ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 24, 1991                   TAG: 9103220094
SECTION: SPRING FASHION                    PAGE: E-14   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JANE SEE WHITE/ STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium


SHOPPING FORECAST: FEWER SALES, MORE SERVICE

Times are tight, and if you wear a fairly standard clothing size and don't want your clothes to be, too, you might consider shopping early this year.

Thanks to the recession, clothing retailers say they're keeping a tight rein on their inventories - and that could mean there won't be a whole lot of size 8s and 10s on the racks.

For instance, Jane Bonomo of the Roanoke and Blacksburg Bonomo's stores says she's buying "more carefully, so I have less left over."

And Dick Moore, general merchandise manager at Leggett in Roanoke, says the store is "buying closer to the selling period, and we're not buying as large quantities. We won't have the quantities of merchandise to unload that we did in the fall season, for example."

Because of the economic decline, most retailers agree, we buyers are making fewer impulse purchases, going shopping less often - and generally to fulfill a specific need - and we're more interested in getting good value for our money.

"If last year the customer liked a $40 blouse, we see the same customer now gravitating toward a blouse in the $25 range," said Linda Antonelli, a divisional merchandise manager at Heironimus in downtown Roanoke. "She's still buying a blouse, but she's taking a step down. And she's very, very conscious of value."

"In the '80s we had traffic - people out shopping," said Rose Dauphin, manager of Frances Kahn at Grand Pavilion. "But we don't expect to see that in the '90s. People are busier now, involved with their families, out working. They buy what they need, but they don't shop as much as they once did."

As a result, many retailers say they're concentrating on the basics: good service and reasonable prices that reflect the value of the item. Don't expect to see much in the way of special sales and mark-down promotions, but retailers say you can look for more realistic pricing up front.

"We don't believe in a sale strategy in 1991," said Sarah Seifert, marketing director of Mark Henri, the Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based women's clothing chain with shops at Tanglewood and Valley View malls. "We're trying to get good values onto the floor and not playing games with customers anymore. They're too smart."

Instead of promoting sales and markdowns, said Seifert, "our general merchandise manager is making sure we're watching prices of every item we buy. If they want us to retail an item at $170, we work with them to bring it down to a price we think is fair to the customer - or we don't buy it."

Bonomo agrees. "I'd rather give an honest price and not say, `These shoes are worth $95, but we'll give them to you for $65' if they're worth $65 in the first place," she said.

Heironimus has expanded what it calls its value price program, Antonelli said. "Each department has items we offer to the consumer at a very good price . . . . So if the customer needs to replace a basic white blouse, she can come in any day and know it's not going to be on sale the next day."

In 1990, each store offered about 20 such items - the basic white blouse, lingerie staples, accessories such as belts - in the program. This year, it's been expanded to 30 or 35 items in each store, she said.

You might also find that stores will be offering better service.

"We're going to work harder to make friends with the consumer," said Seifert of Mark Henri. "We're more aware of her time-starved lifestyle than in the past, and we're training our people to become more aware of this to . . . help customers not waste their time."

This has always been the Frances Kahn strategy, according to Dauphin: "In recessions, you go back to basics and see what made you successful. We offer wonderful service. It's a key to business when there's a slowdown - and we haven't seen a slowdown here.

"We offer coffee, tea, champagne, wine; we write thank-you notes. You have to service your customers to death."



 by CNB