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| Today's post highlights Dyer County, TN, retail. |
It's time for something unexpected... and by unexpected, I mean completely expected!
(...listen guys, I don't know how to start a post anymore. Just go with me here.)
Late last night, I found myself scrolling randomly through a bunch of old photos in my camera roll (as one does). In so doing, I came across the photos I took of the Dyersburg, TN, Gordmans during one of my 104 days of summer vacation back in 2020. (Except that it was actually more like only 50 days of summer vacation, since I began my masters program in late June... but I digress.) The point is, revisiting those photos motivated me to finally write the blog post I had been intending to write ever since I photographed the store. In short, heading into this morning, I told myself I know what I'm gonna do today.
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Three years ago, I teased a follow-up to my first Gordmans blog post, which covered the chain's modern history up through its demise, and promised that the sequel post would take a look at the design aspects that made Gordmans unique. For those of you who might need a refresher on that modern history, here goes. Founded in the midwest as an "everyday value price" department store chain, Gordmans filed for bankruptcy in early 2017, liquidating all of its stores. Shortly thereafter, Specialty Retailers, Inc., better known as Stage Stores, purchased the Gordmans intellectual property, distribution center, and numerous store locations, reopening them. Stage's game was to convert these newly-reopened stores to a full off-price format. Per the Omaha World-Herald in May 2017:
Gordmans' current business model is a hybrid between a department store and an off-price retailer. ... Off-price retailers typically buy excess inventory from department and specialty stores, allowing the off-pricers to sell well-known brands at a heavily discounted price.Such chains often operate under a "treasure hunt" model, where items may not be available in a full run of sizes and colors. This is seen as somewhat of an antidote to the threat bricks-and-mortar retailers can face from online shops: To get the deals at the off-price retailer, shoppers actually have to go into the store.Gordmans previously had bought about 80 percent of its merchandise normally and 20 percent "opportunistically," the way a chain like TJMaxx buys merchandise, said Thorsten Weber, Stage chief merchandising officer.Stage plans to shift the model to buy about half upfront and the other half opportunistically, he said. ... The chain will eliminate coupons, sales, and promotions as a result.
[Stage CEO Michael] Glazer also touted that Gordmans stores are located in Midwestern markets larger than those Stage already operates in and that Gordmans' average customer is much younger than Stage's. He also praised Gordmans' home and gift business, which he said makes up more than 25 percent of sales.
Stage saw pretty good success with the off-price format. So much so, in fact, that, besides the Gordmans stores they reopened, they further converted nine of their own Stage-owned stores to the new format the following year. The success of these stores was so great that Stage, in 2019, decided to go all-in on off-price, and convert its entire fleet of 700 stores to the Gordmans nameplate and format. Below are some investor-relations slides documenting the rationale behind the move, with the bold declaration "our future is off-price." (Note: all image sources in this post are unknown unless otherwise specified.)
Stage moved forward with its ambitious plan, but retail analysts were skeptical. For one thing, Stage hadn't been in the best financial shape prior to purchasing Gordmans out of bankruptcy; there was concern that the acquisition might become "simply additional weight for a company already treading water." Second, even if the purchase did turn out to have benefits, Stage was basing its decision to convert the entire company to off-price on a comparatively quite small sample size. Who's to say that the entire chain of 700 stores would perform as well as the 70 or so -- a mere 10 percent! -- that were converted and driving this decision?
The latter fears were, unfortunately, offered much validity when Stage's adjusted 2019 earnings guidance -- originally a range of +1 to +3 percent, then bumped up to a maximum of +9 percent in the slide above based on the excitement of the projected off-price performance -- in reality panned out as a dismal +1.4 percent. But even then, Stage might have been able to salvage the company... if it weren't for the pandemic. Already behind on its bills, the prolonged temporary store closures of spring 2020 left the company without sufficient cash flow to pay its vendors or its landlords, and ultimately, Stage succumbed to a bankruptcy filing. Stores reopened from the lockdowns only to begin immediate liquidation sales, and the company was out of business by late September 2020.
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With that background out of the way, now we can jump back into the intended subject of this post: Gordmans' branding. Even before the Stage takeover, Gordmans had a unique personality. A logo consisting of a funky wordmark and an unusual-for-retail focal color of purple was complemented by, as described in the marketing portfolio from 2013 below, "a high energy, streamlined signing and graphics package" with "bold, colorful graphics" and specialized in-store feature areas such as Gordmans Giggles, Gordmans Grandstand, and "cross-merchandised presentations continually rotated to feature the latest trends in gifts and home decor."
The Gordmans store that I grew up with in Southaven, MS, had this interior design, and I documented that store thoroughly on flickr in case you are interested in seeing more of it; click here to see my album. The uniqueness didn't stop on the interior, as Gordmans' exterior design had a characteristic architectural look to it as well (also shown above).
Over time, Gordmans toned down the funk somewhat, though its interior design and layout remained largely similar, and true, to the existing brand identity. It was the store exteriors that saw a more drastic change, unapologetically introducing a giant purple logo wall to the storefront. With its 100+ year history, this certainly isn't a comprehensive look at all of Gordmans' branding, but I do believe these were the main two exterior and interior design identities in place at the chain's modern locations during the 21st century.
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| Original design. Courtesy Twin Cities Frugal Mom |
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| Second-gen, toned-down design. Courtesy MLive |
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| Courtesy Google Maps |
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Unlike "Gordmans 1.0" (above) with its new-construction buildings, in taking over the brand Stage Stores had the challenge of finding some way to make Gordmans pop within its existing architectural constraints, both interior and exterior, which on such a wide scale as Stage was envisioning would be far too costly to change anything more than cosmetically. So, to meet this goal, Stage went all-in on the unique purple color that had been with Gordmans from the start. It was an interesting part of Gordmans before, but without necessarily permeating the entire in-store experience of the brand, which was already filled with numerous other bold colors and visually interesting elements. Now, though, it was to become the most crucial part of Gordmans' entire identity. Stage Stores were mostly white and neutral inside, with fluorescent lighting and drop ceilings as opposed to Gordmans' dark, open ceilings and halogen lights. Purple would be infused into Stage's interiors as the strategic pop of color, such that it -- and the merchandise -- would stand out amongst all the other neutral elements. This was the best, most efficient way to make Stage's stores pop with minimal effort; Stage, obviously, wanted to spend as little as possible on the conversions while still making a big impact. The colorful, eye-catching signage was installed both indoors and outdoors as the brand's hallmark. It's new, it's different, and it's attention grabbing.
