It’s an event that garners worldwide news coverage.
Filene’s Basement’s annual “Running of the Brides,” a premarital free-for-all for wedding dresses at discounted prices, has been featured in local newspapers and even on NBC’s “Today.”
Photographers and cameramen have captured the predatory tactics of the soon-to-be wed, and the event has generated priceless publicity for Filene’s Basement since it began in 1947.
But, according to company CEO Haywood Wilansky, the store doesn’t even see a profit from this hallmark event.
“We don’t make a dime on it – we make a connection with the consumer,” said Wilansky, president and CEO of Filene’s Basement parent company Retail Ventures.
Speaking at Tofias’ 16th Annual Management Conference in Providence late last month, Wilansky said the bridal event has been a key part of the company’s campaign to reconnect with consumers and change its image from a discount retailer with cheap goods to a quality retailer with discount prices.
Wilansky, who was appointed president and CEO of Filene’s Basement in 2003 before being elevated to Retail Ventures, said the company has made a wholesale change of its product selection.
Until the changes began in recent years, Filene’s Basement did not have a suit in its stores that sold for more than $200. Now, with what Wilansky called a “great selection of better brand names,” $200 is the lowest price for a suit, with the higher-end outfits selling for up to $1,000.
Working with international clothing designers such as Gucci and Hugo Boss, the company has added high-fashion designers to its selection, though it maintains familiar names such as Levi’s and Polo. Filene’s Basement has also altered its purchasing strategies.
Under the company’s old way, Wilansky said Filene’s Basement would purchase 10 percent of its products before a season started, with the other 90 percent coming at the supplier’s whim. The practice only caused the company to receive cheap products, ones that, despite the low prices, helped give the stores a bad name, he said.
Now, Wilansky said more than half of the company’s products come at the beginning of the season, a decision that has led to higher quality.
The practices, in addition to generating stronger public relations and advertising campaigns, has helped the company expand, adding six stores in the past three years. Since 2002, the company has gone from $280 million in business annually to $425 million, he said.
Wilansky said the company has not had any difficulty with the recent sale of Filene’s, the department store with a different owner. In fact, he said, the closing has helped Filene’s Basement to separate itself from Filene’s.
