Bullock’s Opens a Man-Size Store : Retailing: The Costa Mesa menswear-only facility has three floors. Parent R. H. Macy wanted to give male shoppers better selection.
Department store owners are rediscovering a long-neglected group of customers that make up roughly half the human race: men.
Traditionally, men’s clothing sections have covered barely a floor of a department store. They might even be shunted off to a corner. And no matter how macho the man, retailers say there is about a 65% chance that a woman either bought his new clothes or influenced his decision.
But nowadays, more men are hitting the malls and buying bolder, trendier clothes. And one major department store chain has opened a store that tries to capitalize on the trend.
The Men’s Store at Bullock’s South Coast Plaza was officially unveiled to the press Monday as Southern California’s largest menswear-only department store. It represents a grand experiment by parent company R. H. Macy & Co. to see if the Southland menswear market has really come of age.
“We think the men’s business will see major growth in the next 10 years,” Hal Kahn, chairman of Atlanta-based Macy’s South/Bullock’s, said during a tour of the store. “There is a huge portion of the male population--particularly in Orange County--that has the decisiveness and financial power to make a clothing investment.”
The Bullock’s store, converted over the past three months from an I. Magnin store, includes three floors of merchandise. Ties are everywhere and, even at prices as high as $60, have been one of the biggest sellers. The store’s designer collections feature $1,200 Giorgio Armani suits; the sportswear section offers $30 printed T-shirts. There are a shoeshine stand and personal shoppers who will select merchandise for customers.
After opening quietly a week ago, the store is already generating twice the sales of the I. Magnin store that it replaced, Macy’s officials said. And that’s without any pre-opening advertisements or fanfare. The grand opening will be Aug. 8.
Macy’s isn’t the only department store to recognize the growing demand among men for larger selections of apparel.
Barneys New York plans to more than double the size of its men’s collection at its South Coast Plaza store. A company spokesman said male customers have said they want more of the items found at the retailer’s large flagship store in Manhattan.
Bergdorf Goodman operates a menswear-only store in New York. And Macy’s has the West Coast’s largest men’s department store in San Francisco: 96,000 square feet, compared to 80,000 at the South Coast Plaza store in Costa Mesa.
“The menswear marketplace is no longer dictated by women shopping for the man in her life. The statistics show more working women may not have time to shop for the men,” said Tom Julian, fashion director for the Men’s Fashion Assn. of America, a trade group in New York.
“I think there is a new kind of awareness in menswear,” said Jim Moore, associate fashion editor of GQ magazine. “I feel that menswear is getting more exciting. Men have more confidence in themselves. They want to dress great.”
Bullock’s chief Kahn said the store hopes to capitalize on that trend.
“Men are beginning to accessorize. They want the tie and the shirt to match,” he said. “There’s a very broad section of (male) customers who like to shop.”
Nordstrom also operates a large men’s section in its expansive South Coast Plaza store and could suffer loss of sales if the Bullock’s menswear experiment is successful.
But a Nordstrom spokesman said the department store isn’t worried. He said Bullock’s and Nordstrom attract similar customers, so the addition of the Bullock’s men’s store could actually help Nordstrom’s sales.
Some shoppers in the Bullock’s store Monday said they liked what they saw.
Reggie Gonzalez, vice president of an Irvine high-technology firm, said he came to South Coast Plaza to buy a wedding gift and ended up at the Bullock’s men’s store buying a tie, which he plans to wear to the wedding.
“I think it’s wonderful,” he said. “Most stores don’t have enough menswear.”
Steve Mason, an Irvine psychologist, said it is about time that men have their own store.
“I think it’s nice to have a whole store devoted to men,” said Mason, who suggested that for a “New York feeling” the store should offer sherry or espresso to customers.
His only complaint was that the sales staff was too attentive. “You feel like you’re eating a sandwich with sea gulls around,” Mason said.
Menswear Market The following chart shows the growth in taxable sales for menswear stores in Orange County from 1985 to 1989 (the most recent information available). The percentage change is compared with the previous year.
Number of Taxable Year Stores % Change Sales % Change 1985 194 0 $92,791,000 +6.8 1986 199 +2.6 94,358,000 +1.7 1987 210 +5.5 102,378,000 +8.5 1988 239 +13.8 109,807,000 +7.3 1989 240 +0.4 112,881,000 +2.8
Source: State Board of Equalization Researched by: KATHIE BOZANICH / Los Angeles Times