To complement its existing (and now amplified) quirky purple color, Stage also leaned heavily on giving the Gordmans brand a quirky attitude to match. Off-pricers such as TJMaxx and its family of related stores, and Burlington, are known for their phrases on the wall, touting low prices and such. Like its competitors, Gordmans, too, would have a bunch of phrases all over the store, but its phrases would be more playful, punny, and sassy. In more of its investor presentation slides as shown below, Stage indicates that the "fun, friendly, quirky store experience" would serve as one of Gordmans' most important off-price differentiators. In addition, from a merchandising perspective, the rebrand would also have to emphasize the "scarcity driven, treasure hunt experience" and the greater focus on home goods, which before the Gordmans off-price rollout occupied a much smaller percentage of Stage's largely apparel-focused department stores.
We'll get to see many of the elements mentioned above in play in a real-store environment once we get to the store tour portion a little later in this post. For now, I wanted to focus on some examples of early Gordmans marketing. As soon as November 2017, the new brand identity was already being associated with the revived, Stage-owned Gordmans chain, just months after emerging from its bankruptcy. At an event tent for a converting Palais Royal store, Gordmans was introduced as "our sassy sister." In 2019, as the store conversions picked up speed, a retro-chic themed VW bus (with the Gordmans "G" emblem on the front) embarked on a "Grand Opening Tour," inviting shoppers to "rock with us" at store opening events. This turned into the "Grand Opening Brand Bash" in 2020, in preparation for which shoppers were encouraged to sign up for text alerts to get "the latest skinny & savings [sent] to your phone!" On a temporary basis during the transition, Gordmans was featured alongside the other Stage brands on the company's rewards card, with the eventual intent, of course, to be the elimination of those brands, with Gordmans being the sole survivor.
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| Courtesy The News Leader |
While perhaps not everyone is, I am a huge fan of retail branding -- the psychology behind it, the artistry behind it, its various implementations, everything. To me, that goes hand in hand with the hobby; I am not just appreciating the application of a decor package inside a specific building, I am appreciating all aspects of the decor package overall in addition to and in tandem with its individual application in that building. Same with the incidental branding of marketing posters and whatever else may be inside or outside the store. And the store's architecture and layout. So on and so forth. I'm even fond of merchandise packaging, which has nothing to do with the stores themselves!
I subscribe to the fantastic website Brand New, which chronicles logo changes, the designs and processes that go into them, and the designers who make it happen. The site is meant more for those who have actual careers in that industry, but I find it interesting and enjoyable nonetheless. Anyway, I bring all this up because one of the coolest things that Stage and their design team did in developing the Gordmans branding identity and attitude was open it up to the public! On their Facebook page on January 12, 2018, they solicited their customers' input in selecting Gordmans' go-forward slogan. Despite making logical sense (although I'm certain there are drawbacks too, but that's beyond the scope of this conversation), most companies don't go involving their customers in branding decisions. In my opinion, though, this is a great way to interact with your actual target audience to get real, meaningful input that takes away the guesswork on how they'll actually respond to something. It also has the bonus effect of having them feel that their opinion is valued and that they are a part of the change, in turn getting them excited for the transition!
After 39 votes, option "C" came away the clear winner, sweeping the board with a 49 percent majority. The tagline was installed on multiple converted storefronts, letting shoppers unfamiliar with the Gordmans brand know exactly what to expect of the chain's offerings. (An alternate slogan I found, which was not featured in the initial poll, speaks even more directly to expectations!)
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| In case you're curious, option A got 7 votes... B, 3... D, 3... E, 5... F, 1... G, 1... and H, 0. Courtesy Facebook |
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| Courtesy Circleville Herald |
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| Courtesy The Shoppers Weekly |
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| Courtesy Footwear News |
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Further insight into the branding direction comes courtesy of Aimee Rhodd, one of the designers on the marketing team. Her portfolio has since been taken down, but before that time, the website featured many branding examples as well as some design briefs. Initially, Rhodd writes, "When Stage Stores acquired Gordmans and transformed it into an off-price retailer, a new voice had to be developed for the brand. I created a fun, tongue-in-cheek voice to match the in-store shopping experience. Emails deployed at least three times per week include a witty headline and a value message to entice shoppers to come in to Gordmans and discover that the store is where frugal meets fierce." And later, "When Stage Stores decided to close all department store locations and replace them with Gordmans off-price stores, it needed to be a big deal. Our team not only had to introduce the new store to customers, but also had to stir up excitement for the grand openings. We used the concept of dating as a way to convey the idea of what happens when big deals meet everyday low prices." All of these items helped present Gordmans as both more youthful, and more home decor oriented, than the existing Stage Stores brands that Gordmans was replacing, exactly as the Stage CEO is quoted as saying were Gordmans' strengths earlier in the post.
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| This is probably my favorite example out of all the ones below. Just loads of awesome on-brand details in this dating-themed advertisement. "Favorite color: purple," "trendy without the spendy," "stalk me on social." Great stuff. Courtesy Aimee Rhodd |
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| "Scratch off the circle to see how much scratch you get!" Courtesy Aimee Rhodd |
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| Note the use of the alternate slogan here. Courtesy Aimee Rhodd |
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| A series of those email ads mentioned above. Courtesy Aimee Rhodd |
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| "Nacho everyday deals"... Courtesy Aimee Rhodd |
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| Some others I didn't feature include "excess waggage" (pet merch), "active ingredients" (activewear), and "wise man gifts" that make a lot of "frankin-sense." Courtesy Aimee Rhodd |
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| Getting back into the more dating/text-themed items here. Love the use of "our" and "we" in this one; it gives Gordmans a true identity, as if it's a real entity. That seems to have been a key part of their branding. Courtesy Aimee Rhodd |
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| A more emoji-themed example with this one. Courtesy Aimee Rhodd |
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| Perhaps you might find some of these cringey, but I think they were at least engaging and different from what others were (and are) doing. Courtesy Aimee Rhodd |
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| One last example, an invitation from "our CEO in the know." Although I doubt he wrote this himself! Courtesy Aimee Rhodd |
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Ultimately, Gordmans kept its new brand identity going at full force all the way through to the end, as shown in the examples below (one of which is their final-ever message to social media). These days, the Gordmans intellectual property is owned by BrandX, the same group that owns all of the various Bon-Ton brands' intellectual property -- as well as all of the other Stage Stores brands, with the exception of Bealls, the reasoning for which will be discussed later in the post. Presently, Gordmans does have a website, but it's just a static page with no actual merchandise for sale. It feels very wrong seeing the Bon-Ton honeycomb icon next to the Gordmans "G" emblem!
