Martha Arrives

Well, the new Martha Stewart stuff is starting to take over our Home Store. She's got a color pallet that I imagine is going to choke the straight males -- meaning the married women can't buy the bedding in large numbers. And your kitchen would have to be white or repainted to use the bowls and stuff she has in these pretty blue and green pastels. (But what's with the lime green? Are grown-ups really going to buy that?)




On the plus side, I LOVE her towels! The best ones are SMOOTH SMOOTH SMOOTH deep terry cloth. She's got a wider range of colors for the bathroom, but again, all of them have a little quirky undertone. They won't go with just anything. I, however, will be saving my Macy's Money (after the Lancome gift) for the brown ones.







Unfortunately, due to those undertones, most people will face the same old "white or repaint" problem.







I really doubt this is Martha's fault. Management likes to feature one color throughout the store, one month at a time, instead of stocking a wide range of basics. Their thinking is that a woman will check us out regularly to the new colors, and over a year it will balance out.







This appears to be working in the clothing departments (they have other problems, but not this one). Month by month, they have broadened our selection. Each color goes on sale after about a month, so I am finding this fun and expensive. More importantly, I am starting to assist some familiar faces when I work those departments -- and open more rewards cards -- so clearly the leading shoppers now understand the drill and are showing it to their friends.







But the home store is a totally different psychological realm. This is a place where fashion is the enemy. In today's crazy world, home is the one place most of us feel any sense of control. We deepen our family ties by negotating together each major change. This process lets us build a castle where we enter our favorite color. Bedrooms and bathrooms are the heart of this palace.



But Macy's has a better plan... not! My department manager is STILL waiting for towels and bathmats to match the restful plum color she and her husband chose for their master bath. She opens every new shipment with the same hopeful demeanor as the rest of us, and puts it out with the same disappointed sigh. No amount of discount will sell her another color -- they wanted that one. And yet, if next year we have plum, it will just shift the disappointment to someone else -- maybe those folks who love this year's lapus blue.

This problem is compounded by the fact that the Home Store has to move slowly. Our stuff is bulky. So instead of a new leading color or pattern each month, we can only really change with the major seasons. So if you didn't like the August preview, you're not going to hit the Christmas sales. Once you've seen this year's towels, we're off your list until next September.

This means their Martha philosophy would fit in in a large store, among a variety of selections, but up here on the frontier, it has all the makings of a financial disaster. Management cut our floor space when they took over, so we don't display as many choices as large stores. They did this even as they announced a goal of becoming the high-end store for miles around -- a real destination location. Our downtown needs them to succeed. But they can't have it both ways; if you're going to be small, you're going to cut down the number of people who'll make the drive to get here.

I like the goal. To achieve it, I suggest we restore our old Home Store floor space-- preferably enlarge it. Yes, keep the geometric-patterned bedding that is so popular this year -- men were crying for this in the flower-infested 90s! -- but also let Martha bring in this great stuff she's got for us single women and guest rooms.

And in the bathroom section, forget fashion completely. People are designing home spas, with the colors they see in their dreams. Triple the area and stock them all -- a FULL range of undertones in each color group. Then --watch them fly out the door!