Retail Watchers

arizonaguy wrote: ↑February 25th, 2024, 9:22 am

My experience with Dillard's mirrors yours.

Nothing about them compels me to visit them (same thing with Kohls).

When I think of Dillard's I think of a dark, dreary store with clothing that is overpriced and not in style. It's a place I don't picture many people under the age of 60 shopping at.

I live near several and probably haven't purchased anything at a Dillard's in 8 or 9 years.
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They are really only useful for certain categories on men's clothes. You don't go there to buy a t-shirt and shorts. Or athletic clothing. Mostly "nicer" clothes. "Golf" clothes. Not really a place for casual clothing. It feels like their coat assortment/quality has declined from where it was 10 years ago. Men's shoes again it isn't a place for athletic shoes but for dressier shoes it used to be excellent (I feel like they have less now than they did before).

In the home category I have had quite a few good purchases on both kitchen and bed/bath. But again I feel like they have less stuff now than they once did.

In the women's category from what I see the category they do the best volume in is shoes. Women's clothing looks like it has traffic issues but this is an issue for many other retailers as well and has been for some time.

Their owned building/debt situation is unique for retail and will keep them around.

I personally do not think they have nicer fashionable clothes for men. Their selection is conservative, bland and not modern.

Also difficult to find smaller waist and slim fit and fitted.

veteran+ wrote: ↑February 25th, 2024, 12:09 pm I personally do not think they have nicer fashionable clothes for men. Their selection is conservative, bland and not modern.

Also difficult to find smaller waist and slim fit and fitted.

That is exactly what it is. It is neutral clothing to wear in a boring office type environment. The shirt I bought there 15 years ago looks the same as shirts I'd go buy there today to replace them.

The employees would be able to point out the smaller waist/slim fit/fitted lines. They are mixed in there. But definitely not highlighted. Macys does much better with these items.

Macys also does better making an attempt to be stylish in what it sells. The problem I have with them lately is the quality of what they sell seems to be quite poor, even in what I thought are actual brands.

storewanderer wrote: ↑February 25th, 2024, 12:02 pm
Their owned building/debt situation is unique for retail and will keep them around.

That's what Sears said.

arizonaguy wrote: ↑February 25th, 2024, 9:22 am
When I think of Dillard's I think of a dark, dreary store with clothing that is overpriced and not in style. It's a place I don't picture many people under the age of 60 shopping at.

Lol, that's exactly what I think of about Macy's

mbz321 wrote: ↑February 26th, 2024, 7:10 pm

arizonaguy wrote: ↑February 25th, 2024, 9:22 am
When I think of Dillard's I think of a dark, dreary store with clothing that is overpriced and not in style. It's a place I don't picture many people under the age of 60 shopping at.

Lol, that's exactly what I think of about Macy's

Nope. Macy's is a complete crap shoot depending on location. Some are still exceptionally well run, well stocked, bright and colorful stores with contemporary fashions and attractive clothes. Others are just like Dillards (feel old and stale) but poorly maintained. Their attempts to diversify their formats, sizes, locations etc. seem to only be making the inconsistent experience worse. No two stores seem to have the same assortment, but the assortment never seems to be properly customized to the store or community.

Some good stores include Fashion Show Las Vegas, Fashion Island Newport Beach, South Coast Plaza. But then nearby are bad stores, like Westminster Mall and Mission Viejo. Even the quality of the mall seems to be irrelevant. Good malls have bad stores (like UTC San Diego and Fashion Valley). Upscale areas like Santa Barbara have stores that wouldn't meet Ross store standards. They need to improve the consistency of execution.

ClownLoach wrote: ↑February 26th, 2024, 12:30 pm

storewanderer wrote: ↑February 25th, 2024, 12:02 pm
Their owned building/debt situation is unique for retail and will keep them around.

That's what Sears said.

If Sears had been run by people who weren't systematically trying to destroy the chain to sell off real estate, it may still be here. Another big problem with Sears was over time, in the 90's and 00's and in the 10's, so many people had a negative experience with Sears for one reason or another (lousy credit card policies, poor appliance repair services, auto center issue, or bad in store experience) that I think fewer and fewer customers were willing to do business with Sears. Sears burned its bridge with one customer after another. Competitors showed up who were more customer friendly and easier to do business with.

Dillards is not like this. Dillards is not burning people right and left on lousy appliances, credit card hard sells (they don't even try to get you to sign up for a credit card when you shop there...), or issues with repair services. Dillards may not have products some customers want to buy but they are not actively burning/pissing customers off the way Sears did for so many years... Generally speaking there is a high level of customer satisfaction for the customers shopping Dillards who find things they want to buy there. At Sears, this was not the case in the 00's and 10's and that decline started well before Eddie even showed up.

mbz321 wrote: ↑February 26th, 2024, 7:10 pm

arizonaguy wrote: ↑February 25th, 2024, 9:22 am
When I think of Dillard's I think of a dark, dreary store with clothing that is overpriced and not in style. It's a place I don't picture many people under the age of 60 shopping at.

Lol, that's exactly what I think of about Macy's

Some Macy's are so bad I don't think anyone over 60 is shopping them either. Slowly those stores do seem to be closing...

Other Macy's do seem to try. They seem to do better in some regions than others.

And speaking of Macy's.....news broke today that 150 locations are to close in the next few years.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/27/investin ... index.html

mbz321 wrote: ↑February 27th, 2024, 6:56 am And speaking of Macy's.....news broke today that 150 locations are to close in the next few years.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/27/investin ... index.html

Wait... didn't they already close all their poorly performing stores? I'm now starting the countdown clock for them. T-5 years and counting.