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| Gift card notification related to the liquidation sale. |
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| Final Gordmans/Stage Stores "thank you" message. Courtesy Facebook |
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| Current Gordmans logo |
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I hope y'all enjoyed all those great looks at the "Gordmans 2.0" branding as much as I did! If not, well... thanks for at least continuing to scroll until you saw some actual store photos, lol. As promised, we'll explore a little more of how the branding actually translated to a real-life store, in addition to what a Stage-to-Gordmans conversion was like, as we move forward through this part of the post.
Since my original plan to do a before-and-after of the Senatobia, MS, Goody's-to-Gordmans conversion was thwarted (by way of the Senatobia Goody's aborted conversion and outright closure), on June 25, 2020, I traveled up to Dyersburg, TN, to see what (I believe) was the region's only successful Gordmans conversion, the former Peebles at the Dyersburg Mall.
As expected, the store -- one of two mall anchors -- was holding a closing sale, same as all of its other brother and sister stores across the remaining Stage Stores portfolio at this point in time. The yellow "STORE CLOSING SALE" banner is likely the same one used back when Peebles was quote-unquote "closing" -- really just a gimmick by Stage to clear out merchandise before the conversion; no outside third-party liquidators were involved. For that matter, at the time of my visit to this store, liquidators still were not involved, as the chain was still searching for a buyer; it wasn't until the middle of the following month, July 16, 2020, when true going-out-of-business sales began at all of Stage's remaining stores, including Dyersburg.
Heading inside, we get our first looks at what a converted Gordmans is all about! As I mentioned previously, a great deal of the existing elements in the store were left intact -- the ceiling, flooring, even possibly the paint (assuming it was white to begin with). What Gordmans added were all the new colorful department signs, wall border signs (with fun phrases!), and changeable letter boards. The one shown in the bottom shot above features the pun "blooming good deals for your garden."
The middle of the salesfloor had some fake walls constructed as a way to divide and differentiate departments; the above shot takes an overview look at that area, as well as several of the fun phrases on those walls, including "you'll flip with every trip." Notice how those signs are in orange and blue, and not purple, for some extra added color.
One of the fitting rooms entryways along the front end was closed and blocked off by a shelf of books. Whether this was a deliberate elimination of one of the sets of fitting rooms due to having less apparel as Gordmans vs. Peebles, or it was a COVID closure, I'm not sure.
Pretty much the entire right-side and rear walls of the store became home to decor and other non-apparel items, while apparel remained concentrated in the center and left side of the salesfloor. In addition to the signs in the center (e.g. "your wallet will thank you!"), various phrases run along a continuous purple border around the store's perimeter, including "big names, not big bucks" and "sticker shock, but in a good way." We'll see many of these phrases repeat as we go throughout the stour, but I did my best to capture all the different ones I could.
A couple views of the home department here, one looking back towards the front right corner and the other featuring another changeable letter board ("no basic beaches here!").
The top pic above looks across the center of the salesfloor towards the left-hand wall, while the bottom pic looks towards the rear wall. Notice the "#gotitatgordmans" sign on the display table.
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| Courtesy Facebook |
The mall entrance was closed off, no doubt due to the pandemic. Although I didn't get to see it in person, above you can find an image of the mall entrance that I found online. No changes from Peebles besides the new Gordmans logo and customer-voted tagline.
Back inside, here are some more shots of the home decor department, as well as the apparel across from it. I'm assuming apparel occupied the entirety of this space originally, during the Peebles days.
"All treasure, no hunt," proclaims this sign as we move closer to the back of the interior.
A series of shots from the center of the salesfloor now. We see phrases including "you really can buy happiness" and "great minds shop alike." The black carts that we're seeing most likely are still here from Peebles -- just with Gordmans stickers placed atop the Peebles logos.
Presentation-wise, I'd argue that the men's department shown above was probably the least presentable spot of the entire store... store layout matters, and here, we see that all we've got are a bunch of plain, standard rolling racks on top of the same floor tile that's in all of the store's actionways. There's no differentiation to set this space apart from all the rest, and therefore it just looks like it was plopped down in this spot with no regard for the intended layout, Kmart-style. Not a dealbreaker, of course, but still unfortunate... really takes things down a notch, in my book.
Another shot of the closed mall entrance (and adjacent register station), before we move into bedding and baskets in the back ("where frugal meets fierce").
Although we're seeing empty shelves in these particular pictures, the store was quite well-stocked overall. I attribute this to merchandise not being sold during the lockdown period -- and, of course, the store having only recently converted to a Gordmans in the first place, therefore stocking up on merchandise. (The converted store held its grand opening in September 2019, according to this post.)
Kitchenware and pet goods could be found along the back wall of the store, along with an additional selection of home decor items. As we see in the image below, furniture was back here as well, albeit strangely hidden from the actionway. (We also see another new phrase, "designer without the debt.")
"Home, home on the farm" is a play on song lyrics, although I had to admit that the reference was lost on me at first! Notice also the "#gordmans" custom signs on all the letterboards.
Based on the shelving in this area of the store -- both the freestanding units, as well as the built-ins along the perimeter wall itself -- I'm guessing that this is the area where Peebles had its home goods originally. This would make sense, too, with it being the back wall of the store -- same as we saw at the Goody's in Senatobia.
Another look at kitchenware, followed by the small selection of furniture. As with other off-pricers like TJMaxx, the kitchenware selection is joined by some food items. I typically find a lot of these brands unrecognizable, but I actually am familiar with that cranberry health mix...
The pet department lines up with the center actionway running from front to back within the store, which we're taking a quick detour down in these next several images.
Dead center in the store, handbags (on the right) meet up with men's apparel (on the left). The bottom pic gives us another look across the men's department over towards the closed-off mall entrance. I wonder if there used to be some sort of cosmetics counter here during the Peebles days that Gordmans removed. That would make sense given the proximity to the mall entrance, and that would also help explain the men's department floating out in the middle of the tile flooring (as I discussed earlier).
Walking through boys' clothing as we return to the rear wall of the store. The phrases on the wall here are all repeats of ones we've already seen elsewhere. It seems kind of strange to have boys' and menswear directly adjacent to handbags, but I guess Gordmans only had so many options with this store's layout...
