Had we not seen it firsthand, we never would have believed it. Three girls, ages 13 and 14, looking for dresses to wear to a friend's party asked the tagalong adult to drive them to the mall where they could check out what Macy's, J.C. Penney and Nordstrom had.
Before this request, we hadn't suspected the girls knew the department stores as anything other than places to pass through so they could enter the mall to shop at Hollister, Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle and other destinations.
As it turns out, they and many others their age and older have discovered department stores as a shopping destination and specialty shops are the ones looking to find an angle to reverse the trend.
As a USA Today report points out, Federated's chains (at least, outside of Chicago), J.C. Penney, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus are doing a solid business. Specialty stores, including the Gap, Chico's, Talbots and Ann Taylor, have not done as well.
This is not to say that all specialty stores are performing poorly. Clearly many such as J. Crew, Coach and the aforementioned A&F are doing quite well.
Michelle Bogan, a retail strategist at Kurt Salmon Associates, said Department stores have found a new audience by doing "a really good job focusing in on how to make their assortments more compelling.
"Specialty stores," she said, "started to rest on their laurels, thinking people would keep coming if they just kept doing what they were doing. But if the customer has a better option, that's where she's going to shop."
"The department stores are using some exciting new vendors, while also keeping the old ones, and they kept the pricing affordable and the quality good," said Nanci Lee Mora, a former Bloomingdale's manager. "The smaller stores have become boring, (and) their prices are too high."
While department stores are doing well as a whole, it would be a mistake to assume the players in this channel have any more of a lock on their current position than specialty outlets did five years ago.
"Part of what's happening is definitely cyclical. From channel to channel, you will see peaks and valleys," said Ms. Bogan.
Peter Nordstrom, president of merchandising at his family's chain, said it isn't about the type of store. "Customers don't make a big distinction ... as long as you offer a compelling reason to be there. They just like shopping where they can find the things they can want."
Discussion Questions: For stores not doing well, is it really that merchandise is out-of-step with current fashion or does the negative reputation developed at some stores such as The Gap keep customers from even venturing into stores to make up their own minds? Has the brand name on the garment become the main impediment to a sale in many cases?