Atlanta-Southern city major player in youth market

By Jane Kitchen -- Kids Today, 9/1/2006 12:00:00 AM

* Haverty’s
* New Baby Products
* Georgia Baby & Kids
* Rooms to Go Kids
* The Baby’s Room

ATLANTA — This Metro Report is the first in a new series for Kids Today, part of a plan to focus additional attention on what’s happening on the retail side of things. This year, the editors of Kids Today will bring you six Metro Reports, each focusing on a group of retailers in a major metropolitan area.

We’ll bring you information both pictorially and through the written word, and look at questions like:

• Which manufacturers does each store carry?
• What range of price points do they offer?
• How is the store merchandised?
• What do they think is their greatest competitive advantage?
• How many stores do they have in the metro area, and in what sort of area are they located?
• What makes their store different from others in the area?
• How do local consumers find out about the store?

We begin this series with a look at Atlanta, the hub of the Southeast and Georgia’s capital and largest city. With a population of 4.7 million in 2004, Atlanta is projected to grow to 5.3 million by 2009. Atlanta is also in the top 20% of metro areas with children age 5 and younger. In fact, 27% of Atlanta’s population is under the age of 18: 9% is between 0 and 5, 9% between 6 and 11 and 9% between 12 and 17.

The home of Coca-Cola is also among the top 20 metro areas in terms of household income, with a median income of $53,646. Atlanta also boasts more than half a million households with annual incomes of $75,000 or more.

And Atlanta residents aren’t afraid to spend some of that income on their kids. According to New York-based Easy Analytic Software Inc., Atlantans spent $42.9 million on youth and teen bedroom furniture, and $18.8 million on infant and nursery furniture in 2004.

To see where some of that money is being spent, we visited five Atlanta-area retailers: Haverty’s, New Baby Products, Georgia Baby & Kids, Rooms To Go Kids and The Baby’s Room. There are 12 Haverty’s in the greater Atlanta metro area, four Rooms To Go Kids, two Baby’s Rooms, two New Baby Products, and a Georgia Baby & Kids and Georgia Baby & Kids outlet store.

But Atlantans have a much wider choice than that — there are seven Babies “R” Us stores in suburban Atlanta areas, along with numerous Targets and Wal-Marts, a Bellini, Storehouse Furniture and many other specialty stores and mainline furniture stores. For Atlanta retailers, that means there’s a lot of competition out there. The stories below take a look at how five top retailers are capturing consumers’ attention.

Haverty’s youth department keeps growing

This all-in-one loft bed is becoming increasingly popular with customers at Haverty’s.

There are 12 Haverty’s in greater Atlanta — three in Gwinett County alone. The one I visited, in Duluth, is 42,000 square feet, with approximately 25% of the bedroom space devoted to youth.

Haverty’s has always carried youth furniture, but the category is a growing one, and the store will soon move from eight youth bedroom bays to 10. Most of the collections are its own, and each collection features between three and six bed styles.

Rhonda Wolf, assistant vice president and assistant director of merchandising, said that Louis Phillipe and cottage looks are strong for the retailer, along with lofts and bed-in-a-box offerings.

She said “grow-into” furniture is key — pieces kids can use at different stages — though an upcoming collection is targeted directly at teens.

The youth area is set up in different vignettes, with colorful walls and plenty of accessories.

A girls’ white group features accessories geared toward tweens — tulle, feathers and bright colors abound — and Wolf said the storage armoire in that group has proven to be particularly popular with consumers.

Haverty’s uses accessories to dress up its vignettes, like these colorful tween accents.

Pull-out trundles are also popular add-ons. “We look at how a parent can get the most use of square footage,” Wolf said.

Most twin beds retail between $299 to $399, with add-on options such as underbed storage or trundles kicking sales up a bit. Lofts are priced in the $999 range.

Haverty’s is a stocking dealer and can offer immediate delivery — what Wolf sees as the store’s biggest competitive advantage, especially in youth. “Youth groups are something they want as soon as possible,” she explained.

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New Baby Products offers everything infant

A Pali crib, dressed in Banian linens, is shown in a bright, bold, colorful vignette with a transportation theme. Prices and manufacturers are displayed clearly.

New Baby Products operates two stores in the Atlanta area; the original, 10,000-square-foot store, opened 34 years ago, is in Buckhead, while the 20,000-square-foot Snellville store includes warehouse space as well.

