Steve & Barry’s Couldn’t Merchandise, Either
My unhealthy obsession with Steve & Barry’s came home from Florida with me. And it took me to the last-remaining Connecticut store last night (and I was upset to find out the state’s other two “closing-soon” locations have shut down).
Took care of some Christmas shopping, and myself - 16 items, $42.80 total. But the one comment from a Steve & Barry’s employee really made me think. And it had to do with this item on the left, and the presentation.
“We couldn’t sell them,” the employee said. “They were all tied up, no one knew they were cargo shorts.”
These employees have nothing to lose. So they untied a couple of pairs and put them on the mammoth table filled with still-tied-up shorts. People like me snatched them up (at $2.69 each after clearance) and started thinking summer.
Now we know Steve & Barry’s had some buying issues (way too much inventory) and data collection issues (and therefore knew Jack about its customers) which kept them from doing a solid business as they changed its identity (from a merchant of jeans and college sweatshirts and t-shirts to cheap chic celebrity labels).
But to think, they couldn’t even get people to buy cargo shorts because they were fancily rolled up and tied with a swatch of the fabric. Now if I’m a surfer dude, as the Wonderwall collection is supposed to attract, I’m looking for shorts presented on a hangar or on a shelf - folded and not rolled up.
Maybe Steve & Barry’s marketers were wearing the “I’m With Stupid (with an arrow pointing up)” shirts that they sell when they came up with the idea.
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December 17th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Maybe this chain failed because the economic model could not sustain itself.
Even buying cheap goods from abroad costs money. My guess is there was never enough margin between the buy cost and the sell price. Consumers got a really good deal while it lasted, but the formula could not last. Even in a cheap goods for a cheap price situation.
Locations selected by this chain were left over space when the mall could not sell the space or when another merchant abandoned the location. Maybe some bargain hunters chased the locations, but usually dead sites are dead for a reason.
Add no margin to marginal locations and you usually get a retail bankruptcy.
No surprise.