, home decorating, crafts and other specialties. Home decorating consultants will visit a customer at home to recommend fabrics, approaches and decorating alternatives, and other consultants will help pull together fashion looks in bridal and fashion fabrics.

"Because of our size, we're able to employ enough personnel to focus on all of the specifics of the business," said managing partner Ron Isaacson. "Our sales people are extremely well-trained, our decorating consultants all have impressive backgrounds, and our buyers stay on top of the market."

The company's marketing philosophy is simple. It combines top grade products from leading vendors, everyday discounts, fashion presentation and courteous, personal service to keep shoppers coming back again and again.

"Our primary goal is to get customers here once," explained Isaacson, who along with brother Gary and Robert Weitzler owns and operates the 44-year-old family business.

"Once the customer is here, we're confident that our service, selection and sales will draw them back," he said. "The most important thing to our customer is selection, but if we offer nice discounts, have experienced and courteous personnel, and a good location, repeat business will follow."

Weitzler added that fabric and crafts customers tend to be among the most loyal. "If they know for certain that they'll find what they're looking for, they'll go out of their way to shop with us," he said.

A company-sponsored marketing study indicates that Fabric Place has been successful in building a loyal clientele. On average, shoppers visit the stores once a month, and between 70% and 80% travel from within a 15-mile radius. However, the new location, spotted almost exactly halfway between the major population centers of New Haven and Hartford, will probably draw from farther away.

Demographically, the Fabric Place shopper is typically a professional or a housewife, between 35 and 44 years of age, with an average household income of between $50,000 and $60,000, about double the national average.