B-T-S sales are ruled by color, fashion, licensing

Drug Store News, Dec 9, 1991 by Barbara White

B-T-S sales are ruled by color, fashion, licensing

Retailers say that color, fashion and licensing are the trends that continue to drive back-to-school stationery sales. Other trends, such as the recycling movement and licensing, are also giving the category a boost. And home office, while not growing in the leaps and bounds that it had been, continues to advance.

Color, always a difficult trend for retailers to predict - especially in relation to products aimed at the faddish youth market - will debut in jewel tones (teal, emerald and violet) in 1992 and may outsell the neon items that have been so strong for the past few years.

Still, vendors and retailers alike believe there is some steam left in bright neon colors, especially for the younger set.

When it comes to design, geometrics and holographic patterns are everywhere. The holographic designs are showing up on everything from notebooks to clipboards.

Licensing, a good area with the youth market, will stay strong in 1992 with more licensees for characters, such as Barbie and The Little Mermaid, coming into the market.

"Barbie was great for us in everything from file folders to party materials," said Cynthia Stahley, buyer at Genovese Drug Stores in New York. Indeed, Pat Patterson, vp-sales-/marketing of Plymouth, Inc., said products under the Barbie license have had a strong debut in initial sales calls.

Barbie products were also hot at Walgreens and are expected to continue selling well through mid-'92, according to Pat Faye, buyer at Walgreens, who noted that "Pirates are looking strong and there's still a lot of interest in the Turtles."

Faye said that a new character, called James Bond Junior, is also showing promise at Walgreens. "A month makes a big difference in licensing. It's hard to say what will be popular in a year," he said.

How much fashion, color?

Retailers vary on how much fashion and color they'll be carrying in 1992. At Reliable Drug Stores in Indianapolis, fashion merchandise makes up 50 percent of the stationery mix.

Other chains are more conservative. Said Chris Michel, buyer at New Orleans-based K&B: "Fashion goods, while necessary, are going to be a smaller part of the program this year. We're going back to basics." Stahley said Genovese stick to basics but "jazzes it up" with fashion and color.

The recycling question

The jury is still out on recycled products. "We do carry some recycled paper from Stuart Hall," said Tony Montini, buyer for Reliable. "But we are waiting to see how the market reacts before investing heavily in recycled paper."

Most retailers say the market is reacting slowly, but in a positive way. "We carried 200-count reycled filler paper last year and sales were good," said Mark Tow, buyer for Cincinnati-based Hook SupeRx. "We expect sales to be even better in 1992."

Retailers say they have to price recycled products at the same level as other merchandise, even though the recycled products may be more expensive. Ron Riviere, buyer for Minnetonka, Minn.-based Snyder's Drug Stores is one of many buyers who is seeing growth in recycled products. He is pricing those items at the same level as other products.

"The success of recycled products depends on how it's merchandised," said Walgreen's Faye. "You can't merchandise recycled envelopes next to the regular envelopes. We did that two years ago and priced them higher than the regular enveloped and failed miserably."

Now, said Faye, all recycled producs are merchandised in one section to make a statement. The area has become very successful for the chain. "We added 10 SKUs from Stuart Hall's green line last year. Even if the products cost more, we charge the same price. The customer doesn't understand why the products should be more expensive."

PHOTO : Retailers will be offering the back-to-school crowds new books and folders in jewel tones, neons and popular licenses in 1992.