Getting Its Holiday Wish
Bloomingdale’s, the New York-based department store operator that haughtily refers to itself as “The Store,” is coming to Southern California with its guns blazing.
Bloomingdale’s will host a Nov. 7 gala fund-raiser at its new Century City store featuring Phil Collins, John Mellencamp and Jerry Seinfeld.
Subsequent in-store promotions--from TV mom Florence Henderson to stylish designer Tommy Hilfiger--are supposed to keep Bloomie’s new locations in Newport Beach, Century City and Sherman Oaks in the spotlight as retailers prep for the all-important holiday shopping season that kicks off during Thanksgiving weekend.
Behind the scenes, the upscale department store operator has been engaged in a tug of war with competitors as it rushes to fill about 2,000 jobs, ranging from the loading dock at the new Fashion Island store to the chain’s West Coast executive suite in Century City.
Bloomingdale’s arrival marks the latest chapter in a dizzying wave of changes sweeping the retail industry.
As part of an ongoing consolidation, Robinsons has merged with May Co., and venerable nameplates like Bullock’s, I. Magnin and the Broadway have been retired. There’s also new competition from national chains like Best Buy that use huge stores and the promise of low prices to lure shoppers.
Bloomingdale’s western expansion--a fourth store will open next month in Palo Alto and a fifth is slated next year for Los Angeles’ Beverly Center--is part of a trend toward national competition in an industry that’s struggling to pump up paper-thin profit margins.
“It’s interesting that this is such a rapidly changing industry,” said Ira Kalish, a Los Angeles-based economist with Management Horizons, a Price Waterhouse division. “Typically, when you think of change, you think of high-growth industries like high-tech and telecommunications. But retailing isn’t high-growth. It’s stagnant.”
The arrival in Southern California of the chain that brothers Lyman and Joseph Bloomingdale founded in 1872 to sell hoop skirts to genteel New York ladies should delight upscale Southern Californians in general and transplanted Easterners who grew up shopping at the chain’s flagship store.
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Shoppers aren’t alone in benefiting from Bloomingdale’s expansion.
The five Bloomingdale’s stores in the Golden State are creating rare opportunities for retail industry executives who’ve watched career options dwindle during an ongoing industry consolidation.
Bloomingdale’s has imported some executives from stores in the East, but it also has actively recruited executives from competing retail chains.
Michael Lindblad, 42, a Thousand Oaks resident who is vice president of Bloomingdale’s California region, crossed over from Robinsons-May, where he had been responsible for 15 department stores in California and Arizona. Kathryn McDonnell, general manager of Bloomingdale’s Fashion Island store in Newport Beach, previously managed the Robinsons-May in MainPlace Santa Ana.
Robin Russell, a Los Angeles-based vice president with Kenzer Corp., declined to discuss specifics of the executive searches her firm conducted for Bloomingdale’s. But Russell acknowledged that retail chains often look to competitors for executive talent.
Bloomingdale’s also has stirred up the employment pot for store-level workers.
“Obviously, someone with experience at Nordstrom or Neiman-Marcus is going to be of interest to Bloomingdale’s,” said Dennis DeNaut, general manager of Brea Mall. “In our industry, whenever a good job opens up, there’s a flurry of activity.”
Bloomingdale’s store at Fashion Island in Newport Beach generated defections by “a small handful” of Nordstrom employees in Orange County, said John Bailey, a Costa Mesa-based spokesman for the Nordstrom chain.
“While we hate to lose employees, we know it’s a personal decision where people work,” Bailey said. “Bloomingdale’s is a good organization and we wish any employees who’ve decided to go over there a good future.”
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As Bloomingdale’s scrambles to train new employees and stock its shelves with upscale goods, it’s also unleashing a publicity barrage designed to keep shoppers buzzing about the new kid on the retail block.
“We recognize the benefits of the good timing involved with opening during the fourth quarter,” Lindblad said.
Bloomingdale’s will be able to open four stores for the holiday season because of a real estate deal completed more than a year ago by parent Federated Department Stores. Federated acquired dozens of former Broadway stores, which it has refurbished and restocked as Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s stores.
“We were lucky that the Broadway deal got consummated when it did,” Lindblad acknowledged. “And all of our focus, naturally, was on getting into this market prior to the holidays.”
Bloomingdale’s individual stores will hold grand openings and special events.
The Newport Beach location at Fashion Island, for example, will have a fund-raiser on Nov. 14 to benefit Children’s Hospital of Orange County and Orangewood Children’s Foundation. But the big guns--Collins, Mellencamp and Seinfeld--will be featured Nov. 7 when Bloomingdale’s Chairman and Chief Executive Michael Gould will host an “Ultimate Premiere” at the chain’s Century City store.
The intimate cocktail and dinner party for 1,400 invitees will be staged in a huge tent next to the Century City store. The fund-raiser--to be chaired by Hollywood guru Michael Ovitz--will benefit the UCLA School of Medicine and will feature a who’s who of Southern California’s business and social communities.
The hoopla is part of Bloomingdale’s bid to build upon the considerable cachet that Bloomie’s enjoys among high-end consumers with fond memories of the chain’s fabled Art Deco flagship store at 59th Street and 3rd Avenue in Manhattan.
“There’s a tremendous advantage in being a well-known retailing name that, heretofore, hasn’t been in the market,” economist Kalish said. “There’s going to be a large curiosity factor, which in and of itself will draw people in.”
But once the shoppers are inside, Kalish added, it will be up to Bloomingdale’s to execute its strategies and prove that its prices, selection and service are more in tune with Southern Californians’ tastes than the competition.
Bloomingdale’s hopes to prosper in a niche once dominated by upscale retailers such as I. Magnin and Bullock’s. Those types of elite chains, Lindblad said, “have disappeared or been homogenized into a more moderate [price] format.”
But Lindblad cautioned competitors against assuming that Bloomingdale’s will cater only to “a narrow band of people, say, in Beverly Hills and the carriage trade.
“You can bet that if we’ve got popular brands that are found in the rest of the market, that we’ll have it at market prices,” Lindblad said. “And, yes, we’ll have $100 dress shirts. But we’ll also have dress shirts for $39.50.
“We’re going to be the fashion leader, but we’re also going to have all of the basics.”
* JOLLY SPENDERS
Consumers expect to increase holiday purchases by 12% over 1995. D5
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California Debut
Early next month, New York-based Bloomingdale’s arrives in Southern California. In Orange County, the location is Fashion Island. Three other stores will open in Los Angeles.
Outside Orange County
Sherman Oaks Fashion Square
14006 Riverside Drive
Sherman Oaks
Century City Center
10250 Santa Monica Blvd.
Los Angeles
Beverly Center (opening March 1997)
8500 Beverly Blvd.
