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HFN staff members went undercover to evaluate the bridal registries of five department stores. Customer service offered was the best at Marshall Field's on State St, in Chicago, IL; brand and pattern discussions were needed more fully at Macy's West and Macy's East and brand discussion was excellent at Rich's in Atlanta, GA, and Filene's in Stamford, CT., NEW YORK -- You never get a second chance to make a first impression. A store's bridal registry often is the most comprehensive process a customer goes through with a [...]

A shopping survey of department and housewares stores revealed a wide range of knowledge and helpfulness among the sales personnel at different retailers. Customer service was good at Bloomingdale's Inc., R.H. Macy and Company Inc. and the New York specialty store Broadway Panhandler. Shoppers had to wait for help at Lechters Inc., Stern's Inc. and Williams-Sonoma Inc. stores. Macy's had an electronic kiosk with information on Meyer's cookware., NEW YORK -- Confused customers shop price. This truism of consumerism drives manufacturers and retailers. The ability to convert a potential customer into a satisfied one is increasingly what separates [...]

Carole Sloan New York-- Macy's Home Store continues to be a challenge for parent Federated Department Stores, and furniture and bedding are an important part of the equation going forward. [...]

RETAIL LINENS 'N THINGS said it has met the fourth-quarter sales requirements established by Apollo Management LLP for a merger with the investor group to proceed. The home furnishings retailer's [...]

Mervyn's and Anna's Linens are taking the practical approach to luring Hispanics to their stores. They go by three key words: affordability, versatility and quality of their bed and bath [...]

NEW YORK-Only in New York kids, only in New York. Bloomingdale's has created 'fantasy model apartments' in a new 27-floor luxury condominium across the street from its iconic Manhattan flagship [...]

NEW YORK-It's here -- the new Macy's Home book, that is. Federated Department Stores unveiled the first catalog to reflect the work of Macy's Home Store, the centralized home buying [...]

PLANO, Texas-Designer Chris Madden's home program for J.C. Penney is outpacing performance expectations and on its way to becoming 20 percent of the $1.5 billion private-label Home Collection over the [...]

Good prices and a wide selection of merchandise are the two most prominent reasons American consumers select a store in which to shop for and purchase items of wall decor, [...]

Bloomingdale's SoHo store in New York was the stage for the party to celebrate the new CD 'Will & Grace: Let the Music Out.' The cast of 'Will & Grace' [...]

NEW YORK-With Target's new store concept starting to pop up in locations relatively close to stores operating under established guidelines, it's an interesting comparison to shop at both sites and [...]

Department stores have revamped and remodeled their luggage departments in several major markets, including the metropolitan Atlanta area. A visit to two different Rich's/Macy's stores in Atlanta showed that the [...]

NEW YORK-Target is polishing its delicate balancing act: serving as both a couturier and a mass merchant. The discounter is honing its 'masstige' (mass prestige) formula with the ongoing rollout [...]

Sears unveiled a re-engineered Web Site from which consumers can fill their closets and shop for every room in their home due to an expanded product mix, according to the [...]

DES MOINES, Iowa-Saks Inc. took the wraps off its Younkers prototype store here in what the company is calling a new approach to the traditional department store model -- including [...]

NEW YORK-J.C. Penney will be playing up the dual themes of home spa and home entertaining for the holiday season. The retailer is revisiting its 'unwrap the magic' campaign, but [...]

NEW YORK-Bloomingdale's opened its second Manhattan store, an outsized specialty unit in the trendy SoHo shopping mecca. The store's home furnishings are limited to about 300 feet of gifts and [...]

NEW YORK-J.C. Penney unveiled its new Queens Center store in Elmhurst, N.Y., which is expected to be its largest-volume unit, featuring one of the biggest home assortments in the entire [...]

It's a busy time of year for my old college roommate, Johnny Puke. Johnny earns his nickname managing, and sometimes singing in, punk rock bands. But when the holiday season [...]

NEW YORK-At next month's fall market, many department store eyes will be on the box. Boxed dinnerware, that is, and only if they can find it. In the perpetual swing [...]

There's no place for shopping like Paris. The stores' assortments -- from department stores to boutiques -- are all as distinctive as the people who run them. The rue St. [...]

It's no secret that Kohl's formula of selling national brands at a value in an easy-to-shop, off-the-mall format has struck gold for the chain. In turn, the discount department store [...]

NASHVILLE, Tenn.-Schottenstein Stores Corp., stepping up from its promotionally oriented Value City chain, has opened the first American Signature Home store in the Cool Springs Galleria just south of here. [...]

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill.-Sears will unveil its exclusive Closet Shop this August in nearly 600 stores nationwide. The department will focus on the burgeoning closet and laundry organization category with a [...]