At the back left corner of the store, some additional furniture (?) and what I believe to be an unsigned selection of toys brings us into children's apparel, specifically girls' clothing, since we already saw the boys' clothing on the opposite side of that dividing wall in front of us in the bottom pic above. That pic also gives us a really good close-up of one of the department signs, which are done up in the style shown in the graphic below (with an added ghosted "G" emblem in the lighter purple area).
Shoes for the entire family lie just beyond the back left corner. Based on the setup, it looks like shoes were probably in this same spot in the Peebles days, too.
In keeping with the traditional department store setup, Peebles had multiple sets of registers: as we've seen, one at each entry point, as a matter of fact. Gordmans kept them all, but I'm not certain why. Only the ones at the front were open, and I imagine that was the only set they ever intended to have open. Maybe it was too costly to remove them all? You'd gain some selling space, but I guess that was probably also a move that'd be better to save for later, after the concept has taken more time to prove itself. (In that case: just as well that they waited...!)
A quick look at the store's left-side entrance, facing out into the mall's side parking lot, followed by an overview shot back towards the back left corner, with shoes and girls' apparel visible once more.
This is the view that one would see upon entering the store through its left-hand entrance (which we just saw, but which was closed due to -- you guessed it -- the pandemic). Beauty, handbags, intimates, and... menswear. One of these things is not like the other, haha!
Although their purple color does not differentiate them from any of the other signage in the store, I'm pretty certain these shelf-topper signs were still here from the Christmas season. They read (left) "spreading good cheer starts right here!" and (right) "giving more? you're in the right store!"
A look at some womenswear in the front center of the store, followed by a couple views (across the handbags tables) towards boys' apparel in the back center, and menswear in the, well, center-center. It took me quite a while to get these pictures of the center of the store in the correct order! It's been a few years since I was in this place, so remembering the layout was a small challenge...
Unlike those other shelf-topper examples we just saw, these ones seem decidedly less holiday-themed. We've got (left) "today is a good day to look fabulous!" and (right) "ooh la la, cheap & chic!" Pretty interesting ladder-style fixtures they're placed atop, too.
Concluding our diversion through the middle of the salesfloor, we emerge back out into the left-hand actionway, overlooking women's apparel heading up towards the front left corner. Strangely, there are no hanging department signs over here.
The plastic shopping carts may have gotten new stickers, but this fabric stroller basket still bears the Peebles logo. Interestingly enough, the Dyersburg Mall used to have a Goody's in addition to Peebles! That space is right next door to this one, and closed with Goody's bankruptcy in 2009 (prior to the sale to Stage Stores); it is now a Burke's Outlet -- which, by the way, is these days doing business simply as "Bealls." Now that Stage Stores has gone out of business, Burke's Outlet owner Bealls Florida, which previously only had the rights to use that name in Florida, now has the rights nationwide; they initially bought all of Stage's IP, but once they got the one they wanted, they sold off the rest to BrandX, as mentioned earlier. Crazy stuff!
For its part, this Peebles space originally started out as Nashville-based department store Harveys, which sold to Peebles (also pre-Stage-ownership) in 1988. While I didn't get to explore the Dyersburg Mall interior on my visit, l_dawg2000 has an album of pics from 2013 on flickr here.
Another look back toward the girls' apparel area (again, signed simply as "children's"), followed by another look across the horizontal center actionway of the store (above which some of the only hanging liquidation signage can be found). The hanging circle element behind those liquidation banners reminds me of the same "cross-merchandised presentation" spaces of Gordmans 1.0 referenced earlier in the post (which I called "circle display areas" in my flickr album of the Southaven store, lol).
Making our way through the final department of the store, women's apparel, as we prepare to round the front left corner and wrap up our stour. It seems like, all told, there were six repeating phrases (big names, sticker shock, buy happiness, great minds, frugal/fierce, designer/debt) along the perimeter wall, in addition to the four individual phrases on the non-purple signs in the center-store area. Did I miss any?
Interestingly enough, there was one perimeter phrase (in addition to the repeating six) that was only seen once: "have great deals, will travel," visible waaaaay back at the front right corner of the store. Strange; I wonder why that one didn't repeat.
At the very beginning of the women's apparel department -- directly adjacent to the front entrance to the store -- we finally find its hanging department sign, labeled "juniors." We also see another changeable letterboard, reading "trends with benefits."
In contrast, the changeable letterboard seen here at the front entrance has a much sadder message: "everything must go!", with a happy "#gordmans" thrown in to add insult to injury :(
One last glance back over towards the start of the home decor department in the front right corner, followed by a farewell view of the interior as we exit, showing the store's intended presentation of a holiday-themed changing display table directly as one enters the store (at this time, themed for the upcoming Fourth of July holiday). We also see the final individual center-store phrase sign in the background: "spree without the splurge."
Exiting the store, we'll now take a moment to explore its exterior a bit more. Here on the storefront proper, you'll see that the "bigger deals, smaller prices" tagline was installed as one individual sign, which seems like the easier and cheaper method.
In contrast, at the front left corner and along the left-hand wall of the building, the tagline was spelled out with individual letters, which I imagine is much more costly! A closing sign was placed beneath the signage on the corner of the store, just like the front entrance.
The left-side wall of the store, on the other hand, doesn't have any closing signage, but then again, this entrance was also closed off due to the pandemic. Notice the sign on the sidewalk reading simply "USE FRONT DOOR."
A couple more shots of the left side of the building, before we take one final parting shot of the front right corner and main front facade. I'm not certain if Peebles made any modifications to this facade upon taking over the store from Harveys, but I'm inclined to say it's all original... although, given the way the front facade looks different from the left-hand side, perhaps they did modify this somewhat after all.
Here's our receipt from the store. Looks like we may have bought some candlesticks? I wish I could remember what those looked like, and if we still have them! I am looking for some candlesticks, lol. A lot of the furnishings in my apartment were purchased from various liquidation sales in 2020, including Gordmans and Pier 1 Imports. The descriptions on this receipt sound exactly like something I'd be interested in!
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While this (sadly) is the last we'll be seeing of Gordmans, it's actually not the last we'll be seeing of the Dyersburg Mall. At the same time that its Gordmans store was closing, unfortunately for Dyersburg, the other mall anchor -- JCPenney -- had also declared bankruptcy and selected its Dyersburg store for closure. Losing both mall anchors at the same time, and on top of that during the pandemic, had to have been pretty awful for the town. Thankfully, since then, the mall has rebounded, with Ollie's taking over the JCPenney anchor space and Planet Fitness inhabiting the Gordmans (likely after a full gut of the interior, but still better to have the space occupied than sitting vacant!). The mall interior seems pretty healthy and majority occupied, too, at least per a quick glance at their website and leasing plan. Again, we'll see that JCPenney closing post at some point in the future, but for now, this will wrap up our look at the Dyersburg Mall Peebles-turned-Gordmans, and Gordmans' branding overall. I'm glad I got the chance to experience one of these converted stores before they went away, and hope you enjoyed following along with me both in my tour and in my research of the chain's unique attitude and identity. Until next time, then, and as always... thanks for reading, and have fun exploring the retail world wherever you are!
