The Sears Model’s Club aims to cultivate a younger audience, said Crisha Scolaro, president of Coordinated Corporate Programs, Tampa, Fla., who developed the Model’s Club concept with Sears.
The program comprises five 1 1/2 -hour sessions at the stores and includes three opportunities to model. It costs $89, and girls who purchase an outfit receive a 10 percent discount. Store managers reported that participants buy 60 percent of the preteen and junior apparel they model.
The program started as a pilot in 40 stores about a 1 1/2 years ago, and now operates in 415 Sears stores. It runs six times a year, and is expected to be in 600 units by this fall. Scolaro said 30,000 to 35,000 girls have participated to date.
Meanwhile, following the success of the “softer side” campaign, which has helped bolster apparel sales by a double-digit percentage, Sears is rolling out a new effort to draw attention to the rest of its merchandise. TV commercials that bowed last week invite customers to “come see the many sides of Sears.” The campaign will be extended to print advertising later this year.
JOINING THE CLUB: Cargo Club, the warehouse club subsidiary of Nurdin & Peacock PLC, London, has attracted 28,000 members in its first month of operation. The club had signed up 10,600 members prior to opening in late March. Membership is growing by about 1,000 a month. Cargo declined to break down business and general consumer membership.
Additionally, Cargo Club announced a 4.1 percent increase in after-tax profits to $32.8 million (21.88 million pounds), while sales dropped 2.8 percent to $2.1 billion (1.4 billion pounds) for the year ended Dec. 31, 1993. This compares with after-tax profits of 21 million pounds on sales of 1.44 billion pounds in 1992.
SPEEDY DELIVERY: Starting June 13, Lands’ End will slash shipping time to two business days within all 50 states. Shipping now takes up to five days.
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The Dodgeville, Wis., mail-order giant has teamed with UPS to make two-day shipping standard, with no additional charges for the customer.
Lands’ End processes most of its in-stock orders within 24 hours, so with the new system, most customers will receive their merchandise three business days after ordering.
Lands’ End and UPS have signed a three-year contract, which could exceed $200 million, according to the catalog company. The contract covers all Lands’ End packages except those shipped to a post office box. Those will continue to be handled by the U.S. Postal Service. Lands’ End shipped more than 14 million packages last year.
WARD’S TAPS ALLEN: Montgomery Ward has named Stephen M. Allen senior vice president of store operations. It is a new post. He had been with Sears, Roebuck & Co. for 28 years, most recently as divisional vice president of stores for the central region.