RETAIL DETAIL | Ann Taylor, a brand takes up a lot of real estate in my closet, plans to close 117 thanks to the dreaded economic decline that’s going on right now.  Read more by clicking here.

As it turns out, Ann Taylor operates close to 900 stores including its flagship Ann Taylor stores, the more casual and less expensive Ann Taylor Loft and its outlet stores. The retailer will continue to open new stores despite the closures, so that means I’ll probably still be able to find one nearby.

We are probably going to start seeing numerous retailers make similar moves. Last week, Oakland-based Cost Plus World Market announced it would close 18 stores this year and open 17 in some of its strongest markets. Retailers are still making money during these times of “uncertainty” (I’ve heard that word like 1,000  times in the last few weeks).  Who’s next?

As a side note, who’s Ann Taylor anyway? Well, according to the company’s Web site, Ann Taylor is not named after the person who started the company:

Ann Taylor’s rich heritage dates to 1954, when founder Robert Liebeskind, the son of a dressmaker, opened his first shop. Back then, “Ann Taylor” represented a best-selling dress style that had been gifted to the storeowner by his father. The “Ann Taylor” design embodied the well-dressed woman, and the Ann Taylor legacy was born.

RETAIL DETAIL | Retail chains of all kinds open new stores in Bay Area, but not that many blanket us the way Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets plans to do.

The chain, owned by U.K.-based Tesco (the Wal-Mart of England), will open 18 new stores here next year and is still looking for locations.
F & E started opening stores in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada late last year. They are about one-fifth the size of a Safeway and yet their CEO, Tim Mason told me this morning shoppers “can definitely do all of their shopping there.”

Sounds cool, but will people like it? Selling food is one of the most competitive segments of retail and the profit margins are plastic-wrap thin, but novelty can go a long way and I think that will be one of F & E’s biggest strengths. Also, small stores usually take less time to peruse, which is a big plus for all of us time-challenged types.

Here’s a list of F & E’s confirmed locations with cross streets:

Antioch
Somersville & Buchanan
Lone Tree & Golf Course

Concord
Clayton & Ygnacio Valley

Danville
Diablo & Hwy 680

Fairfield
Beck & West Texas

Hayward
Mission & Rousseau
A & Hesperian

Mountain View
Middlefield & Rengstorff

Napa
Jefferson & Imola

Oakland
73rd & Bancroft

Oakley
Laurel & Ohara

San Francisco
3rd  &  Carroll
Silver & Goettingen

San Jose
Bird & Minnesota
Almaden & Curtner

Sunnyvale
Tasman & Fair Oaks

Vallejo
Oakwood & Springs

Walnut Creek
Ygnacio Valley & San Carlos

RETAIL DETAIL | I didn’t react much to the news that Starbucks will begin selling “short” cups of coffee for $1. I go there for their lattes (Vanilla, Chai, Peppermint Mocha … whatever), but I did worry it would make stores more crowded and lines longer.

Fellow blogger Rafi Mohammed of Pricing for Profit thinks this is a great way for Starbucks to bring in new customers, remain competitive, grow sales and beat the economic turn down we’ve been seeing for months now.

“Both Mercedes and BMW offer starter models, why not Starbucks? A low priced “starter” drink may induce customers to purchase extra products (like a Danish) as well as trade up to higher priced drinks.”

Investing Web site The Motley Fool had a different take:

“(Starbucks) might be overreacting to investors’ recent paranoia about stepped-up competition from cheaper rivals, not to mention a scary, but ultimately temporary, consumer-spending slowdown. Starbucks can’t afford to lose its ‘affordable luxury’ rep to companies like Peet’s and Caribou, since the java giant’s brand is one of its greatest strengths.”

I kind of agree with the Fool on this one. I visit Starbucks a few times a week, especially since I broke my coffee maker and can’t brew it at home anymore. I occasionally go to Peet’s, which happens to be a company I cover, but it’s a little more out of the way for me and the service seems slower.

Anyway, back to the dollar issue. I do think taking a page out of the fast-food industry playbook will cheapen Starbucks and clutter its neat list of offerings. Sure, those five to 10 adjective drink orders may seem annoying, but Starbucks has that aire of simplicity that luxury brands exude. Are they going to add big red and yellow signage to send the $1 message? Come on. I also wonder how short a “short” cup of coffee will be. Will it even be worth stopping in? There are free re-fills, but again, who wants to get in line again?

I think if Starbucks really wants to make more money, they should open up shop across the street from my office. It would probably become my second home.

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SPOTLIGHT | Concord’s Clayton Valley Shopping Center will add a Ross Dress for Less and Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market early next year.

Ross, an off-price department store, has leased a litte more than 30,000 square feet while Fresh & Easy, a small-format grocery store, has leased 14,000 square feet. Fresh & Easy, operated by U.K.-Based Tesco, plans to open up dozen of locations in the Bay Area and has begun signing leases in various cities.

The Clayton Valley center, located at 5400 Ygnacio Valley Road, is owned by Regency Centers, a national retail center developer, that has spent the last few years expanding and remodeling the complex.

The center already houses merchants such as Home Depot, Longs Drugs, Gamestop, and Peets Coffee. Other new retailers including Jamba Juice, Verizon Wireless, Sally Beauty, Yoga Sol, Burger Road and The Yogurt Shack are expected to open soon.

RETAIL DETAIL | Whole Foods, a retailer that is partly responsible for making “organic” and “whole paycheck” household terms, is now making headlines for promising to phase out plastic bags by Earth Day.

Many cities such as progressive hot spot (and home of yours truly) San Francisco have placed restrictions on the use of plastic bags, but Whole Foods is the first mass market retailer I’ve heard of to make this kind of move.

