SCT NewswireLane Bryant's new lingerie concept, Cacique, will be a big growth engine for the plus-size women's apparel chain, executives of parent company Charming Shoppes told investors at an SG Cowen conference in New York City yesterday.
Charming Shoppes says same-store sales at its 500 mall-based Lane Bryant stores are not as strong as those of its 260 stores at newer, open-air centers. So the company is looking at converting the mall units, which measure about 7,800 square feet on average, into pairs of side-by-side stores. One of each pair will be a traditional, 5,500-square-foot Lane Bryant, with the unit next door being a 2,000-square-foot Cacique.
The dividing wall between the paired stores will extend a few feet inside and then drop away to form a common space. The stores will share a common cash stand and dressing rooms, said Steven R. Wishner, senior vice president of finance at Charming Shoppes.
The Lane Bryant–Cacique concept is being tested at six properties, including units in Pembroke Pines, Fla., and Garland, Texas. A few months into the test, the results are “very encouraging — we're delighted,” Wishner said.
A large number of the 50 to 60 Lane Bryants slated to open this year are to be the double-door concept, Wishner said, and all of them will be located in open-air centers. “A lot of our mall leases are coming up for renewal,” he said, noting that the company will try to use the opportunity to turn many of those stores into double-door Lane Bryant–Cacique stores.
If I'm not mistaken, wasn't the name "Cacique" used for a chain of lingerie stores by Limited about a decade ago? And wasn't Lane Bryant owned by Limited until recently? Seems strange that Charming Shoppes would use the name again...
ReplyDeleteI wonder what's so significant about "Cacique"...according to Wikipedia, it means a tribal chief or political boss in Latin America. What does it have to do with lingerie?
You're right on both counts. Limited bought Lane Bryant back in the ‘80s and owned them until they sold the division to Charming Shoppes a couple years ago. And Cacique was the name used by The Limited for chain of lingerie stores in the '90s. They were usually adjacent to Limited stores and shared the same style storefront. They never caught on and Limited closed them all down, but they still owned the rights to the name, so they rebranded Lane Bryant’s lingerie section Cacique shortly after.
ReplyDeleteI guess the idea is to trade on the familiar Cacique name and divvy up the space in the usually too big Lane Bryant mall prototype (a holdover from Limited’s “too much is not enough” store design days) to hopefully pump some more sales productivity out of existing locations. I have my doubts. There is certainly a market for plus-sized intimate apparel that could be served better than it is currently, but I don’t know if people will respond to Cacique stores.
One problem that I see with Lane Bryant besides having stores that are too large is their inconsistent brand message. No two stores look alike, partially because none of their reimaging programs over the last 20 or so years have truly worked, and various attempts to make the brand relevant to younger customers have left the stores chasing after four or five different demographics that aren’t always compatible. Customers, I think, are confused about what Lane Bryant stands for, and it’s reflected in lackluster sales.
Hopefully, the plan to integrate Cacique into the stores will rolled out to the whole chain so that the stores can finally be remodeled to share a consistent brand and design image. That by itself couldn’t hurt, even if Cacique itself doesn’t catch on.
Cacique: I don't know -- Amazon, maybe? Big, female dominatrix, a la Queen Latifah?
ReplyDeleteSounds good to me. Besides, I'm in the market for a thong that could double as a VW catapult. But that's just me.....
I used to chase this one girl in college that was about Queen Latifah's size. She was goregeous. Also, I think subconsciously I liked the idea that she was just big enough to kick my ass!
ReplyDeleteMy problem with Lane Bryant is that they are too trendy. (I do not want to wear trendy-I want normal and practical clothes that cover ALL of me...) The only thing I buy in there now is hose because they have good long lasting hose.
ReplyDeleteLane Bryant used to be normal back in the day, but Limited wasn't satisfied with having a sensible store. They squandered a lot of brand equity trying to force too much sex into the clothes.
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