Chains' PL trim-a-tree programs reveal much about different strategies - private label home Christmas decorations

Discount Store News, Nov 2, 1992 by Mary Ellen Kelly

The last strands of garland were laced around most of the displayed Christmas trees by store associates last month as discount chains prepared their stores for 1992 holiday seasonal sales.

The trim-a-home programs, developed at chain headquarters, provide a revealing look into the very individual business strategies and shopper demographics of the nation's leading discount retailers.

The larger chains, with their absence of many national brand names in the department, start from scratch, developing imported private label programs targeted to their specific customer interests. Whether it is the rich burgundy velvet and bejeweled look of Target's tree ornaments or Kmart's Christmas-in-a-box, which simplifies the purchase of a town full of ceramic holiday houses, the trim-a-home department reflects each chain's perceived shopper base.

Trim-a-tree departments at regional chains like Caldor, Venture and others that have opened new store prototypes in the past year also reflect the renewed importance of seasonal presentations, and how the chain's customer of today differs from those of the past.

At Caldor, for instance, older stores have brought in red warehouse racking to stack holiday aisles high with merchandise, while the newest store, opened last month in Bristol, Pa., uses standard height gondolas, gives increased square footage to the category, and is more meticulous about merchandising.

While some national brand names are beginning to emerge in the holiday assortments of discounters--including General Electric and Kodak tree lights and Coca-Cola licensed ornaments from Atlanta-based Communicorp--the mainstay of trim-the-home for larger chains continues to be imported private label programs, customized for each chain.

And the customized private label trim-a-tree business was taken to new height this year at chains like Venture, Target and Kmart, which lured shoppers to purchase low-ticket, high margin goods for sprucing up the holiday home.

The private label assortments enable the retailer to create an integrated Christmas shop with coordinated header cards and ornaments garlands and even gift wrap which convey the chain's particular theme.

Venture's private label Christmas program, for instance, is called Holiday Wishes, while Trim Trends and Trim A Home are the labels on the assortments at Target and Kmart, respectively. In sub-categories where a national brand exists--such as miniature bulb Christmas tree lights--each chain takes a different approach to pricing the private label alternative.

A price comparison of one particular sku at several stores in the St. Louis market, for example, indicates that some chains are positioning the private label as a slightly more affordable option to a national brand name alternative. Others are using bare bone pricing on private label to entice shoppers into the holiday trim-the-home department, confident that impulse purchases of other higher margin holiday merchandise will make the low-priced private label pay off.

Holiday Wishes, the Venture program, included a set of 100 string-along miniature bulb lights for $7.49, compared to a comparable General Electric set for $9.99.

Kmart was offering the same GE set for $11.98, but its Trim A Home private label could be purchased for $5.97.

And while Target's overall private label trim-a-home assortment is more upscale than that of any of the other discounters, the chain was the sharpest pricer in the private label Christmas lights price comparisions; $3.99 for a 100-bulb string-along set.

The Wal-Mart store visited in the St. Louis market had not yet put out its holiday assortment.

The Target program, Trim Trends, differed from programs at other chains in several ways. While Kmart, Venture and others had created their programs on a direct-import basis from either China or Taiwan, Target worked with a United States-based importer, Seasonal Specialties, from Eden Prairie, Minn.

In addition, Trim Trends was subdivided into several themes, each with their own pattern, color groupings and names. Among them were Deck the Halls, Bejeweled, Toyland Surprise and Christmas Valley. Each theme offered related three ornaments and also color-coordinated wrapping paper with the same theme names.

Many chains followed the lead of Hallmark and Christmas specialty shops by offering an entire world of miniature painted buildings, scenery, people figurines and trim to create an illuminated Christmas "town".

Target's miniature town selection is glossier, heavier and generally more detailed and pricey than the "towns" offered by other discounters, reflecting the somewhat more affluent demographics of the Target customer.

Each of the three chains took its own approach to merchandising the Christmas town line. Target showed the assortment of buildings in a row on a shelf where they could be handled by the shopper, while Venture meticulously merchandised the town with all of the various town trims--fences, trees, figurines--and protected the display under a clear plastic enclosure to prevent handling. Kmart opted for a boxed set which depicted the town on the box front.