Sinking to New Depts. Hey, I just went to this really cool department store last week. It had all the usual departments -- cosmetics, menswear, ladies ready-to-wear and a kids' [...]

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill.-The decision by Sears to end its carpet business, which requires repeat visits to a customer's home to measure and then install carpeting, fits into its new goal [...]

NEW YORK-Bloomingdale's recently welcomed celebrity chef and cookbook author Ming Tsai to The Main Course, located in its housewares department, to announce his alliance with Impromptu Gourmet, maker of gourmet [...]

CINCINNATI-Federated Department Stores, taking steps to squeeze a profit out of its direct-to-consumer business by 2003, will dissolve the Macy's catalog operation and will cut its apparel mix to expand [...]

Target's new Bullseye website, launched last week, hopes to be the destination of teens everywhere, covering what's new in fashion, beauty, music and events, as well as offering advice and [...]

Following a successful three-market test, Target will roll out its Target Visa card nationwide. The result of a partnership with Visa U.S.A., the Target smart Visa cards are powered by [...]

HOFFMAN ESTATES, IL -- Sears, Roebuck and Co. announced that its approximately 60-million credit card customers will be able to view and pay their Sears bills online. Sears' credit card [...]

NEW YORK-When the management at Bloomingdale's flagship store here decided to double the floor space devoted to Villeroy & Boch, it gave the manufacturer's European designers a challenge: Create a [...]

Value City Accelerates Store Expansions Off-price department store chain Value City is more than doubling its number of store openings this year, planning to roll out at least 20 units, [...]

PLANO, Texas-In an effort to refine its merchandising strategy, retailer J.C. Penney has dropped the tabletop department from about 50 of its stores. According to J.C. Penney's tabletop buyer Rich [...]

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.-The lighting and decorative home sections have been greatly expanded in Sears' Great Indoors prototype, set to roll out to select markets over the next few months. The entire [...]

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.-After 18 months of fine tuning its merchandising and back-room operations, Sears, Roebuck and Co. unveiled the new Great Indoors prototype in this affluent community. Arthur Martinez, Sears chairman [...]

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.-A virtual who's who of the home furnishings industry gathered for the grand opening of Sears' second Great Indoors store here. Retailers and manufacturers talked shop while taking in [...]

California Clears Path For Retail Giants California Gov. Gray Davis vetoed a bill that would have barred the building of new superstores in the state, such as Costco . The [...]

SAN FRANCISCO-Macy's has a new face in the West, as the Union Square flagship department store reopened here after three years of renova-tion. The store sports a new facade, a [...]

NEW YORK-Watch out e-tailers: The big boys of the bridal registry business have begun selling online. Federated Department Stores -- already a front-runner in the traditional bridal registry arena -- [...]

New York -- JCPenney's leadership team took to the stage here in late January to lay out a bold vision to transform the 110-year-old department store into a leading edge [...]

Customers come from miles around to shop at the Kraus Department Store. Unique niches and hard-to-find products draw traffic from neighboring states to the store in Erie, Pa. 'It's not [...]

NEW YORK -- The growing Saks Inc. chargebacks case and surrounding investigations have the potential to forge 'a defining moment in the history of American retailing,' according to an attorney [...]

NEW YORK -- With her furniture and home furnishings collections on tap for launch--next week at Bloomingdale's and next month at the specially created showroom at Henredon in High Point, [...]

Teens and tweens were on everyone's mind this fall in High Point, where manufacturers raced to design something hip enough for the world's most finicky consumers. Contemporary looks continue to [...]

BIRMINGHAM, ALA. -- Better quality fashion home textiles with newness and value as key parts of the mix are driving sales at Saks Department Store Group (SDSG). And the Jane [...]

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 [...]

Federated Department Stores will add bridal registry kiosks to 300 more stores by mid-1998. The in-store kiosks allow the couple to select registry items and a single store, which simultaneously registers them at all other stores. The kiosks' touch screens make a copy of the registry available to wedding guests shopping for gifts., CINCINNATI -- Federated Department Stores reported it will expand its in-store bridal registry kiosks to 300 stores by July. The kiosks are easy-to-use touch screens that allow a wedding guest [...]

Federated Department Stores' new Gift Registry Alliance encompasses most of the company's department store chains. The alliance provides one-stop gift registration, and it is intended to be a resource for furniture, housewares, home textiles, lamps, and luggage, in addition to silverware, china, and crystal. Stores belonging to the alliance offer services such as bridal fairs and registry completion programs., CINCINNATI--Federated Department Stores is using its new, unified bridal registry to flex its muscle as a large, nationally dominant department store chain while continuing to cater to regional markets. The [...]