Sweden-based Ikea started charging customers 5 cents per plastic bag in an effort to promote reusable bags. I know this effort has yet to work on me because I always either forget to bring my own bag or don’t have one big enough for the bulky household items I tend to buy at Ikea.

While I applaud retailer and city efforts to put the brakes on plastic bags, I think we won’t see much of a difference until consumers decide that reusable bags are the way to go. Whole Foods will still offer paper bags, which some experts say are better than plastic but still create waste and use up natural resources, and that means a lot of people still won’t BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag).

One of my roommates and I decided to do some shopping this weekend, so I grabbed three tote bags from my closet with the goal of not bringing home more plastic bags. My strategy failed because, like my Ikea example, the bags weren’t big enough for all the items I bought.

The experience nonetheless seems like a step forward for me because I’ve been trying to bring my own bag for months now, but I could never remember to take a bag with me. Once, I did take a tote bag with me to Safeway, but completely forgot it was hanging on my shoulder when I checked out. What can I say, old habits die hard.

Dana Buchman sweater from Saks Fifth Avenue, $195. Will Kohl’s new Dana Buchman line offer the poor man’s version?

RETAIL DETAIL | Kohl’s, that whipper snapper of a retail chain, has landed yet another high-profile name to add to its “exclusive” brands list: Dana Buchman, a purveyor of $200 sweaters and $700 suits. Relax, the line at Kohl’s won’t be as expensive.

The Associated Press reports starting in 2009,

“Kohl’s will be the exclusive retail outlet for a new line of moderately priced Buchman apparel, shoes, lingerie and accessories. …

The addition of a Buchman line will bolster what has been the weakest segment of Kohl’s offering for women: classic styles. The Chaps brand has performed well, but other classic styles have lagged in recent month. The new Buchman clothing will be priced similarly to Chaps, at the highest range offered at Kohl’s.”

The Chaps name was originally attached to Ralph Lauren, who is no longer associated with the brand. Kohl’s, however, realized some consumers might still think of RL when they see Chaps and it’s now one of the retailer’s top brands. Kohl’s also has exclusive deals with Vera Wang and Candies.

The strategy seems to me like a less painful opportunity for consumers who want to “trade-down.” Let’s face it, we are inches away from a recession or at least a crappier economy, whatever you want to call it (I’m no economist), and people just don’t have the disposable income they had not too long ago.

Kohl’s sales during the holiday shopping season were disappointing (they actually declined compared with the year before), but they are continuing to innovate with things like bringing Dana Buchman into the mix. I’m sure they’ll weather this economic storm and help shoppers do so as well.

RETAIL DETAIL | American Eagle Outfitters seems unstoppable these days. The company has developed some major cachet for its namesake stores. I used to think of them as a low-budget, wannabe version of Abercrombie & Fitch, but I have since reversed that opinion. They also launched aerie last year, a non-skanky lingerie store for teenage girls that I love.

Now, AE is aiming even younger than with a line called 77kids that will launch online only later this year and in stores next year. (Read more in the Wall Street Journal).

The line focuses on the 2 to 10 years-old set. I didn’t realize that was a set or that it was defined in those terms. Will it be toddler to grammar schooler to pre-tweenie? It almost seems to be like a lot to tackle under one roof, but like I said AE is on a winning track these days.

Having never been a parent, I have no idea where I would shop for kids clothes. One thing I always hear the parents I know gripe about is that children constantly outgrow their clothes, so why invest a lot of money or time into them? Maybe kids are pickier these days about fashion starting at a very young age (who’s the best-dressed kindergartener?). Maybe some parents think they’re kids need to look as fashionable as those tiny, blinged-up dogs everyone’s been carrying around.

Parent shoppers, please chime in on this one…

RETAIL DETAIL | The downtown Oakland Gap and Gap Kids store is closing this Friday. The Gap Kids store on Lakeshore Avenue is scheduled to shut down on Jan. 26 according to employees. The only Gap left in Oakland will be the one on Lakeshore Avenue. Check out this map for more details. 

The closures mean Oakland’s retail void will get bigger, although there is a Gap store in Berkeley and Emeryville, which are less than 6 miles from the downtown Oakland site. That maybe okay for some shoppers, but the local government will kiss those sales tax dollars goodbye.

Isaac Mizrahi. Love the pink tie!

RETAIL DETAIL | Mizrahi is on fashion and commercial success fire! Not only did he help Target turn into “tar-jay,” he has now been signed on as creative director of Liz Claiborne, an apparel company with an iconic history that has struggled in recent years.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

The New York clothing retailer said Mr. Mizrahi, 46, will oversee design and marketing for women’s apparel, accessories and licensing.

Chief Executive William L. McComb said: “It is certainly no secret that the brand has been lacking a clear and cohesive vision and has languished as a result. With this appointment, we are taking a major step toward our goal of creating irresistible product that will provide today’s discerning woman with a compelling reason to buy.”

Mr. Mizrahi called Liz Claiborne “an American fashion icon.” “Her clothes were not only beautiful, not only smart, they were revolutionary. “I’m honored to have the opportunity to build on this fantastic legacy and excited to re-establish the label as a must-have.”

The most fascinating part of all of this is that Mizrahi’s own couture line went out of business in 1998. Talk about a personal comeback. Now maybe Mizrahi’s golden touch can transfer to the house of Claiborne.

BITS & PIECES | Oakland-based Clorox Co., known for its bleach products, has created a line of eco-friendly cleaning supplies called Green Works.

The line includes products that are biodegradable, non-allergenic, not tested on animals and packaged in recyclable materials. Some of the active ingredients in the new products are substances like coconut and lemon oil.

It’s like a throwback to the days before everything was made of chemicals. How did those 19th century types keep clean?