In-Store Review

Home Textiles Today Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 6/25/2012 2:00:00 AM

Home Textiles Today continues this series critiquing branded private and captured label programs at retail, shopping both in store and online for a specific retail. Rankings are from one star (least) to five stars (most) with the overall score an average of the five individual evaluations. For this feature, the reviewer visited three individual stores and also went on the Sears website.
Design
"It seems one is not meant to buy the Kardashian program at a Sears store. Should you go to one, you are immediately discouraged by the lack of merchandise. So, there is no way to discern what this collection is about from what is in the store. The website will tell you there are three ‘design' stories and can be described as various attempts at glamour. I realize, of course, that the appeal and motivation here is ‘celebrity,' and that design is a very minor afterthought. Having neither seen nor touched the sheets, comment is not possible."
Rating: No Stars
Visual Presentation
"In downtown Oakland, there was a footprint with some quilts, some comforter sets, some decorative pillows and a lot of European shams. But no sheets. The feature bed was dressed in an un-named polyester satin serving as the sheet. After asking for help, a gentleman arrived with a scan gun. He personally knew no sheets had been delivered and that there was no way he could find out if they ever would be. His scan gun said they were discontinued. He didn't seem at all surprised. In the Northgate Mall in San Rafael, there was nothing and in Santa Rose, it was basically the same as in downtown Oakland. Incomplete merchandise and sloppy presentation."
Rating: No Stars
Packaging
"The comforter sets are solidly packaged in plastic with carry handles, but with the coverlets, there was no package. The product was naked and wrapped in wide ribbons, which in most cases had fallen off. The functional comforter set vinyl suitcase is totally negated by the non-functioning ribbons on the quilts. The decorative pillows had no packaging and had edges that were shredding, typifying the cheap and shoddy nature of the product in general."
Rating: No Stars
Relevance to Store Customer
"It certainly isn't that Sears is disinterested in selling bedroom ensembles in store, There are dozens of them, Cannon being featured, plus many other brand names. But the [Kardashian] program is totally foreign to the rest of the assortment. If there is another customer they are trying to reach, I don't understand this method."
Rating: No Stars
Relative Value
"How does the consumer judge value when there is no merchandise to see or feel? Prices seem comparable to what is available, but condition of the merchandise is such a turn-off, value becomes moot. And with nothing to touch or feel and high prices, I have to wonder what the return rate is. I cannot help but muse on what once was the world's most trusted catalog store and wonder how much of that trust is still in place. Maybe this customer doesn't care."
Rating: No Stars
Overall Rating: 0 Stars