Bloomies home store lays groundwork

NEW YORK — The newly opened, freestanding Bloomingdale's Home Store in Las Vegas has done well initially and represents the blueprint for the layout of future home stores, according to Joe Laneve, senior vp, home.

And home textiles is a big winner in the 90,000-square-foot store. "We're able to show 45-plus beds — it's the largest amount we've had. The most previously was 30 beds," said Laneve.

Standouts in the home textiles world in Las Vegas, Laneve related, are Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Charisma and Royal Sateen. "And we're having outstanding results with our 'only @ Bloomingdale's' quilts, matelassés, comforters and towels.

"We also created a kids section, which we haven't had before."

Across the home furnishings segments, "the most exciting and biggest change has come in the tabletop area, where we have an expanded decorative art glass business, and expansions of our businesses with Kosta Boda, Orrefors and Baccarat, among others.

A strong winner across the store is the exclusive Provence Collection. Provence was launched across the home furnishings division in all stores in September and is the fashion centerpiece in the Las Vegas store.

The store, which opened earlier this month, was laid out from scratch and offers the greatest amount of home furnishings space other than the flagship here, said Laneve. "It's exceeding plan nicely."

And the full-line Bloomingdale's that opened last month in Orlando, FL, has been very good, with a strong home textiles performance as well — a significantly higher penetration of store volume than is typical, Laneve added.

Las Vegas marks a return to freestanding home stores for this Federated division, which had four such units in the 1970s. They were in Jenkintown, PA; Manhasset, NY; Eastchester, NY; and Chestnut Hill, MA.

While there is a Macy's West Home Store in Las Vegas, Laneve explained, "we are very different from them. We are more upscale and more private label in our mix. This is a market that is very right for Bloomingdale's." Both Bloomingdale's and Macy's West are divisions of Federated Department Stores.

The Las Vegas store is the first of three freestanding units that will open by next fall. The others are the Medina Temple unit in Chicago, to open in early February, which will be 130,000 square feet, and a 90,000-square-foot store now occupied by Saks Fifth Avenue in Oakbrook Center, west of Chicago, scheduled to open next fall. The Chicago store had originally been scheduled to open this year.

In Chicago, Laneve added, "we can expand the North Michigan Avenue store's non-home merchandise and develop a full home business in the Chicago market with our breadth of vendors and product at the fashion and upscale levels."

Bloomingdale's currently does not have furniture in the North Michigan store. The home furnishings departments will be moved out of the North Michigan Avenue store. Furniture, which had not been part of that store's mix, will be an integral part of the home store, Laneve said.

"We will use Medina and Las Vegas as the core for all our stores. We've added new vendors and product lines across the store, and we are able to show more breadth of product," Laneve said.