Bloomie’s, the fledgling scaled-down specialty version of the Bloomingdale’s full-line department stores, will open its fourth location in Shrewsbury, N.J., on Nov. 14.
The upcoming 20,000-square-foot Bloomie’s is opening inside The Grove shopping center and will be a women’s-only format with a curated collection of contemporary ready-to-wear, accessories, shoes, handbags, sunglasses, beauty and fine jewelry. The new Bloomie’s will also have a grab-and-go version of Forty Carrots. The restaurant is famous for its frozen yogurt and is situated inside Bloomingdale’s 59th Street flagship.
Among the brands that will displayed at Bloomie’s in Shrewsbury includes Mother, Veronica Beard, Rag & Bone, Cinq à Sept, L’Agence, Staud, Tory Burch, Chanel Beauty, Charlotte Tilbury and Roberto Coin.
In August 2021, the first Bloomie’s debuted in the 2 million-square-foot Mosaic District shopping center in Fairfax, Va. The concept is a test of Bloomingdale’s ability to innovate and a template for expansion. Bloomingdale’s executives consider Bloomie’s “a fill-in strategy,” meaning it’s a vehicle for strengthening Bloomingdale’s coverage in markets where it already has full-line stores, providing consumers with an alternative, more convenient destination to shop, depending on where they live.
The other two Bloomie’s store are located in the Old Orchard shopping center in Skokie, Ill., and in University Village in Seattle.
Macy’s Inc., the parent of Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s and Bluemercury, has said it intends to have 15 Bloomie’s operating by sometime in 2026. To reach that goal, the corporation will have to pick up the pace of the Bloomie’s openings.
“We remain very bullish about the Bloomie’s concept,” said Rachel Abeles, senior vice president of customer and revenue growth, who oversees the Bloomie’s initiative. “We believe in the power and the importance of great and purposeful physical retail, and to thoughtfully grow our omni-channel business. The small format allows us to continue to innovate on behalf of our customers and create something that is equally convenient and inspiring when it comes to a shopping experience.”
While Bloomie’s in Shrewsbury will be merchandised differently from the other three Bloomie’s locations, Abeles said, “The core of our strategy has remained the same.”
Rachel Abeles
Courtesy image
She said the size and flexibility of the Bloomie’s model increases Bloomingdale’s physical and digital presence in a market. The concept can also be used to enter new markets, as was the case Seattle, at University Village, last year.
“Bloomie’s has proven successful in our core customer engagement metrics — acquiring new customers, converting previously dot-com-only customers [to become store shoppers as well], growing share of wallet from existing customers, and for positive customer feedback on the shopping experience,” Abeles said. She also said Bloomie’s enables shopping centers to expand their brand offerings in ways they would not otherwise be able to. There could be local boutiques that carry some of the same brands as Bloomie’s does in a particular market, “but not at our scale,” Abeles said.
With Bloomie’s, the idea is to “get closer to existing customers and potential Bloomingdale’s customers by becoming more accessible to them in their community,” Abeles said. “Shrewsbury is probably our best example of that. We have a strong presence in the New Jersey market already with well-established doors in Short Hills, Bridgewater, Bergen and Willowbrook, where there is high Bloomingdale’s brand awareness and engagement.” Aside from the presence, Bloomingdale’s also has in outlets in Princeton, and Jersey Gardens in Elizabeth, N.J.
In the Shrewsbury area, Abeles said, Bloomingdale’s has a “valuable, highly engaged customer that was shopping with us, disproportionately on bloomingdales.com and in those other New Jersey stores, most notably Short Hills. But this subset of customers had to drive 45 minutes, at minimum, to get to their closest Bloomingdale’s. So we studied this customer and curated a store just for them. The reason we chose The Grove at Shrewsbury for our fourth Bloomie’s is because the majority of the center’s visits come from within a 10-mile radius. We’re looking to capitalize on what we know about this customer, which has a high appetite for women’s contemporary fashion,” Abeles said.
With each additional Bloomie’s that opens “we continue to evolve aspects of the interior design, and every single store has a slightly different curation of categories, brands and even products within the brands, to make sure that we are catering to the needs and wants of the customers in that market,” Abeles said. “We firmly believe in still having a multicategory, multibrand assortment in every Bloomie’s.”
To encourage visits, Bloomie’s in Shrewsbury will stage a “winter village” with branded activations and gifts, and a holiday bash on Dec. 7.
The Bloomie’s nickname for Bloomingdale’s has been around for decades, believed to be first used on ladies underwear as a novelty item. Briefly in the late 1980s, Bloomingdale’s operated “Bloomie’s Express,” a small shop for Bloomingdale’s logoed merchandise and travel items in Kennedy International Airport. The format never took off. Still, Bloomingdale’s is commonly referred to as Bloomie’s.
The Bloomie’s rollout is part of Macy’s “Bold New Chapter ” strategy, revealed last February. The strategy involves closing about 150 underproductive locations through 2026, including the 55 by the end of the fiscal year; prioritizing investment in about 350 “go-forward” locations, and expanding its small-format store chains. Aside from Bloomie’s, the corporation operates about a dozen scaled down Macy’s stores. There are also a couple of dozen Bloomingdale’s outlets and Backstage off-price units.
