The Dry Goods polishes its off-pricer domestics image - HomeMarket Trends supplement

The Dry Goods Polishes Its Off-Pricer Domestic Image This eight-unit chain, with sales of $85 million, has a new prototype. It looks more like a department store than an off-pricer in its presentation of home fashions.

The Dry Goods, an off-price apparel chain with eight stores in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware is polishing the image of off-pricers with a home furnishings presentation that is decidedly upscale in comparison to competitors.

Not content to offer department store brands at substantial reductions, the chain has embarked on a new program to improve its home furnishings presentation and achieve greater consistency in its assortment.

The chain's new prototype, located in Deptford, N.J., also features men's and women's apparel, and jewelry and accessories but the home furnishings department provides the greatest contrast in presentation between this chain and the competition. This new prototype is expected to generate 15 percent of the store's total 1988 volume.

The Dry Goods has combined department store brands with a more upscale presentation and off-pricing Everyday pricing follows department store sale prices, with further reductions during sales.

The Dry Goods features a large assortment in basic categories of kitchen linens, bed and bath, and soft window treatments, all at everyday prices that are reduced from 20 percent to 50 percent.

Unlike other off-pricers, where bargains abound for intrepid shoppers willing to plow through dump tables in stores devoid of atmosphere, The Dry Goods home furnishings department is bright and airy, fully carpeted, and has neatly arranged department store-style fixtures.

The department is set in the left, rear corner of the store and the merchandise is presented in a way that it encourages leisurely browsing.

A towel wall on the right side of the department is the most prominent display. It runs nearly 40 feet, with every shelf fully stocked.

One end of the towel wall concludes with a section of bath ceramics, while the other leads to the back wall featuring a 20-foot display of shower curtains over shelves of packaged goods. Window treatments are presented next to it, on the other side.

Comforters and blankets are displayed on the wall opposite towels, in a corner section. Acrylic plastic fixtures are used to present pillows, bath mats, tablecloths, other towel sets, more comforters and licensed children's merchandise.

Linda Prestileo, divisional merchandising manager, joined the chain earlier this year and has a solid background in department store buying and presentation from her years with John Wanamaker and Federated.

"Home furnishings has always been a big part of The Dry Goods," she told HomeMarket Trends. "They brought me in to make this a viable home furnishings area and to bring in some basic programs that, in the past, have been left to wither. Basic goods are very important in this category and that's what we are trying to establish. You have to have basic pillows, basic towels, basic window treatments. So I would call this program getting back to basics."

She insists that her major goal is not to achieve further upscaling of the department in either assortment of presentation, but to create a home furnishings department that takes a stronger position in basic merchandise by always being in stock, regardless how heavily it is being promoted.

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In the past, said Prestileo, "The approach was more promotional than it is now. We used to be clogged up with post-promotional stock. And how do you set up your program with leftover stock? With the new program, we still have our basic stock and we can stick with our promotions from the basic assortment."

Prestileo intends to install a program that will offer more continuity of merchandise. "Without continuity, the customer doesn't know from one month to the next what she will find in the stores," says Prestileo.

Before the current emphasis on continuity through the creation of a basics program, popular merchandise was available on a hit-or-miss basis. "The situation was different with every area," said Prestileo. "In table linen, for example, we carried Bardwill but we didn't have it on a continuing basis. Now we have it. Maybe in the past they brought in a Battenburg lace tablecloth and they would be sold after a promotion.

The new approach is intended to eliminate that situation. Not only does the prototype offer Battenburg lace linens at $60, it also has imported crocheted lace imported from China at $29.99 and some homespun sku's at $14.99.

In comforters, the featured brands are Dan River, Springmaid and Utica. In towels, the assortment includes Fieldcrest and J.P. Stevens, with price points beginning at under $2 and continuing up to $15 and beyond. The assortment includes both solids and stripes, and seems concentrated on the most popular colors, with a variety of blues and greens.

Overall, however, the towel wall offers merchandise with the look of quiet elegance rather than one of outrageousness of flamboyance.

That touch of elegance is apparent throughout the home furnishings department. It is a look that separates The Dry Goods from other off-price chains such as Marshalls and Loehmann's. Prestileo believes her major thrust to establish continuity through her back-to-basics program doesn't have to result in hohum assortment.

"Basics are important, but we are not offering boring basics because basics are not boring.

"Just as ready-to-wear follows fashion, so does the home furnishings department," she explained. Initial reactions during the first 60 days of the back-to-basics program have been very positive.

"As soon as the merchandise started hitting the stores, managers got excited about the changes and customers responded to it immediately. Shoppers are coming into the stores knowing they are getting a great item at a great price," said Prestileo.

If early indications of the prototype's success hold true, she hopes to have the format rolled out to the other seven stores by next spring.

PHOTO : A towel wall is the department's most prominent display.

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