Mervyn’s Fights to Get to Top of Middle
In a now predictable retail tradition, Christmas elbowed its way into department stores this year, even before the pumpkins could be swept away.
At Mervyn’s in Anaheim Hills, employees recently showed off new merchandise, including an 18-inch Dancing Douglas Fir that jiggles and belts out Christmas songs.
Mervyn’s employees are trying to make Christmas merry, although a dark cloud hangs over the 268-store chain. Last month, parent Dayton Hudson Corp. said it might dump Hayward-based Mervyn’s if sales don’t rise significantly in the next 12 to 18 months.
With the busiest shopping season of the year approaching, Mervyn’s Chief Executive Bart Butzer is working to strengthen the company’s position in the hierarchy of mid-range department stores. One key is providing a wide range of national brands along with the company’s own private label merchandise, he said.
“Middle means middle,” said Butzer, focusing on that lucrative gap between the discounters and the high-end department stores. “We’ve got to make sure our product is always positioned in the middle.”
But since the middle is rife with competition, Mervyn’s is trying to differentiate itself from other stores in this category by offering merchandise that customers can’t find anyplace else.
And that’s where the penguins come in.
As one way of providing unique products, Mervyn’s has struck an exclusive agreement with pattern designer Debbie Mumm of Spokane, Wash., to prepare penguin-theme designs. In a Martha Stewart-like blitz, Mumm’s designs will appear on products throughout the stores, from clothing to dinnerware, this Christmas season.
“Everything we’re doing is different and unique,” said Frank Castiglione, vice president of marketing. “And that is the sole mantra we’re operating under.”
In other words, folks may find Santa Claus and Christmas trees elsewhere, but if they want Mummford the Penguin, they’ll have to go to Mervyn’s.
Leslie Earnest covers retail businesses and restaurants for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-7832 and at leslie.earnest@latimes.com.
