Keeping competitive

Discount Store News, Dec 8, 1997

Just as in the past, apparel is an essential element of the regional game plan. But these stores, which no longer have a huge jump on Wal-Mart and Kmart -- and are certainly having trouble going head-to-head with Target -- will have to somehow raise the bar.

Prepared for the `national' challenge

While regional mass merchants are the traditional leaders in apparel, shoes and accessories, "the marts" have turned up the heat in recent seasons by placing a greater emphasis on the soft side of their businesses.

Where does that leave the smaller chains?

"The major advantage -- and its probably been out there for a decade or more -- is our size. Every time we want to change or follow a fashion we don't have to turn an ocean liner. The nationals have to turn the Queen Mary, we're piloting the Staten Island Ferry," says Mark Minsky, senior vice president, general merchandise manager at Caldor.

Minsky and his boss ceo Warren Feldberg are confident that Caldor's clothing business will in fact continue to give the company -- long a fashion leader -- a competitive edge. "Apparel is planned to grow at a faster rate than the company. Our five year plan delineates a greater growth rate than the store as a whole," Minsky explains.

To further the cause, Caldor this year revamped its assortments, and merchandised it selling floor around these lifestyle assortments.

Coupled with two new prototypes -- one in Peekskill, N.Y., the other in Timonium, Md. -- that have juggled adjacencies and tested new fixtures and appointments, the company is hardly standing still in the wake of the challenge from the nationals.