Retailers try to fit in with baby boomers

NEW YORK — Beth Greenwald and Shelly Solomon-Turner are hot targets for clothing stores and, like many baby boomers, they’re frustrated by what’s on the racks.

Women like Greenwald and Solomon-Turner are at the peak of their earnings power, yet stores have found that selling them clothes isn’t a sure bet. Their tastes are hard to define and retailers are repeatedly trying and missing the target.

Greenwald, 50, and Solomon-Turner, 60, share the same frustrations. They don’t understand why most stores don’t have a clue that while their bodies may be aging, their spirits are not.

“I am not in denial, but I also don’t have the AARP attitude,” said Greenwald, a real estate executive. “I won’t go to a store that focuses on older people.” She just snapped up a pair of red platform shoes and flaunts her toned figure by wearing slim-fitting clothes that graze right above her knee.

Solomon-Turner, who prefers black leggings, agrees.

“I keep an eye on the trends. I want to be in fashion,” said the co-owner of a public relations company. “But I don’t want to wear mini skirts.”

Greenwald, a Manhattan resident, spends $25,000 a year shopping for little-known designer names at boutiques. Solomon-Turner, of St. Louis, spends about $200 a month on clothing and is waking up to department stores like Macy’s.

Over the past two years, a bevy of retailers have unleashed new retail concepts aimed at the over 35-age group, but their confusion about what makes women like Solomon-Turner and Greenwald tick have led to missed sales targets, store closings and merchandise overhauls.

Gap Inc. is shuttering Forth & Towne, a specialty store chain it launched 18 months ago to cater to women 35 and older. Late last year, children’s clothing retailer Gymboree announced it was closing Janeville, which sold casual clothing to boomers; the company had hoped to create a 400-store chain. And teen retailer American Eagle Outfitters Inc. is reworking women’s fashions at Martin + Osa, its new store aimed at the 25-to-40 age group, after sales were disappointing.

Stores are making a mistake in segregating boomers, said Candace Corlett, principal at WSL Strategic Retail, a retail consultancy.

“The bodies may change but the spirit is a lot slower to change,” she said. “When you move into your 50s, you don’t become less trendy. You may adjust because you have a different body, but it doesn’t mean you abandon the looks you love.”

With stores short on clothes for them, women ages 35 to 54 spent $32.3 billion in the 12 months ended February, according to NPD Group Inc., a Port Washington, N.Y.-based market research firm. That’s up a meager 0.6 percent compared to a year ago, the weakest gain in five years, said Marshal Cohen, chief analyst at NPD.

Even once high-flying Chico’s FAS Inc., which pioneered the retail concept for selling to boomers, has seen its sales stall last year. Chico’s same-store sales, or sales at stores opened a year, averaged a modest 2.2 percent increase during its fiscal 2006 year; in 2005, the average was 14.1 percent. Chico’s is now refreshing its selections, which executives acknowledged had become too stale amid increased competition. Chico’s also operates Soma, a lingerie chain for boomers, and White House/Black Market, which is aimed at a younger end of the boomer spectrum. The average age of the White House/Black Market’s customer is 42, while the average age of Chico’s customer is about 52.

“Women are dynamic creatures. A 50-year-old woman is even more dynamic,” Cohen said. “You can not put the components of what makes a 50-year-old in a box. They have so many interests and points of difference. They are trying to feel younger than ever. There are so many dynamics at work.”