At the Buckhead location, down the street from the high-end Lenox Mall, the store is packed with everything new moms need — from cribs by Legacy, Bonavita and Baby’s Dream to feeding products from Medela, Avent and Dr. Brown, to apparel from preemie to size T4.

The store seems to go on and on, with room after room of everything baby. Gear from Graco, Peg Perego, Britax, Maclaren, Silver Cross, Combi and Bugaboo fills a room of its own, as do books and developmental toys for little ones. Cribs are set up on the floor or in tight vignettes against one wall, dressed in textiles from CoCaLo, Kids Line and Lambs & Ivy.

This Legacy crib is decked out in Kelly B. Rightsell linens and coordinating accessories.

Crib prices range from $140 to $700, and a 4,000-square-foot space next door stocks youth furniture, with twins ranging from $300 to $1500. Customers learn about the store through direct mail, radio and print advertising. Word of mouth is also key in a store with New Baby Products’ longevity, and many customers whose parents bought their furniture here return to buy their baby’s nursery supplies.

Owner Linda Britt said she tries to stock everything, and offers delivery within a week or two.

“Our theory is if we don’t have it, we can’t sell it,” she explained. “Most people want to buy it and take it with them.”

While New Baby Products draws customers from a wide area, Britt said that because they’re in an urban setting, they’re able to stock more sophisticated products, such as the Bugaboo Frog stroller. Britt also tries to keep up with what’s going on in the marketplace in terms of pricing and fads, and she is always looking for new products.

“Our biggest competitive advantage is being independent and having the flexibility in order to change things,” she said.

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Georgia Baby sets mood with merchandising

Model planes from Authentic Models complete the look of this boys’ vignette, featuring furniture from Ragazzi.

Located just off I-85 on “Furniture Row,” Georgia Baby & Kids is a 15,000-square-foot specialty store that combines the depth of a superstore with the merchandising of a boutique. With heart pine floors, track lighting and even a friendly tail-wagging dog behind the counter, Georgia Baby offers customers a complete shopping experience.

According to store manager Antoinette Brady, crib prices range from $239 to $3,000, with an average sale falling in the $500 to $600 range, and twins range from $300 to $3,000, with most customer spending between $700 to $800.

Ragazzi and Baby’s Dream are Georgia Baby’s two biggest wood manufacturers, with Art for Kids, Sweet Pea, Newport Cottages, My Room, Barn Door, Vermont Tubbs and Lea Inds. offering a wide range of styles and price points to complete the product mix. Textiles come from Nava’s Designs, Brandee Danielle, Woogies, Cotton Tale, Sweet Pea and Sleeping Partners, and gliders are exclusively by Dutailier.

Georgia Baby’s showroom includes a full display of many high-end manufacturers, such as Art For Kids.

Georgia Baby is not afraid to accessorize, and utilizes wall, floor and even ceiling space to create a fully merchandised look. Green Frog Art, Renditions by Reesa, Robo and Art for Kids help create a coordinated look, and lamps and chandeliers from Louise Antionette, Yessica and Just Too Cute add to the mood. Model planes from Authentic Models hang from the ceiling for several boys’ vignettes. “You can sell as many dollars off the ceiling as you can from the floor sometimes,” said Brady.

Customers come to Georgia Baby from all over Georgia — they’re the only Ragazzi dealer in the state — as well as from as far away as Birmingham, Chattanooga, Panama City, Tallahassee and South Carolina.

The Internet, cable advertising and Yellow Pages help consumers find the store, along with word of mouth, but perhaps the biggest form of advertising is sitting right on I-85, where traffic often slows to a crawl for hours as suburbanites commute home.

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Rooms to Go Kids focuses on older kids, teens

This vignette, featuring Young America’s Harbor Town collection, also showcases Simmons BackCare Kids mattress line. Prices are displayed with easy-to-read tags on every piece.

Rooms to Go Kids has four stores in the Atlanta metro area, including a 9,000-square-foot store in suburban Gwinett County, open since 1996. Other stores are in Marietta, Kennesaw and South Lake — all busy suburban settings near big shopping malls, busy intersections and a mainline adult Rooms to Go.

Rooms to Go Kids carries twin and full bedroom sets — no infant furniture — and Merchandising Manager Holly Hutson said full-size beds are growing in importance. Also important to Rooms to Go Kids customers is storage — most everything is offered with ample storage either under the bed, in the headboard or in the footboard.

Rooms to Go Kids sells its own exclusive furniture, along with collections from Young America, Good Cos. and Thomasville, textiles from WhisperSoft Mills, Olive Kids, Dan River and Bananafish, and mattresses from Naturesbed (its own brand), Simmons and Sealy.

