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Crazy Little Thing Called Retail
May 7, 2008
A decade ago, when Kmart went all-out to save its business, the biggest move by Kmart merchants was to secure and dynamically expand the Martha Stewart program in home textiles.
How things have changed.
In his two-hour address at the Sears/Kmart annual meeting, Sears Holdings chairman Edward Lampert waxed positive about the exclusive Cannon program that is still taking shape, while once again tantalizing other retailers with offers of sharing the brand equity of Kenmore and Craftsman.
What about Martha?
Seems the one retailer that has sold billions of dollars worth of Martha Stewart Everyday goods this decade is willing to break up with its only major softlines brand (not counting Land’s End).
Here’s the ironic thing. Last summer Kmart re-launched Everyday with great new fashion direction. In fact, the Martha Stewart executives reported in November that at Kmart, “Fashion bedding is up 42% since relaunch.”
Meanwhile, it has now been seven full months since the full-fanfare September 10 debut of Martha Stewart Collection at Macy’s. And the word on that? Cookware is selling briskly.
Neither MSLO (the Martha company) nor Macy’s has offered a single quantifiable comment.
Instead, we have heard MSLO executives’ comments on their Macy’s program trend from “very, very encouraging” and “fantastic” (they said last December), to “hit our sales targets” (March), to “pleased” (April).
For its part, Macy’s managed to state that the Collection is “successful” (February).
Well, give Macy’s credit for not overstating the case. In a few days the $26 billion retailer will report its first-quarter earnings, with commentary. If we’re lucky enough to get a few percentage or dollar numbers regarding the Martha Stewart program, then we’ll be able to judge just how much value there is in this truly significant home textiles brand – a brand that seems like a juggling pin being tossed between these two giant retailers.
Posted by James Mammarella on May 7, 2008 | Comments (0)
