G'day Lee. You asked what we make of the Rivers advertising and...

G'day Lee. You asked what we make of the Rivers advertising and catalogue splurge in June? Clearing out stock before the eofy stocktake, that's all. It's traditional in many forms of retailing. The weekly catalogues in my letter box dried up after eofy, as expected.

Menza, you have a good retail mind. What do you make of this one. We are told that City Chic is in 100 Macy's stores. At last count Macy's had 876 stores. Why are we in only 100? You can't tell me that only 100 of them have a clientele of fat chicks. From my observations fat chicks abound throughout the US.

One conclusion that springs to mind is that City Chic is being tried out in a sample 100 stores and if it measures up then it will be squeezed into more, maybe the lot. How good would that be? Other explanations welcome.

BTW, I have been keeping a keen and critical eye on my local Rivers outlet (Moorabbin Airport) and I have to say I am impressed with the makeover. The shelves and racks are now kept in order. The disinterested, ignorant, teenage shop assistants are gone and have been replaced by a smaller number of more mature human beings who know how to relate to customers.

Lee, I wonder if you have noticed, as I have, that the range of clothing appearing in the catalogues has changed enormously in nature. There has been an obvious decision to appeal to a wider, middle of the road segment of the buying public. Some very subtle work has also gone into the choice of models.