by Sarah Mahoney, Monday, March 16, 2009, 5:37 PM
Source:
Aeropostale Takes Teen Concept To Tweens. MediaPost Publications. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=102222
While many retailers are failing, Aeropostale has actually increased their sales and net income during the last period. And with this increase, the company has decided to actually expand from its teen market, to the tween market. The company will open 10 P.S. by Aeropastale stores starting this summer. The new line will carry clothing and accessories catering to boys and girls ages 7 - 12. By marketing fun, youthful and exciting store displays and styles P.S. will hopefully appeal not only to the targeted tween audience, but also to tween parents as well.
The only problem with opening these new stores is that while the tween market has been expanding and strengthening for years, at the point of the recession many other tween brands began failing. Club Libby Lu has already closed its doors, while Limited Too has lost $13.9 million during the fourth-quarter. So many are skeptical as to whether P.S. Aeropastale will succeed.
Furthermore, while opening 10 P.S. stores, the company is also opening 40 regular Aeropastale stores and CLOSING ALL of its JIMMY'Z clothing stores, which cater to the older, edgier teen market.
In my opinion...this is NOT a good idea. Many tween lines are failing at an increased rate. Libby Lu, an exciting, fun tween store has already closed its doors; Claire's, a tween jewelry store, is also in the dumps. Plus there are many other tween clothing lines for P.S. to compete with...there is American Eagle's 77kids line, and Abercrombie and Fitch's abercrombie line. It is just not smart to think that even though Aero's regular teen line Aeropastale is doing well, that their tween concept will also do well....especially during the recession and the country's huge number of lay-offs.
Also, I am pretty upset that the company is closing their JIMMY'Z Brand stores. I LOVE that store and their styles and clothing. In all of their stores they have flat screen t.v's in the main store room and in all of their dressing rooms; all of the flat screens within the store play fashion shows throughout the day.
JIMMY'z:
source: http://www.retailfix.com/images/JimmyZ/JimmyZ_03.jpg