Retail Retell
I'm glad you managed to document those changes before the entire brand evaporated into thin air! To be honest, other than what I've seen from you, I had never heard of Gordmans. Upon first glance, I get the impression that it was a store marketed toward "tween" girls in 2002; however, that doesn't seem to be the case based on how this post started. I just feel like I'm going to see Lizzie McGuire pop out at any moment! This may be the unpopular opinion, but it seems like the quirky branding may have assisted in the expedited downfall of the brand (at least to the untrained eye of a clueless passer-by).
ReplyDeleteI agree that I'm also a fan of retail branding, as a cohesive brand can do so much to influence the psychology of the shopper (just look at Chick-fil-A as an example). In my Publix research, I also think it is fascinating to see how the original interior packages influenced new-build stores at the time. This specifically relates to how similarities in design trends lead to new packages looking better in stores that are 20 years old compared to ones that are 10 years old. As for the new branding rollout, cringy is a good way to describe some of those ads! Specifically, all of the dating related and "brand bash" graphics continue to support that "tween girl" image while the "gosh barn it!" and "cinco de my-oh-my" emails look targeted toward older millennials. Add that to the fact that a new slogan was selected by a whopping crowd of 39 people all seem to be bad omens in my opinion. This mad-dash rebrand reminds me of some of the woes Bruno's went through as it was swirling around in the toilet bowl, and it's unfortunate that the Pandemic ultimately gave Gordman's the final blow rather than us being able to see if the company could turn itself around.
As for this location, it reminds me of a department store in a dying mall that was converted into an outlet store (which seems to be the case). I'm not going to lie: it feels almost as if Spirit Halloween decided to open an off-price clothing store. It's essentially a quick conversion with little added besides some thin purple banners and signs. I hate to be such a buzzkill though!
You also answered one question I had: Why were the Georgia Bealls Outlet stores all converting to just "Bealls"? (FYI, the Burke's Outlet name was only used from Alabama westward). I guess now that Bealls (Florida) had the rights to the name nationwide, they figured it was best to rebrand everything to just "Bealls". Now I only wonder what will happen to the actual "blue" department stores in order to differentiate them from the "orange" outlet stores.
Oof, lots of unfortunate takes in this one, haha! It's interesting you latched onto a tween girl aesthetic for Gordmans -- I can't claim that's what I ever associated with the brand, but perhaps my choice of showing the juniors department from both of those Gordmans 1.0 decor packages kind of influenced that association for you. Overall I'd say Gordmans' original (and certainly its Stage-days) audience was definitely geared more towards women than men, but I'd say it was meant to be adult women, not tweens. I'm basing that on the fact that the stores had complete selections for the entire family, plus home goods. In that sense, even before they went fully off-price, I'd say they were still fairly comparable to a TJMaxx -- or perhaps a Kohl's, maybe? But not as big or as put-together, if that makes sense.
DeleteAs for whether the Stage-implemented quirky branding led to, or at least contributed to, their downfall: who knows. It's certainly possible, in the sense that the sales results for holiday 2019 that ended up so far off from the mark were based on guidance expecting sales to improve heavily at the converted locations. A contributing factor to those sales not improving as well as was hoped could very well be the new branding turning existing shoppers off. Obviously, Stage was trying to draw in a different/younger demographic with the Gordmans conversions, but in the areas where they operate, that demographic is probably not as large as the existing demographic they were catering to! But on the flip side, the existing demographic would possibly also have been interested in the new merchandise (at least the home goods, anyway -- not sure how drastically the apparel selection changed in content, besides being shrunk down in size), regardless of the branding (captive audiences were kind of Stage's thing, it feels like). So, in short -- we know for a fact Stage was doing poorly on its own, and hoped Gordmans could turn its fortunes around, but I'm not certain the audience Gordmans was targeting actually existed in the areas where Stage had stores. If the new branding further alienated the existing audience, then yeah, that definitely wouldn't have been a good thing! And the pandemic on top of all that was the final nail in the coffin. (Didn't help that Stage put so much weight on the holiday 2019 sales guidance, and when that wasn't met, investors certainly contributed further to the declining position of the company.)
Layout-wise, aside from the men's department, I didn't personally find this location too off-putting -- I've certainly seen much worse! Your point on it being a quick conversion with little added besides thin purple signs is absolutely accurate, but Stage didn't hide that, lol. Once again thinking of a TJMaxx, Burlington, or even Ollie's, the aesthetic fits an off-price retailer just fine to me. The tile even adds some class, in my opinion! And I'm sure my fondness for the Gordmans brand is influencing my opinion as well, but I still think this store didn't look too bad. As for the mall itself, again I didn't get the opportunity to go inside, but like I wrote it seems healthy enough. I did learn that Jo-Ann has closed, but both anchors and pretty much all of the inline spaces are filled, from what I can tell.
Yep, that's the reason for all the Burke's name changes! I came across that in an article -- I forget who shared it with me or where I saw it. AFB, maybe? The department stores will be called Bealls Florida now. Not sure this is the exact article I originally read, but it has all the relevant info: https://www.tampabay.com/news/business/2023/04/05/bradenton-bealls-florida-department-store-rebrand-burkes-outlet/
Sorry to drive the negativity train into the station (I really hate when I do that), but I guess I see what Anonymous in Houston feels like sometimes! I also realize where that "tween" image likely came from: Justice. When I see the front of a Gordmans building with the purple paint and the playful, lowercase font it just makes me think that the store is similar to Justice (which I've also never stepped foot inside of). Neither would seem to draw me in from that alone, but I actually might have enjoyed browsing a Gordmans had I known what was inside—I just suppose that will forever remain a mystery. I can tell you that the merchandise of the store was 100% not geared toward tweens based on your interior pictures, but that's just the impression I got after looking at the branding alone. Also, does Kohl's strive to be a discount department store? I know they are always advertising sales or "Kohl's Cash" on TV, but I figured the chain was more in line with Belk than TJ Maxx (again, Kohl's is a store that I've only visited a time or two). I'd probably rank Belk equal or below Macy's and a step below Dillard's, but still think of it being well within the standard department store category.
DeleteThat's some interesting analysis about how the branding change could have alienated the existing Gordmans shoppers and how the locations of the stores potentially lacked the demographics for a younger clientele. Other than the obvious factor of the Pandemic, it may be so hard to turn a sinking ship that sometimes drastic changes are the only potential solutions.
I guess the tile isn't bad, it just looks really out of place with the bare-bones clothing racks/displays and signage. You're right that many of those aspects match what one would expect to find at a TJ Maxx, Ross, etc. but the juxtaposition of the polished tile with the off-price contents almost seems to make things worse. It reminds me of one time I was walking through a Belk in late-2020 or early-2021 and while the store itself was nice, there were hardly any displays or merchandise. That seemed to give off more of an impression that, "this place was once nice then but we lost all of our revenue," rather than an entirely discount-oriented atmosphere where you think, "okay, I'm going to get a good deal." I know it is certainly different to experience a chain you are familiar with going through changes like this rather than one you've never seen before; Winn-Dixie is case-in-point for me!
Oh, wow! I guess that makes sense for the department store Bealls to embrace Florida in its name, but the whole relationship between Bealls (Florida) and formerly Bealls Outlet still seems a bit strange. I don't think Bealls Outlet necessary carries off-price goods that came directly from the mother Bealls, so it seems like the parent company should still do a better job at differentiating the two. Anyway, that's a topic for another day and reason enough to venture back down to my local Bealls Florida and Bealls Outlet to check things out.
I can only speak for Palais Royal in Houston. Houston was probably a rather atypical Stage market because it seemed like Stage mainly targeted smaller and mid-sized markets rather than a very large city like Houston with lots of competition. But, anyway, in the last decade or two of Palais Royal, their typical shopper was most certainly older women drawn into the store by Palais Royal's aggressive promotions. I'm sure families did shop at Palais Royal, but they really didn't have much of interest to young men and women. I think even Sears would have had more for that demographic than Palais Royal. The men's department at Sears was certainly a lot better than Palais Royal's outside of shoes where Palais Royal was pretty competitive on both sneakers and dress shoes.
DeleteIn terms of aggressiveness in promotions, Palais Royal wasn't quite Kohl's level crazy where they double or triple the regular prices and then have near-constant 50% sales. That said, Palais Royal wasn't that far off of that. They were maybe a bit closer to Macy's or maybe JCPenney even more so. It seemed like the older audience liked these promotions, but I can see why Stage wanted to move to a simpler pricing structure with Gordmans.
With that, I can't really say who Stage was targeting with Gordmans, but I think it is safe to assume it was a younger demographic than they were targeting with the legacy Stage brands. I reckon that like Marshalls, they were targeting families. This would have put them into competition with the Rosses, TJXes, and Burlingtons of the world. That's stiff competition, but those brands just keep seeming to grow bigger and bigger so maybe Stage wasn't out of their minds for going in that direction.
Would I have preferred a Stein Mart type store with classy interiors and clothing fit for business casual work? Sure, but we see what happened to Stein Mart and nobody is rushing in to emulate their model.
Burke's Outlet is most certainly becoming Bealls here in Houston. This is a bit strange because we had the other Bealls here years ago. In fact, my local Palais Royal was once a Bealls. Bealls Florida has also started to open HomeCentric stores in this area. They are, AFAIK, a bit of Bealls Florida's version of HomeGoods.
@Sing -- I can totally see the Justice font and color comparison, now that you mention it! Interesting. Gordmans 1.0 was definitely better than Gordmans 2.0 (I remember seeing changes in the Southaven store after it reopened), but I was just glad the brand survived, and as a full off-price format I don't think it was half bad (but they were definitely better when independent, haha).
DeleteI'd say Kohl's isn't much in the way of a discount department store; I was mentioning them more in the sense of Gordmans 1.0 being similar to Kohl's in some ways, most particularly a full selection of merchandise. My original Senatorial post quoted an article which noted Gordmans' original format was to carry, for instance, all sizes of a particular shirt, etc. -- which, of course, is not how an off-pricer works. So Gordmans 1.0 had the full selection like Kohl's, but with more discounted prices. I would agree that Kohl's is probably in the same tier as Belk, although that's still a strange comparison to me since the Southaven Kohl's is off-mall: just like the property it sits on, I've always looked at Kohl's as off on an island all by itself, haha! I've never truly thought of it as a department store in the same sense as Penney's, Sears, et al even though that's exactly what it is. As for your other department store rankings: definitely agree with putting Belk below Dillard's, but Belk equal to Macy's?! Wow! Haha, I'd put Macy's highest on the list of those three. Dillard's I used to look at as more accessible than Macy's, but lately they've gotten worse on offering sales and discounts.
That's a fair assessment -- the tile can certainly throw things off, and the two different mentalities you mention certainly have validity to them. Basically, a place that looks bare bones on purpose is okay, but one that looks that way not quite as intentionally isn't as ideal, haha!
Yeah, I agree in that I don't believe Bealls (Outlet) has any particular relation, especially in the realm of merchandise sourcing, to its parent Bealls Florida aside from the common ownership. I assume Florida is the market that's going to be hardest hit by this change; in other parts of the country, I doubt the name association matters as much.
*that should say "Senatobia" in the above comment... this is why I don't like typing comments on my phone!
Delete@Anonymous -- True, good point about Houston being an atypical market for Stage. Definitely way more competition there! As for the pricing system, I think one article I read said that Stage had already tried moving away from coupons somewhat, but the Gordmans conversions would be a full stop on that for them. If the sales are what brought their audience in, though, then perhaps that's why they were already beginning to perform poorly even prior to the acquisition. Wanting to switch to a new format with a new target audience is one thing, but it would really help to make sure that audience actually exists and that you're not alienating the audience you already have. I think moving towards off-price definitely had merit, but if (a) the younger demographic wasn't really there, and (b) the existing demographic was turned off by the branding and/or lack of sales, then yeah, it wouldn't work that well in execution despite however promising the vision was.
Yep, off-price retailers certainly don't have every size of a given shirt! That's a really good point you make about Kohl's being off on an island: four locations immediately come to mind and all of them are very far from a traditional mall.
DeleteWhen I first wrote that comment, I was debating whether or not to put Belk and Macy's in the same ranking, but I think you are right that Belk should indeed fall below in the pecking order. I still, however, think of Dillard's as being a step above Macy's. Both of them still come in below Nordstrom or Bloomingdale's (from what I remember of it), but it just seems like Dillard's carries more expensive lines of men's clothing and the stores feel a bit classier. As for the former point, I don't have much evidence to prove it and the latter point may just be since I've been to more run-down looking Macy's stores in malls where all of the other anchors have left. Macy's also seems slightly more common in parts of Georgia thanks to some of the old Rich's stores, but Dillard's has a few more locations in smaller markets like Albany. Belk just seems to be in any Georgia town with more than 10,000 people!
Sing: Ha, I'm the proud conductor of the negativity train! As the senior member of the retail blog comments club, I only wish everyone else could have seen some of the retail that I saw years ago. This is especially true with department stores. As for current department stores, I'd probably rank Dillard's above Macy's. Both have fallen far from their glory days, but I think Macy's has fallen further.
DeleteNext are the mass merchandise department stores like Kohl's and JCPenney. Palais Royal/Stage would have fit in this group and I reckon Belk goes in this group. We don't have Belk here so I can only speculate based on images I've seen online.
After that, you get the closeouts stores like TJX. Gordmans almost certainly would have gone in that group.
These days, even the mainstream department stores like Dillard's are below the standards of mass merchandise department stores of even the 2000s in many ways. Even in the mid-2000s at the very least, JCPenney's larger stores had in-house alterations and staffed men's suit departments for altered suits. Now, even most Dillard's don't even have in-store alterations and things have to be sent to whatever few locations have tailors. Some of the suits Macy's sells these days wouldn't even have been sold at Sears 25 years ago. I doubt most Dillard's and Macy's even have trained commissioned staff who know how to do proper measurements and such when it wasn't that long ago when JCPenney had such a thing and Dillard's could measure for custom suits. Maybe the likes of Bloomingdale's and Nordstorm still have these things, I don't know. I think flagship Dillard's locations still have at least some of these things.
Retail Retell - Yeah, and that's exactly what happened to JCPenney under Ron Johnson. JCP tried to appeal to a younger demographic with new merchandise and everyday pricing, but they didn't attract the intended audience and they lost the existing older audience. Bed, Bath, and Beyond probably should have used this as a cautionary tale against hiring someone from Target, but I guess some retailers just don't learn from history.
I put Macy's above Dillard's simply because I've grown up with Dillard's as "my" department store -- therefore I feel it's more accessible than Macy's, which was only up in Memphis and always seemed to have outrageous prices, even on clearance! Dillard's prices may well be just as high, I'm not sure, but I just always assumed that by us shopping there instead of Macy's, it must naturally be the less expensive store of the two :P Dillard's is still my store of choice (Macy's has never had a store in Mississippi!), and I like the clearance store in Vicksburg as well for clothes shopping (even though their prices haven't been as great, true of the department store industry as a whole it seems like).
DeleteThe Dillard's in Ridgeland certainly seems run-down more than the newer stores in Southaven and Collierville and even Wolfchase -- worth noting they assumed the two Ridgeland stores from other retailers. I don't have enough Macy's experience to speak to what a lot of their stores are like -- it's been years since I've been in the Wolfchase Macy's, and the one I most commonly went to, Carriage Crossing, a prototype Parisian build, is most certainly not your typical Macy's!
Anonymous, it's interesting to hear that the Houston-area Penney's and Dillard's no longer have men's tailoring services. I wonder if perhaps that is because there are multiple stores in the region? I can't speak to Penney's, but I know Dillard's in Southaven has tailoring services, and so does Dillard's here in Ridgeland. In fact, I have gotten suits tailored at the Southaven Dillard's multiple times, and while I can't claim to see anyone else but one guy in the department to provide those services, he certainly seems to be an important asset to the store! I've got a friend who has gotten a suit tailored at Penney's, too, but I'm not sure which location. Now I'm curious if, in markets like Jackson where there are multiple Penney's, or Memphis with both Penney's and Dillard's, certain locations don't have those services and instead direct customers to other locations so that the (probably underutilized) services are consolidated for the market for efficiency purposes.
Retail Retell: Huh, I had no idea that JCPenney is even offering alterations these days. I have not seen it around here in probably at least 12-13 years. Last I looked, which has been a while, they no longer had suit slacks which need the bottom hemmed and they only sold ready-to-wear suits. Maybe they're doing something different in your area. If so, I guess you have a fancy JCPenney in your area!
DeleteAs for Dillard's, you might be right that the number of stores here means they have consolidated things a bit. About 20 years ago, I had a couple of suits I bought there tailored by the in-store tailor at the Willowbrook Mall location. However, when I asked about getting a new suit tailored there a few years ago (pre-Covid), they said they could do the measurements and such at the Willowbrook store, but they'd have to send it to the Post Oak (The Galleria) store for the actual tailoring. The Willowbrook store is a large 3-story location so I was surprised to hear that they couldn't tailor the suit in the store anymore without sending it to another location.
Anyway, perhaps the Dillard's stores are more spread out in your area so it wouldn't make sense to send stuff to another location. It is hard to say what exactly is going these days in terms of alterations.
Well, this is information based on a friend's suit, so I don't have the full background! But it certainly seems based on what I know that it was tailored at JCP.
DeleteAt least the measurements could still be done at the Willowbrook store! I kind of figured they wouldn't even have the staffing for that, and require all services to be done elsewhere. That is still strange for such a large location not to offer that service directly, though.
Wow, that's a lot of historic information about Gordmans, both before and during the Stage years. With Stage Stores being a Houston-based company, they were of interest to a lot of people here. I remember the plans Stage had of converting the local Palais Royal stores to Gordmans. In one of the strangest sights ever, Palais Royal even advertised in their stores during Christmas 2019 that it'd be the last Christmas ever at Palais Royal. That turned out to be correct, but not in the expected manner!
ReplyDeleteAs such, although I thought we'd get plenty of Gordmans stores in my area, we never did get one in my part of Houston. At least if we did, it wasn't a Gordmans long enough for me to visit one. I saw photos of them online, but it is interesting to get a taste of what a Palais Gordmans would have looked like. It doesn't look like I missed much aside from a different take on what Marshalls does. It certainly doesn't have the class of a Stein Mart, but I guess the clothing actually appealed to younger people, lol. Then again, what Gordmans had in the men's department doesn't seem very appealing to me and, as you say, the displays are Kmart-esque.
What Palais Royal became in the 2000s and 2010s isn't what Palais Royal was back in the day. They had a legitimate department store feel to them like a Dillard's or something like that. Maybe not quite as fancy, but still, the big boxification of Palais Royal was a bit disappointing. There were exceptions, like the Mall of the Mainland Palais Royal (the newer one, not the original one) which was in part of an old Foley's/Macy's and Palais Royal reused their fixtures for what was surely the nicest modern Palais Royal I had seen. But, anyway, the Gordmans conversion just would have continued the downscaling of the chain.
Gordmans' sassy colors weren't completely foreign to Palais Royal. Check out this photo of the old Greenspoint Mall Palais Royal from back when Palais Royal was trying to be a department store! Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/deadmalls/comments/bixjmy/palais_royal_greenspoint_mall_houston_tx_2019/
Anyway, thanks for chronicling this part of Houston retail history! This is an awesome reference and I look forward to seeing the accompanying Dyersburg Mall JCPenney closing photos! If nothing else, it is like the Fred's closing series, but without Fred's!
I'm glad you mention the "last Christmas ever" ads -- I actually mentioned the similar "last Black Friday ever" ones in my previous Senatobia post! Quite ironic how that worked out, lol.
DeleteYeah, the openings were really supposed to ramp up beginning in March 2020, and of course we all know what ended up happening instead. A number of those locations ended up having delayed grand openings, on which dates the stores began liquidating as well... very sad. It's unfortunate that it will only remain one big hypothetical how things would have gone for the chain absent the lockdowns. I do think Stage was a bit too trigger-happy on going all-in with 100% off-price Gordmans conversions company-wide, but I also think that, with the right amount of time and patience, it ultimately could have been a good acquisition for them. But the combination of their overexcitement and the pandemic killed off those dreams.
I agree on it being similar to a Marshalls, and of course the key was that most of its markets were places considerably far removed from a Marshalls (or other competitor)! Such a format was indeed a downgrade from the existing Stage stores, and I fully believe when you say that even those stores were a downgrade from their pre-Stage predecessors, such as when Palais Royal was still independent. Anyway, cool find with that Reddit photo, and thanks for the compliments!
Those black Rehrig carts with stickers are definitely transfers from Goody's - Peebles never used conventional carts, but rather the stroller ones as shown. I don't think they rebranded ours either.
ReplyDeleteFurther speaking of carts, I find it highly laughable Gordmans ordered those new all metal Technibilt carts with corner bumper cupholders - like Sears and their black Rehrigs, they never had drink coolers anywhere in the store, so it is beyond me why they ordered them with that accessory.
Interesting -- those must have been brought in from another location at some point, then! The Goody's at the Dyersburg Mall closed during the initial bankruptcy, prior to Stage reviving the chain, so I doubt they are from there.
DeleteHa, I didn't catch that -- that's funny! The Senatobia Goody's actually did have a drink cooler up front, but I can easily see the cupholders being another one of those disconnects between the designers (who probably anticipated that such a feature would go over well with the new target audience) and the stores themselves (which don't have the items necessary to support that vision!)
It would have been interesting to see how the conversion of all the Stage stores to Gordman's would have went had the pandemic not happened. I don't know if the same fate would have happened anyway just a few years later, or if this could have actually worked. I guess that will remain one of the great mysteries of retail, but even if this was going to be a total flop in the end regardless, it would have been nice if Stage could have had enough time to try to prove themselves.
ReplyDeleteNot that I go to department stores very often myself, but it seems like most of them look and feel the same to me. They all use the same paint scheme, building designs, floor plans, etc. I will give Gordman's 2.0 credit for using purple to change things up a bit in terms of design, as it gave the building a small amount of visual interest in what would have been a sea of otherwise white walls. Glad you got to document the stunted transition of Stage's stores into Gordman's though, as it was a strange piece of retail history killed off by the pandemic.
Since you mentioned Bealls, they actually benefited a lot from the demise of Gordman's, as they purchased a lot of Gordman's/Stage's former stores and have now really began pushing into the Midwest. I think Bealls is happy to now own the rights to their name nationally as well, as one of the articles I read mentioned the Bealls Florida family was always a bit annoyed they could only use their actual name in 3 states (Florida, Georgia, and Arizona). The rebranding of the entire chain to the "Bealls" name isn't much of a surprise, as I figured that would happen once Bealls Florida finally got national rights to their name. However, the recent rebranding of Bealls Outlet to just "Bealls" is a bit odd, as new "Bealls" is still an outlet/TJX-like store. I guess outside of Florida dropping "outlet" from the name doesn't matter too much, but down here we have a number of Bealls/Bealls Outlet combo stores, which look a bit odd (and somewhat confusing) with the new signage up as Bealls/Bealls Florida!
Agreed -- the pandemic unfortunately tampered with a number of retail opportunities that we never got to see carried to fruition, this one being perhaps my personal biggest disappointment. I really would have liked to see whether this experiment would pan out for Stage, or whether it would flop. With the way the holiday 2019 sales were headed and the drastic cutbacks at corporate and store closures announced in February 2020, things didn't seem too bright, but the early consensus I think was still optimistic that things could be turned around, albeit with a smaller footprint and only if Stage slowed down somewhat. Alas, we'll never get to see what could have been.
DeleteI see a lot of department store images on flickr, and while I acknowledge they can and do look different and have varying design aspects, etc., I must agree -- it isn't as easy for me to appreciate those nuances as much as it is for grocery stores or other big box retailers with more prominent decor packages! That's another reason why malls have never interested me as much as others in this hobby, I think (but, of course, to each his or her own!). Anyway, yeah, Gordmans certainly went a different direction in its branding, both from department stores and other off-price retailers. Marshalls just opened a new location near me and it incorporated some gold tones, which was a first in my experience, but otherwise it's all plain white and boring. Purple certainly stood out! Glad you liked the post.
Yep -- should have mentioned that aspect in the post (Bealls taking over a lot of former Stage stores, that is), actually! Thanks for bringing it up in the comments. I'm positive Bealls is happy to have their name all to themselves now! It was news to me in researching this post that Gordmans and the other brands were all sold off again, but that is exactly what I was expecting would happen after I first heard that Bealls bought all of Stage's IP -- I figured they'd just keep Bealls, and ditch the rest. I can see the rebrands causing some confusion in Florida, especially at those combo stores you mention! I guess in the rest of the country, dropping the word "Outlet" isn't as big of a deal since the other chains like TJMaxx don't use that term either, but I wonder if it might have been smarter just to go as Burke's at that point, since that was the name customers were actually familiar with -- either that, or go for a transition period as Bealls Outlet before switching simply to Bealls. But I guess that's another example of a bit of retailer impatience, like Stage, lol.