Better late than never. In an attempt to compete against "one-stop" big-box general retailers—ranging from Wal-Mart and Home Depot to Best Buy and Kohl's—that have eroded shopping mall sales for the past decade, Sears, the nation's number five general retailer, is expanding outside its traditional spots in malls and including books in the mix. The new Sears are called Sears Grand, and the first opened in October near Salt Lake City. Think Target—but with some tried and true Sears twists.
Besides adding books to the list of products offered by a company that has usually avoided the printed word, the new store emphasizes that books are a key part of the mix at general retailing's hottest type of store, where companies aim to offer a bit of everything, from clothing, housewares and food to cafes, toys and entertainment.
Far from the standard Sears shopping mall site—the company has 870 stores, mostly mall anchors—the first of the Sears Grands is in West Jordan, Utah, a suburb southwest of Salt Lake City, in the Jordan Landing Shopping Center. This huge, 403-acre "power center" collects—not under one roof but linked by roads and large parking lots—such large-box retailers as Sam's Club, Wal-Mart Super Center, Lowe's and Barnes & Noble. About 20 minutes from downtown Salt Lake City, Jordan Landing includes several chain restaurants, movie theaters and other entertainment spots. When completed, it will have about 1.8 million square feet of selling space.
At 210,000 square feet, the West Jordan Sears Grand store is more than double the size of the typical Sears mall department store. Some elements of traditional Sears stores are quickly apparent in Sears Grand: the hardware and appliance sections that carry proprietary Craftsman and Kenmore brand products as well as the garden and auto care centers. Up front is a large clothing department, featuring but not limited to Lands' End products. (Earlier this year, Sears bought the company best known for selling clothing via mail order.)
Geared to appeal to suburban families with incomes between $30,000 and $80,000, the store also offers many products and services new to Sears, like a cafe, health and beauty care, household cleaning supplies, CDs and DVDs, grocery products ("but no produce or meat," as one employee put it), greeting cards and toys. Among other major departures from Sears department stores: most cash registers are located supermarket-style at the front, and there are fleets of shopping carts and kiosks customers can use to get information about the store and products. Like competitors, Sears Grand has a single wide aisle that sweeps around the store, creating a large square and leading customers past most sections.
The building's many plain fixtures and unfinished ceiling give it a clean, warehouse-club feel, but many areas have bright, bold elements, such as the electronics section with its high-tech display units.
The book department is near the front of the store and is set off by a light-wood floor (most of the rest of the store has tile flooring). The section offers several hundred titles in 156 feet of linear space. Except for some stacks, almost all books are displayed face out.
In part because the West Jordan area has an extremely high concentration of children—the family average is 4.2 children—children's books are prominently featured and make up about a third of all the books offered. Dr. Seuss has a complete endcap. (Will The Cat in the Hat film disaster botch that? We do not know. We hope not.) Disney titles abound, and the store offers a variety of book/plush toy combinations.
A sleek, round two-shelf table for special displays recently highlighted I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story by Rick Bragg and Jessica Lynch (Knopf, $23.95) and a book with particular local appeal, Bringing Elizabeth Home: A Journey of Faith and Hope by Ed and Lois Smart with Laura Morton (Doubleday, $22.95) about Elizabeth Smart, the girl who was kidnapped in Salt Lake City last year.
Other major categories are cookbooks, child care and inspiration. The store also has a small bargain books section, featuring many titles by Parragon Publishing imported from the U.K. Most titles are discounted 10%; hardcover bestsellers are 30% off and paperback bestsellers are 25% off. Levy Home Entertainment handles Sears Grand's book section.
Sears Grand Ambition
Suffering from two years of sluggish sales (although rebounding recently), Sears has grand plans for the new retailing concept. Sears has plans to open a second Sears Grand next March in Gurnee, Ill.; is betting on a Las Vegas, Nev., location in July; and in October appears in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., near Los Angeles.
The $40-billion company, which has headquarters in Hoffman Estates, Ill., near Chicago, has experimented with another retailing concept recently. In 1998, it opened the first of its Great Indoors stores, which sells home remodeling and decorating products aimed at high-income customers. Results have been mixed: Sears is in the process of closing three of these stores this fall, leaving it with 18, many of which are being upgraded.
