Nov 20, 2013 - Shirts are out on shelves (above), no longer wrapped ... Sales of men's high-end, ready-to-wear apparel .
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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
© 2013 Dow Jones & Company. All Rights Reserved.
Wednesday, November 20, 2013 | D1
How Men Really Shop
Luxury Retailers Try to Loosen Up Amid Surprising Sales Gains; Freeing the Ties
High-Quality Sound in A Downsized Wi-Fi Speaker [ Personal Technology ] BY WALTER S. MOSSBERG
NO LOCKED CASES Luxury clothier Paul Stuart took ties and
some sweaters (left, inset and above) out of enclosed glass cases so shoppers don’t have to ask a sales clerk for help, part of an overall ‘lightening up’ of its Manhattan store.
The crisp, rich sound the Sonos Play:1 produced easily filled a large room without even being at maximum volume.
NO SNOB APPEAL At Bergdorf Goodman, sunglasses now are
Brian Harkin for The Wall Street Journal (9)
easy to grab and try on (above), scarves are out in the open (inset) and dressy shoes are no longer separated from casual shoes (right) as a way to make the Manhattan store ‘not intimidating.’
NO DARK WOOD Barneys swapped the dark wood of its men’s
suits floor in New York with light gray marble (left) to look ‘ultra-modern’ and attract shoppers in their 20s and 30s. Shirts are out on shelves (above), no longer wrapped in plastic. A bowl of pocket squares (inset).
BY RAY A. SMITH It is OK to touch the ties. It is fine to feel the scarves. It is encouraged to try on the sunglasses. In a bid to be seen as less stuffy, stodgy and intimidating, luxury retailers including Barneys New York, Bergdorf Goodman and Paul Stuart are redesigning their men’s departments to attract more shoppers, including younger shoppers. They hope to woo men accustomed to online shopping who don’t want to squint through glass to see prices or wait for a sales clerk to unlock a merchandise case. They admit men today want a more informal store setting and want an easier way to buy work clothes and weekend clothes in a single shopping trip. In some areas the stores are taking down walls to give shoppers a view of more of the department’s offerings. Such moves may seem a little obvious. And
In the market for high-quality wireless speakers that stream music digitally, Sonos has been a gold standard. Its products produce sterling sound, need no wiring or professional installation and are controlled by apps on computers, tablets and smartphones. They can be used alone, or several can be networked together to form a wholehouse system. But Sonos products have been relatively expensive, ranging between $300 and $700 for a single speaker, plus $50 for a “bridge” device that plugs into your home Internet router to make the speakers’ wireless network function. And its speakers have typically been large and heavy. Now, the Santa Barbara, Calif., company has come out with a lowerpriced, smaller model that preserves its quality sound and its modular, wireless connection system. Like its larger siblings, it works with a handsome Sonos app on Macs, PCs,
they will seem very familiar to anyone who frequents women’s departments, where few items are stored in cases and a label’s sportswear and dress clothes are often sold in the same spot. For upscale menswear retailers, this is a sea change. Hushed, stately, wood-paneled environments were the tradition most recently. Merchandise was encased like museum exhibits to be revered. Customers were waited on. Now, as it does every few years in retail, the pendulum is swinging in the other direction. “Part of our culture has always been to have things under glass and service here is such an important part of our culture,” said Michael Ostrove, chief executive of Paul Stuart, which this fall removed the front panel of glass cases containing its ties and moved some of its sweaters from cases entirely. “On the other hand, we’ve often created barriers to accessibility with glass cases.” He described the change as part of Paul
Stuart “lightening up.” The impetus is to take advantage of the momentum in menswear. Sales of men’s apparel in the U.S. are up 2.8% to $58.6 billion for the 12 months ended in September, according to market research firm NPD Group. That trend is global. Sales of men’s high-end, ready-to-wear apparel world-wide rose 10% in 2012, according to a recent report by Bain & Co. Sales are growing more quickly than for women’s apparel, which inched up 0.9% to $111.63 billion in the U.S. for the same time period, NPD said. Women’s high-end, readyto-wear apparel world-wide rose 8% in 2012, Bain said. Bergdorf Goodman’s men’s store, which is in the process of rebranding itself as Goodman’s, knocked down walls to the left and right of the store entrance so consumers can see more merchandise from across the room. The entrance Please turn to page D3
