Payless To Open 300 To 500 Stores In The Next 5 Years

Alpha8472
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Payless To Open 300 To 500 Stores In The Next 5 Years

Post by Alpha8472 »

Payless is opening 300 to 500 stores in the next 5 years. They are also dropping Shoesource from their name. The stores will have smart mirrors and touchscreen wall panels. You can even measure your foot using your cell phone with augmented reality. The stores shall be called brick and click stores.

How does this concept sound? Are you intrigued?

https://chainstoreage.com/revitalized-p ... five-years
TW-Upstate NY
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Re: Payless To Open 300 To 500 Stores In The Next 5 Years

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

One question-why? They couldn't make it before so what makes them think they can be successful this time around especially given the current retail environment? Must have some backers with deep pockets who won't mind losing a ton of money. Look at what happened when Dollar Tree tried to more or less spin off a bunch of Family Dollar stores nobody else wanted when they bought them out and then have them operate as a stand alone company. As I recall, that concept folded like a cheap suit-and it didn't take long.
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Re: Payless To Open 300 To 500 Stores In The Next 5 Years

Post by pseudo3d »

Always nice to see a turnaround in retail, I suppose...but it's a hard sell. Trying to push the "Payless" brand (emphasized over "ShoeSource") was never a smart move in my opinion, and dropping the last part of the name doesn't make sense if the market is still shoes...

Touch screens are often prone to getting damaged or to stop working (not to mention the whole germ aspect, which isn't popular in a time when people are currently afraid to even go to restaurants or movie theaters)...and the idea of not signing traditional leases is going to lock them out of a lot of areas.
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Re: Payless To Open 300 To 500 Stores In The Next 5 Years

Post by cjd »

Yeah, I don't see this playing out. All of the touchscreen panels would be a gimmick that wouldn't last long, IMO. Besides that, what else would differentiate now from before. Then there's the competition, wouldn't Payless mainly be competing with Walmart, Target and other places on the budget end, that are more convenient one-stop shopping destinations?

I agree it is nice to see at least one retailer interested in brick and mortar stores again.
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Re: Payless To Open 300 To 500 Stores In The Next 5 Years

Post by Super S »

I guess there still is a market for "cheap" shoes needed for only a very short time. But then again you have stores like Walmart that sell similar or better shoes.

I have not so fond memories of this chain. Yes I was taken there (and later their Volume branded stores in Washington) for shoes while growing up. What I remember is shoes that either fell apart or were completely worn out in only a couple months, and some of those were also not very comfortable.

As time went on, I honestly never even considered this chain for shoes, and was surprised it lasted as long as it did. To me they had a shoddy reputation.
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Re: Payless To Open 300 To 500 Stores In The Next 5 Years

Post by BillyGr »

TW-Upstate NY wrote: August 22nd, 2020, 8:50 am One question-why? They couldn't make it before so what makes them think they can be successful this time around especially given the current retail environment?
Perhaps it depends on how they did before they closed the first time?

That is, they certainly had more that 300 to 500 locations then - if they can now pick out the ones (or at least in the same areas) that were their best performing ones before, those may do just fine without having to support the other how many ever hundred (or thousand) stores that weren't as good.

We've seen that happen with chains before, where they had some stores that were pretty good, but just had too many others that weren't that caused the whole group to fold up.
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Re: Payless To Open 300 To 500 Stores In The Next 5 Years

Post by veteran+ »

How about DSW shoes stores. They have over 500!

I believe that would be a better source for shoes than Payless.

I don't think this new strategy will work out either!

Ya know, in recent memory to date, these Executives are really doing a bad job for all that money they get.

Mergers, consolidations, restructures, down sizings, whatever. I'm hard pressed to remember any REAL success stories.

Do you all have any that you can recall?

I just don't think these folks are worth any thing close to what they get. That in the face of what they pay their people below them.
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Re: Payless To Open 300 To 500 Stores In The Next 5 Years

Post by klkla »

I didn't read the article now.

Evidently they still operate 700 international stores mostly in Latin/Central America. I would imagine they will target the same demographic here in the U.S.

When they were successful in the U.S. their primary market was in lower income Latino immigrant markets. Their target customer didn't care about brand names because they didn't have a lot of disposable income to spend. Payless offered cheap knock offs of popular shoes at low prices (sort of like the Aldi of shoe stores). It was a win-win for Payless because their shoes were inexpensive to produce and had high profit margins. I don't know why they veered off course to begin with.
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Re: Payless To Open 300 To 500 Stores In The Next 5 Years

Post by storewanderer »

klkla wrote: August 22nd, 2020, 4:00 pm I didn't read the article now.

Evidently they still operate 700 international stores mostly in Latin/Central America. I would imagine they will target the same demographic here in the U.S.

When they were successful in the U.S. their primary market was in lower income Latino immigrant markets. Their target customer didn't care about brand names because they didn't have a lot of disposable income to spend. Payless offered cheap knock offs of popular shoes at low prices (sort of like the Aldi of shoe stores). It was a win-win for Payless because their shoes were inexpensive to produce and had high profit margins. I don't know why they veered off course to begin with.
I think they simply had too many store locations in the US before they went under, and many of the locations did not pull their weight, also difficult to spread inventory across so many locations. I think this may actually work if they reopen 300-500 stores that were previously good performing stores. Many of their stores are still vacant, fixtured, and some even have signs out front still. I am not typically positive on this sort of thing but I think this may actually work out if they select the correct locations.
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Re: Payless To Open 300 To 500 Stores In The Next 5 Years

Post by cjd »

Super S wrote: August 22nd, 2020, 11:05 amI have not so fond memories of this chain. Yes I was taken there (and later their Volume branded stores in Washington) for shoes while growing up. What I remember is shoes that either fell apart or were completely worn out in only a couple months, and some of those were also not very comfortable.

As time went on, I honestly never even considered this chain for shoes, and was surprised it lasted as long as it did. To me they had a shoddy reputation.
Same here (coupled with the fact that I hated clothes and school shopping as a kid). When I got older and started driving and wanting to buy clothes I'd go in there sometimes, but nothing they had really appealed to me. So I'd go down to Rack Room instead.
veteran+ wrote: August 22nd, 2020, 2:04 pm How about DSW shoes stores. They have over 500!

I believe that would be a better source for shoes than Payless.

I don't think this new strategy will work out either!
I've never been to a DSW, but I've ordered off of their website when I can't find a shoe I like but I know from experience what sizes fit me in that brand. I like them, and the discounts are good.

But to me, they are on a totally different level than Payless. Their prices are higher because they sell "brand name" shoes. I don't think anything Payless sells/sold is brand name.
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