Susan Kronick, one of the new vice chairmen announced last week by Federated Department Stores (Cincinnati), said she and new ceo Terry Lundgren have made merchandising and enhancing the department store shopping experience their top priorities.
“Clearly, making the merchandise exciting and distinctive is a mandate from our customers,'' Kronick told The Cincinnati Enquirer. “But one thing without the other doesn't work. We want to do them both, which is to provide distinctive merchandise and an improved experience at the same time.''
Kronick, who had been group president for regional department stores, now is in charge of all Federated's department stores, including Macy's and Bloomingdale's. The retail veteran, whose father ran Federated's former Abraham & Straus chain, said she and Lundgren are “on an identical wavelength'' when it comes to their strategies for reviving sales.
Federated began making inroads into improving the shopping experience in September with the announcement of its “reinvent the department store'' strategy, designed to make its stores more convenient and appealing. Some recent initiatives, in more than 40 stores, include Internet kiosks, high-visibility directional signs, shopping carts and price-check devices.
“What reinventing is really about,” Kronick told the newspaper, “is experimenting and changing lots of things we do in the stores as we look for the formula for things that the customer wants.”