iPhones, iPads and Android phones and tablets to stream music either from those devices, or from the cloud via services like Pandora, Amazon and Spotify. I’ve been testing the new $199 Sonos Play:1 and I really like it, despite a couple of downsides that Sonos is working on fixing. I found it easy to set up and use. I loved the crisp, rich sound it produced, which easily filled a large room without being at maximum volume. Sonos is even throwing in the bridge device free with the Play:1. I was able to tuck away a Play:1 almost out of sight and still enjoy great sound in my large family room. I was able to combine two speakers in a single room as a paired stereo set. I was able to set up three of them in my house and either play the same song on all of them, or separate songs and playlists on each. I controlled it from computers, tablets and phones. While the Play:1 isn’t meant to be a fully portable device and must be plugged into an electrical outlet, it’s small enough to be toted to another room occasionally. It weighs 4 pounds and is about 6 inches tall and under 5 inches wide and deep. It’s the first Sonos speaker with a play/ pause button, because it’s small enough that it might be in reach on, say, a desktop or kitchen counter. What’s the difference between the Please turn to the next page
Sniffles, Sneezes: No Allergy Too Miserable for Puppy Love lergens found not just in their fur, but in saliva, dander and urine. Allergic reactions to pets range from wheezing and sneezing, stuffy noses and itchy eyes to rashes and swelling. More serious cases can trigger breathing difficulties and full-on asthma attacks that require a trip to an emergency room. Allergy shots, or immunotherapy, have been shown to eradicate pet allergies entirely in as much as 80% of patients who take the full course, says allergist and immunologist James Sublett, president-elect of the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. They are typically taken weekly at first, then monthly over the course of three or so years. Some people may seem to acclimate to pets. After prolonged exposure, allergy sufferers may build up a tolerance akin to those who acclimate to chronic pain, doctors say. But even built-up tolerance can subside with prolonged distance. “There are stories of children going away to college and having bad reactions to their pets when they come home,” says Dr. Sublett, who practices in Louisville, Ky. Experts say there is no such thing as a truly allergen-free cat or dog, though many claims have been made Please turn to page D3
Morgan Rachel Levy for The Wall Street Journal (2)
When Jennifer Richter learned that her 2-year-old daughter was allergic to Jack, the family cat, there was only one option. Her daughter got a prescription for daily doses of eye drops and the allergy medicine Zyrtec. “No way I was getting rid of that cat,” says Ms. Richter, of Colorado Springs, Colo. When a fish is just not enough…an industry of breeders, veterinarians and pet stores has cropped up to help allergic people bent on becoming one of the two-thirds of American households that include a cat or dog. Organizations like the American Kennel Club prominently identify breeds such as poodle, bichon frise and schnauzer that are easier than others for people with allergies to tolerate. Some breeders mail, often for a fee, fur samples to test for possible reactions. Breeders advise owners on how to set up separate “transition” rooms for a new pet and to name godparents to take over if a pet proves too allergy-inducing. The American Kennel Club gets calls every day from people who want to buy a dog, even though they have an allergy, a spokeswoman says.
Such requests spike, breeders say, when low-allergen pets are in the news—as they were this August when the first family adopted its second Portuguese water dog, a breed that doesn’t aggravate Malia Obama’s allergies. Ms. Richter was highly allergic, but says she had her heart set on a cuddly, playful pet. After doing some research, she and her husband brought home Jack, a wavy-haired feline breed called Devon rex, which she did fine with—no allergy pills necessary. A few years later, though, Ms. Richter says, the couple learned that their second child was allergic to a raft of things, including cats. The daily prescription eye drops and Zyrtec they gave to Cameron, now 8, helped alleviate the red eyes, runny nose and rashes she would get from Rocket and Jetson, which the family adopted in 2011 after Jack died. “Cameron plays with the cats and kisses them,” says Ms. Richter. “We couldn’t imagine not having our Devons.” One-quarter of Americans are sensitive to cats, and 10% react adversely to dogs, says the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Allergists say that most animals emit seven to eight specific al-
Paige, 11, standing, and Cameron Richter, 8, of Colorado Springs, Colo., with Rocket, one of their family’s two Devon rex cats. The other is Jetson, above. Cameron takes eye drops and allergy pills daily.
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