Chains becoming supply depots for school, home office

Drug Store News, April 5, 1993

Adults take to home office with style, students snap up supplies bearing irreverent designs,and drug chains tie in shipping services and mail centers to become more of a destination site.

The let's-get-organized (or else) '90s are boosting stationery sales in drug chains, thanks in part to the advantage of neighborhood convenience.

Despite mass merchandisers and the office monster category killers, many drug chains reported 1992 increases in sales of home office products, school supplies (both basic and fashion), new writing implements, and arts and craft kits as well as mail-center growth.

The stationery department advanced 5.4 percent overall to $2.6 billion at drug chains in 1992.

A well-organized, focused stationery assortment helps busy shoppers meet their needs. A chain like Troy, Mich. -based Arbor Drug presents a stationery department "where you'll find, pulled together, the key items. It's convenient," says Markus Ernst, executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Stationery grew in 1992, he notes, especially in home office and Back To School, where both kids and adults like color and novelty - whether it's pens or color presentation folders.

For adults, products are geared to do a job with personal style - like Mead's Cambridge line of organizational pieces and day planners or Stuart Hall's Executive Suite office products in soft colors for women.

Buyers also report that consumers like to tray new writing instruments, especially when good visual and ergonomic design comes at an affordable price, like the rubberized barrel design of PaperMate's Flex-Grip.

Value added

Lynn Santulli, stationery division manager for distributor N.W. Cash, says that in 1992, she noticed another trend: good movement in mid-sized multi-packs in pens and pads. "At retail, most consumers don't have a place to put 11 legal pads. The trend is to threes and sixes," she said.

Whether it is multi-packs or a premium packed in, consumers are on the lookout for value-added products. An extra feature - a pen included with a planner or a dispenser packaged with tape - give consumers a reason to buy, and not just for a rock-bottom price.

Consumers still want a touch of post-1980s luxury, too. That means affordable fashion with themes that celebrate the earth or crystal tints to help get the task done decoratively in a home office. Fashion thrives, despite budget concerns. Imitation stone and rock designs, for example, are making inroads in everything from writing implements to desk accessories.

Paper products may be at the heart of recycling efforts, yet buyers say vendors seem to be reducing their recycled stationery offerings, a trend found in other categories as well. One buyer notes that his chain's sales in recycled stationery were flat in 1992 compared with 1991. One problem, he says, is that consumers are confused by terms like recycled and post-consumer waste.

Mail aid

Drug chains' corner convenience means service features, including postage stamps and other mailing services. The trend in drug chains and food/drug combos s toward providing and all-purpose fax/photocopy/information/ mail center - or some variation to help consumers get through their checklists. And it's an opportunity to sell products ranging from tape to padded mailers, styrofoam packing peanuts to collapsible boxes.

At the Lewis Drug chain in South Dakota, greeting cards are adjacent to its service/mail center, which provides a place for customers to address cards, buy postage and mail them on the spot.

Food/drug combos are setting the pace for service including mail centers, like Vons new super combo in Simi Valley, Calif., which features a front-of-store "Vons Pak" franchise shipping desk, where the customer brings in an object to be sent and a computer figures all details including shipping, insurance and packing materials.

Young customers

Drug chain buyers were cautious about licensed product in 1992, although winners like Lisa Frank and Disney licenses like Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin were good movers.

This year promises more hot new licensed product for the younger set like Barney & Baby Bop, along with Thomas the Tank Engine. Lisa Frank's new Ballerina Bunny and Hollywood Bear promise to be big in 1993, along with film tie-ins for the dinosaur thriller Jurassic Park - a big bet for summer and fall '93 Back To School.

It's not surprising that arts and crafts kits are faring very well, with sales driven by hopeful parents who want to give their kids a creative and productive head start, or to provide a hedge against passive television.

The children's arts and crafts category is growing as parents encourage fun along with education. Crayons and markers are key building blocks in the category, which includes variations on computer art (like a line from Pixxel) and jewelry making (an example is a kit from Rose Art). Activity kits were a strong new category for PayLess Drugs in 1992, and buyer Greg Lamb cites Binney & Smith as a line that's been doing well.