Garb buyers hedge for Easter; will stress twills, not frills

Discount Store News, Jan 23, 1984 by Karen Paxton

This year's late Easter is a potential thorn in the apparel side of discounter's spring business.

To avoid being struck with markdowns on dress-up looks late in April when summer playwear is hot, soft lines merchandise managers are buying lighter for easter and pumping up more casual spring styles.

In fact merchandisers who saw slow action in traditional frills for holiday '83 have labeled 1984 "a casual year for apparel."

Short-sleeve cotton sweaters in "raw" beige tones or pastels, cotton twill separates in light colors for girls and ladies plus suits in dusty roses and lilacs for ladies are expected to sell well before the end of March.

Girls' dresses are the only dress-up items soft lines execs expect will move well during the final weeks before the April 22 holiday.

Merchandise managers at more fashion-oriented chains made the most dramatic changes in buying strategy this spring. Buys of dress-up looks for Easter were cut by 80% at Ames and by 30% at Gold Circle.

Executives at Zayre, Hills, K mart and Venture agreed that dressy looks are slowing, but made less of a turnaround in their buying strategies for spring.

K mart is buying the same level of Easter merchandise as last year, when Easter occurred three weeks earlier, according to Larry Parkin, vice chairman of K mart Apparel. "But, with Easter so late we will pick up sales earlier, and those sales won't be one item for one occasion," he explained.

By the week before Easter, Parkin expects, the mix in ladies' and children's wear will be about 68% summer items and 32% spring goods. Less than half of those spring items will be dress-up Easter looks.

In appeared, Parkin expects first-quarter sales to be 8% to 10% higher than last year's. Second-quarter apparel sales should reflect gains of 20% to 13%, he added.

At Ames, soft lines vp Steve Silver plans to hold the Easter mix down to 15% of the assortment during spring. He hopes changes in the apparel strategy will win at least a 10% gain in same-store sales of apparel for the first quarter.

The goods he will feature for Easter include separates in cotton twills and lightweight fabrics rather than dresses this year. Only in girls' wear, where "California look" prints and lightweight knits were successfully tested last fall, are dresses expected to be a hot item this spring.

Silver said the momentum carried by casual styles will make things a lot easier in boys' wear this year. Almost no dress-up Easter looks will be stocked for boys this year at Ames. Short-sleeved polo shirts, knit tops and pants in twills or wovens make up the spring assortment.

"We dropped sports jacket last year and suits the year before that. No one cared and now it's better for me. I don't get stuck with the markdowns," said Silver.

The threat of getting "killed with markdowns" on spring merchandise prompted changes at Gold Circle this year, according to George Rubin, senior vp, soft lines. "We looked back at last year's markdowns and decided to cut back."

In addition to trimming dress-up items by 30%, Rubin pushed ahead the Easter ad schedule in relation to the holiday this year. Almost all the Easter apparel ads will be run before the beginning of April this year. Only one ad for dressy clothes will be run in the three weeks before Easter: That will be for girls' dresses.

Before March, the chain will stress sportswear and active-wear looks, said Rubin. After March, terry items, pants, the layered flash-dance look and shorts will be emphasized. Summer items will be 25% of the apparel assortment in all departments in March, compared to just a 10% summer wear assortment a year earlier.

"Our main objective is to move into the bright summer colors as quickly as possible," Rubin explained. "We have got to be rid of the [spring] merchandise by the end of April."

An emphasis on activewear and casual looks represents less of a retrenching at Venture, according to senior vp of marketing Maxine Clark.

"We always do our apparel business in sportswear and weekend wear, not dresses and suits. Even in little girls' wear the more dress-up styles are those little miniskirts that can also be casual."

Both Venture's clark and Hills' children's wear buyer Len Sack consider Easter a small factor in spring sales. But unlike Clark, Sack isn't making any changes in his tactics this year.

Mix-and-match skirts and blouses in soft colors are being brought in for Easter along with spring sportswear. He expects sales in children's wear to gain by only 6% to 8% in the first quarter.