Bon Marche debuts new format in Helena, MT

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 11/9/2001 12:00:00 AM

Seattle — The Bon Marche recently bowed its new single-level, stand-alone format to Helena, MT, consumers, entering a new area of opportunity for the store and its parent company, Federated Department Stores.

Focusing on real estate in a mid-sized community rather than a downtown area or a mall, the usual spots for Federated stores, the new format allows customers to shop in a full-line department store, with the ease of a single-level, single-entrance design and centralized customer service centers. New features include customer call boxes, located throughout the store as well as in the fitting rooms so consumers can quickly receive help from associates, and compact shopping carts, a new addition for the Bon Marche. The merchandise focuses on a better assortment, and in the home area, which excludes furniture, that includes Ralph Lauren.

Already, the new 65,000-square-foot store has had double-digit sales, said Kimberly Reason, spokesperson, and the company is very pleased with that performance. She added that it would be a minimum of six months before the company evaluated the format and decided whether it was viable for other locations.

The Bon Marche currently operates 44 stores in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming.