Bealls, Burkes outlets look for younger shoppers as company hits 100

BRADENTON -- Bealls Outlet President Dave Alves sees his stores as a treasure hunt.

Customers have a sense of what's there before walking in the door and, while they never know what they'll walk away with, Alves hopes it's by the cartful.

"Everytime she comes into the store we have to make sure we show her something new and different," said Alves, who came to Bealls in 2012 from Vancouver, B.C. company Sterling Shoes where he served as the CEO. Before that, the Canada native spent five years working for TJX, parent of TJ Maxx and HomeGoods, at the company's United Kingdom and Canada offices.

Now Alves is leading Bealls Outlets and its sister stores Burkes Outlet -- found in a handful of Western states -- as Bealls Inc. celebrates 100 years.

Since launching cosmetic changes to Bealls Outlets and Burkes Outlets in early 2013, Alves has focused on changing the product mix and offerings at the outlets while decluttering the aisles and racks. It's part of a strategy to clearly define what it means to shop at a Bealls Outlet and Burkes Outlet to distance them from TJ Maxx, Marshalls and Ross.

Can Alves build the perfect outlet for Bealls and replicate it in its 460-plus stores?

Alves won't stop trying as he helps the Bradenton retailer enter its 100th year with plans for more outlets, a bigger online presence and different merchandise to attract new shoppers.

Thrill of the hunt

Sometimes when shoppers hunt for treasure, they'll leave empty-handed. In a need-it-now culture buoyed by one-click purchases, Alves doesn't mind a slightly disappointed shopper if it motivates her to buy the next item she sees before it's gone.

"She'll be a bit disappointed from that, but it will create a sense of urgency and shop now that the off-price business requires," Alves said inside a Bealls Outlet prototype store at the Westgate Shopping Center.

Since coming on board in 2012, Alves has redesigned stores, reduced inventory, opened up aisles and brought in a different mix of products to attract shoppers.

Less equaled more

"I felt in looking at the business that we had a strong relationship with the customer, but I felt that they really wanted more from us," Alves said. "They were willing to give us more business. There was a broader customer we could have gone after. Some of those elements of inventory were actually detracting us from doing those things."

On a rolling basis for the past two years, Alves and the outlets have added new departments, and products that increased the variety of SKU labels but decreased overall inventory. Merchandise comes from a mix of closeout and discontinued Bealls merchandise, purchases from other retailers, brand name items and a run of private label items straight from a factory.

Bealls Inc. Chairman R.M. "Bob" Beall II believes in his division president's ability to mix it up.

"I don't know anyone else who could have done it. I couldn't have done it," Beall said. "He cut inventories very dramatically, which was a little scary but it worked out very well."

Last year, the outlets bulked up its shoe department both in what's offered and in stores, now up from 15 to 45 stores with a new shoe department, Alves said. In January, select outlets started a baby department and toy selection. Now, the outlets are testing junior-plus size clothing at a Lehigh Acres store and considering a men's big and tall test.

In the past, Bealls might have built an entire concept store devoted to the line. A Bealls Kids Outlet, a Coastal Home By Bealls Outlet and My Gift Cottage were all standalone stores at some point in the outlets history. Now, Alves is handpicking merchandise and stores based on customer data and shopping habits to build himself a new baby department or juniors plus area before adding those items to more stores.

"It gives us a view into tomorrow's world today," Alves said. "I can go build in that one store and figure out how to multiply that into other stores."

Those new items, in addition to a retooled home furnishings and domestics areas, reflect the new outlet shopper for Bealls and Burkes -- especially outside of Florida where the outlets have the most stores.

"Outside of Florida, the average age group is significantly younger than our stores inside of Florida," Alves said. "That really allowed us to branch into a younger customer, a family-oriented customer, more than we have before."

That's not to say Alves doesn't crave the younger shoppers in Florida. Most of those new departments and products are in its stores throughout the state that cater to young families as opposed to snowbirds and retirees.

"Over time, what's been happening is we find that we're getting a younger level of customer coming into our store," Alves said.

Online awareness

Walk into a Bealls Outlet and shoppers will see Tommy Bahama on the shelves, Calaphon and KitchenAid items in housewares and Guy Harvey shirts on the hangers.

Being able to see those same brands on a closeout website isn't as easy.

In fall 2014, Bealls Outlet sister stores Burkes Outlet launched BurkesOutlet.com to allow customers to buy clothes and home goods online.

Not every vendor and manufacturer will allow the products it sends to outlets and closeout stores to be made available online.

"We know that the off-price business is somewhat challenging when it comes to the online world," he said. "In our environment, we love to deliver great brands and we deliver great fashion. However, our promise and our commitments to our vendors is that we're not going to tell anyone that we have those brands overtly."

On some pages, customers will see Dockers shoes, Tommy Bahama cologne or Kenneth Cole handbags, but finding name brands or other stores' brands on clothing and many other items is difficult.

Bealls Inc. board member Conrad Szymanski understands the online challenges. The former Bealls Department Stores president spent his final years before retirement as Bealls Outlet president from 2007 to 2012, when Alves was hired.

"Nike doesn't want to see TJ Maxx or Bealls Outlet selling Nike on their website, so there's sensitivity of what brands are offered on websites, so it's much slower to evolve in that area," said the 36-year Bealls veteran.

For now, Alves is committing to only BurkesOutlet.com before deciding to allow purchases on BeallsOutlets.com because, as he sees it, there isn't a proven template for off-priced retail purchases online.

To help counter the vendor issues, the websites are constantly updated to show new items. About 30 to 50 new items are posted each day, the site will tell customers when there are only two or three left of an item and will tease customers a bit showing that an item is sold out.

"We want that same treasure hunt environment online as we do offline," Alves said.

Conquering climates

Alves faces a unique challenge for a Florida-based retailer that has more stores outside of the state than inside.

That meant both an opportunity for growth and tinkering with merchandise.

"We appreciate that people in Kentucky don't wear sandals in the middle of January and December as much as they do here," Alves said.

More denim, closed-toe shoes and long-sleeved shirts are stocked in the northern stores and the home goods/garden products are timed differently, but other than that, the Bealls and Burkes stores are conceptually the same, he said.

Bealls Inc. CEO Steve Knopik credited Alves for making the outlets work outside of Florida, where shoppers are younger and merchandise is more seasonal. It's a remarkable difference from when Bealls first tried outlets, as Just Labels, during the 1980s and failed.

The company's chairman also gave Alves a pat on the back.

"He's had a major breakthrough with the non-Florida stores in terms of getting the right goods in there at the right times," Beall said.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that, thanks to Alves' success outside of the Sunshine State, Bealls Outlets will turn up the heat on its streak.

"The next few years is all about real estate for us. We have a very expansive renovation program," Alves said. "We're going to do 40 to 50 stores a year, so within the next three years we'll have the majority of our stores upgraded to the style and quality we like."

More Bealls and Burkes outlets will also open in states that have room to grow.

"We're opening about 20 to 30 stores every year for the next number of years and really focusing on states that we're currently in," he said. "We want to make sure we infill and create that density and sort of customer awareness."

This story was originally published March 8, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Bealls, Burkes outlets look for younger shoppers as company hits 100 ."