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Friday, November 16, 2001

By Teresa F. Lindeman, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Brakes hiss on the Port Authority bus, then it picks up speed and rolls past people along a nearby sidewalk. Pasted on the dirt-splattered white and red exterior is an elegant pink placard with a stylized pen-and-ink drawing of a woman. The sign says, "Discover the look of Lord & Taylor."

	Lord& Taylor at Fifth Avenue and Smithfield Street, Downtown. (Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette)

The quiet message is easily lost in the bustle of Pittsburgh's traffic. In the year since Lord & Taylor arrived Downtown, the department store's presence has been felt in a similarly restrained way.

If city recruiters were looking for a big bang from the retailer's arrival, they didn't get it. The new neighbor is a bit too much like its sister store, Kaufmann's, to set the town on its ear.

But while Downtown shoppers and merchants brim with suggestions for tinkering with the Lord & Taylor merchandise mix to make it more exciting, the constructive criticism is prefaced with relief that the former Mellon bank building at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Smithfield Street is neither empty nor just keeping bankers' hours anymore.

"There's lights on there -- reasons for people to be Downtown," said Harry Finnigan, the departing executive director of the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership.

Like the rest of the retail industry, city stores are heading into what seems destined to be one of the most difficult holiday shopping seasons in memory. Crowds expected for Light Up Night tonight may be more into Santa than 40-percent-off sales.

The portion who brave the Downtown parking situation to shop for Christmas gifts are likely to swing through the bright lights and wide aisles of Lord & Taylor. It's become part of the tour, as regular Downtown shoppers have figured out how to use the store to stay inside and see more handbags on the trek between Saks Fifth Avenue and Kaufmann's.

Lord & Taylor officials aren't expected to reveal the store's sales results until next spring. That's when the company's lease requires a report to the city's Urban Redevelopment Authority, which helped find the money to make the deal work. It's not clear if that information will be made public.

About $228 million worth of retail sales will likely take place this year within a one-mile radius of the department store, according to market research firm Claritas Inc. By some estimates, the four big department stores combined -- Kaufmann's, Lazarus, Saks and Lord & Taylor -- account for more than $100 million of that.

Neighboring retailers are making use of the industry's shopping bag theory of sales. Lots of bags in the hands of shoppers generally means sales are strong; none is a really bad sign. It's unscientific but can reflect general trends.

The results for Lord & Taylor so far are inconclusive. Nearby men's clothier Larrimor's doesn't report seeing many of the new store's bags. Venetia's City Boutique women's clothing store, at Oxford Centre, saw them early on, but then the numbers fell.

At Backrubs and Bodyworks, perched above all the retail action in its second-floor store at the corner of Fifth and Smithfield, owner Doug Croft's bag count is more encouraging. "To me, I think they're doing as much or more business than Lazarus." He's about a half-block from Lazarus, but a number of those shoppers pass by on their way to the other three department stores.

In the fiscal year ended Feb. 3, Lazarus reported sales of $21.7 million for its 251,000 square-foot Downtown store. Lord & Taylor has only 135,000 square feet, so the same amount of sales would be worth more per square foot.

Saks, for one, is happy to have another major store nearby that is aiming for a rather upscale clientele. Lord & Taylor has brought in new customers, said Alison Strieder Mayher, general manager. "On Saturdays, we really notice with people who are shopping in both of our stores.

"We can see the bags. We're very pleased."

Mayher said Saks doesn't see itself as a direct competitor because the two carry different lines.

That fits the perception of shoppers and retailers, too. If there's an observation that comes up consistently in casual conversations, it's that the New York-based arm of May Department Stores with the classy reputation should bring more of those Manhattan fashion sensibilities to Pittsburgh.

Many of the same brands -- Nautica, Tommy Hilfiger, Estee Lauder, Jones New York -- can be found at Lazarus and at the other May division, Kaufmann's. But the other two run more sales and heavy promotions.

"To me, Lord & Taylor is still the May Co.," said Richard Istvan, manager of the Joseph A. Bank Clothiers store at the corner of Smithfield and Oliver streets. "I don't think it's that different."

Executives for the retailer already are trying to change that.

May Chief Executive Officer Gene S. Kahn noted at the company's annual meeting this spring that efforts are ongoing to reposition Lord & Taylor's merchandise. He also said the Pittsburgh store's interior design would be used as a prototype for future stores.

There's no easy way to measure whether the new department store has increased the number of people walking through Downtown, but that may be possible by this time next year.

The Downtown partnership this year hired a pedestrian count expert to do a baseline check for the retail area as well as the streets near the closed-for-renovations David L. Lawrence Convention Center.

Staff hired to sit on sidewalks and click whenever anyone walked by found 15,000 people passing through the Smithfield block in front of Kaufmann's. That was on a midweek day between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m.

During the same time period, 11,000 pedestrians were counted on Fifth below Wood Street, and also on Forbes below Smithfield. About 8,000 passed the clickers on Market Street between Liberty Avenue and Fifth.

"I was surprised, because your stores are not that big," said Peter Bruce, of Pedestrian Studies/Community Enhancement in Minneapolis. "You've got a lot of traffic even without a lot of retail."

Once the convention center is complete, Bruce said, the idea would be to use the pedestrian information to help create visual gateways to encourage people to walk from one area to the other. The gateways might be big bright signs touting the nearby stores or other attractions.

Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy sees Lord & Taylor as just another piece of the Downtown puzzle that hasn't yet been completed. He'd rather not see people try to judge the success of the department store just yet.

"I think the rush to the sort of 100-day, the year assessment is probably not fair," said Murphy, who took shots from his opponents in the mayoral race this year over his support for expensive developments Downtown.

Post-Gazette staff writer Dan Fitzpatrick contributed to this story.