Hutson said she’s seen things trend toward more of a teen look, and that she is adding in groups that have been successful on the adult side and scaling them for kids rooms. This gives customers even more flexibility. “That way, if they need a bigger armoire, they can go across the street,” Hutson explained.

Rooms to Go Kids is focusing more on older kids’ furniture, with merchandising designed to appeal directly to teens.

Rooms to Go Kids displays all its furniture with easy-to-read price points, with twin beds ranging from $299 to $799. Hutson said price points, advertising and the store’s famous financing plans all help to keep it competitive in a major market like Atlanta.

The Kids stores are advertised alongside the adult stores in print, radio and direct mail, but are often advertised by themselves on television. Offers like one year with no interest and no payments help bring customers into the store, along with a quarterly sale, advertised through a private mailer, where the store offers donut holes, juice and coffee along with an extended finance plan.

Hutson said she’s always keeping up with trends for product development by looking at stores that kids frequent — especially clothing stores — to see what colors are hot and to stay ahead of the trends.

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The Baby’s Room looks to educate customers

A local artist has painted murals throughout the store to create a welcoming atmosphere. Gliders from Best Chairs and Dutailier are grouped together here for easy comparison.

Richard Cohen opened the new The Baby’s Room and Child Space in Marietta’s upscale East Cobb neighborhood two years ago, moving from the original 10,000-square-foot location across the street. Today’s store boasts 13,000 square feet in a strip mall near a busy suburban intersection.

Cohen said there are half a million people within a 15-mile radius of The Baby’s Room, something that is crucial to support a store of its size.

With manufacturers such as Pali, Bonavita, Dutailier, Morigeau, Dutailier, Best Chair, Munire, Vermont Precision, Berg, Baby’s Dream and A.P. Inds. on the furniture side, The Baby’s Room carries a wide variety of product from the middle to upper end, with cribs ranging from $249 to $900 and most twin beds selling between $300 and $500.

Textiles from Bananafish, Brandee Danielle, Nava’s Designs, CoCaLo, Cindy’s Corner, Kids Line, Cotton Tale Designs, PatchKraft and Sweet Kyla, along with accessories from Funny Friends, Annie & Moe, Melissa & Doug, Kelly B. Rightsell, Twelve Timbers and One World help create a statement in the vignetted store, and Cohen also has a substantial selection of gear.

The store also features a Child Space, where configurations for older kids, like this loft bed from Berg, are mixed in with infant vignettes.

“I wanted to put in the effort to have a big display of metal,” said Cohen, who recently brought in Inglesina and Silver Cross for a full variety of products and prices.

“We have to put customers in the frame of mind that they see our store as a really good place to buy everything. We want it to be full service — it’s part of the whole puzzle.”

Part of that full-service operation is that Cohen is certified to install carseats, and will do so as a courtesy to local parents, whether they’ve bought the carseat at his store or not. In return, he asks customers to donate to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and The Baby’s Room matches all the funds collected.

Owner Richard Cohen recently opened an ice cream shop within his store to provide a place for weary customers to relax and take a break with a $1 scoop.

Cohen and his family — wife Sheryl, along with their sons Jeffrey and Jason — operate the East Cobb store along with a second Baby’s Room in suburban Norcross, which opened in 2003. Customers frequent both stores from all over the Southeast, including Chattanooga, Birmingham, Knoxville and Nashville. While this USA Baby store also has a Child Space, it’s still mainly a baby store, and the majority of its customers are first-time pregnant mothers. Cohen said he’s slowly trying to get more accessories and older kids’ stuff to expand the mix.

“My feeling is we do a really good job with customer service, and we’re the first contact with the customer, so if they’re satisfied, they’ll come back for juvenile furniture,” he explained.

Cohen wants customers’ experience at The Baby’s Room to be unique, so he has decorated the store with several large murals done by a local artist.

Vignettes at The Baby’s Room are fully accessorized, and prices and manufacturers are clearly displayed for customers.

He has also opened an ice cream shop within the store, where weary customers can take a break and revive with a $1 scoop, designed to be part of the atmosphere rather than a money-maker.

That’s part of Cohen’s goal to make customers feel comfortable in the store, and to feel that they’re getting educated, well-informed, honest answers to their questions. He says it’s his job to educate them about the products they’ll need.

“By the time they leave, they have a good understanding of quality, what to expect, and what they need in a nursery,” he said.

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