Discounters riding crest of home decor wave

Discount Store News, Nov 23, 1987

Discounters Riding Crest of Home Decor Wave

Americans are dissatisfied with their home decor and plan to purchase new products to remedy the situation. Further, a new nationally projectable study by DSN shows that discount stores have achieved comparability with full-price department stores as retail outlets of first choice for home furnishings products.

Eighteen percent of shoppers said they think of discounters first when planning to make a purchase in domestics and home fashions, while 20 percent think first of full-price department stores. Overall, national merchandisers, such as Sears and J.C. Penney, were named most often (28 percent) by consumers as outlets of first choice for home fashion.

Indicative of discounter acceptance in this blossoming category, discount stores placed a strong second to national merchandisers as a source for kitchen and bath goods, and in certain areas discounters made inroads among the predominantly older female, upper middle class audience that generally has favored the competition.

Fashion Orientation

The survey, conducted in August and September by Leo J. Shapiro and Associates for DSN, revealed that the most popular method of improving the home environment also reflects the fashion orientation; consumers were far more likely to "dress' a room to improve it than to bring in new furniture or make structural changes. Bedspreads, window treatments, drapes, linens and other "dress-up' type products were extremely popular.

Not surprisingly, younger and poorer households were less happy with their environment and more likely to do something about it. This group will also seek out discount stores more often than older, wealthier consumers. Young householders have had less time to accumulate home products, generally don't have the income to buy them, and are more likely to be status and fashion conscious than their more settled elders.

Overall, consumers were most satisfied with their kitchens and bedrooms. Bath and linen closets were the areas cited as needing most work.

Older and wealthier consumers tended to be happiest with the state of their bathrooms, which overall were pronounced perfect by a little less than a third of interviewees.

Younger consumers (under 35) and those who rent homes were the only groups to show significant unhappiness with their bedrooms. Every other category (respondents were broken up by age, sex, income, occupation and housing) seemed content, although a significant undercurrent of displeasure showed up among women and middle-aged consumers.

Young renters were also the outsiders in a generally consistent pattern of placidity concerning window coverings. About a third of respondents were very happy with their windows vs. only a quarter of the young and those who rent.

The linen closet finished last in degree of satisfaction. It also found little favor with the young, those who rent and the blue collar workers.

That same group was relatively unhappy with their kitchens, a room in which the overall population was very happy. Significantly more women expressed the highest level of satisfaction than did men. Older consumers were happier than the young.

By group, men tended to be happier with the bedroom and linen closet than did women, while women expressed a higher degree of satisfaction with kitchens and window coverings. Neither group was particularly happy with the bathroom.

In every category except the bath, there was a direct correlation between advancing age and a high rate of satisfaction. Middle-aged consumers (35-49) were slightly less happy with their baths than those under 35.

Homeowners were much happier than renters in every category; the wealthier (over $40,000 a year) were more content than the less affluent.

White collar workers and those not employed (including retirees) were marginally happier in every category than were blue collar respondents.

Of those who said they planned to buy a new home fashion product, the largest percentage planned to shop a national merchandiser in all four home fashion categories. Discounters were the second most popular choice in two areas: the bath and the kitchen, indicating, perhaps, a perception of discounters as a good source for smaller hard goods, and a lesser one for soft lines.

The discount share of the market by category was: bathroom, 23 percent; bedroom, 15 percent; window treatment, 14 percent; and kitchen, 21 percent. Discounters finished a close third to department stores in the window category.

Women tended to favor discount stores more than did men, as did renters. By a large margin, those earning less than $20,000 also favored discount stores. The not employed group, which contains retirees, was also more likely to frequent discounters than were other occupational groups, and the middle-aged consumers favored discounters more than did other age groups.

Over 60 percent of respondents plan to purchase something for their bedrooms, particularly furniture, beds and bedspreads. Over a third of them said that they were planning to make a major purchase (bed, furniture, chest, table) and about one in five were in the market for the a bedspread or quilt.