Stores Specialists Inc

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MUJI opens its’ 1st store in Manila tomorrow, October 16!

Posted by Norman on October 15, 2010
Posted in: 2 Shout-out-Looks. Tagged: , , , .

I discovered Muji – quite by accident – during my last trip to Taipei. I was inside the high-end Pacific Sogo Department Store looking for a blouse for my mom and couldn’t find an appropriate one. And as I was all ready to give up and move to another place, I found myself staring at a bright logo that spelled MUJI. It looked like a big store inside the store. Curiosity took over and I entered the same to my pleasant surprise. What a cool shopping environment filled with all sorts of stuff that kept me busy for at least an hour. There are shirts and pants, footwear, dresses, bags, stationery items, pens, organizers, boxes, home accessories, furnitures pieces, etc.

A representation of items available at Muji stores.

More Muji items to crave for

One of Muji's bestsellers - the neck cushion for the long-haul traveler.

And yet more Muji items to choose from!

There’s really a lot of cool items to check out in any Muji store. You can very easily kill time in one and I’m sure that you won’t leave without buying at least one goodie. And I’m just too happy that I can get some of my holiday gifts from them.

Stores Specialists, Inc. is bringing Muji to Manila. The first store – at Block 7 of Bonifacio High Street near Gap – will formally open to the public tomorrow, October 16. Actually, the place is ready today – with two shopping parties scheduled – one for the press and another one for 200 invited guests. A second store, located at Rockwell Power Plant Mall, will follow soon after.

Ok, dear readers, let’s troop to Muji tomorrow! 😉

Payless Shoe Source to have its first RP stores in 2010

Posted by Norman on December 19, 2009
Posted in: 2 Shout-out-Looks. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

As if Shoemart and the endless numbers of boutiques and department stores in the Philippines are not enough, here comes another new player entering the market. Payless Shoe Source, the popular footwear chain in the U.S., will be opening its 1st batch of stores in Manila come 2010.

Stores Specialists, Inc., which is the exclusive franchise owner of world-renowned brands like Gucci, Ferragamo, Cartier, Nina Ricci and the like, will spearhead the launching of Payless Shoe Source in the country.

Here is the report:

Payless Shoes Opening First Stores in the Philippines

Dec. 1 (Bloomberg, Lauren Coleman-Lochner and Allison Abell Schwartz) — Collective Brands Inc., the Kansas owner of several footwear chains, will bring its first Payless Shoe Source stores to the Philippines next year.

The retailer will open in as many as seven locations in the country within the next 12 months, Chief Executive Officer Matthew Rubel said today during a telephone interview. Collective Brands is working with a franchise partner, Stores Specialists Inc., based in the Philippines.

The move marks the next stage of international growth for Collective Brands, which will also expand the number of stores it operates in the Middle East and open in Russia next year, Rubel said. Shoes are a category on which consumers in emerging markets tend to spend as their incomes increase, and Filipino consumers already have “high footwear consumption,” he said.

“When we look at the consumer in that marketplace, and we look at the competitive set, we don’t believe that anybody is delivering style, price and quality, and so we believe that there’s a unique opportunity for this to be a material business,” Rubel said.

He estimated that the Philippine market might support as many as 80 stores. The shoe retailer is also looking at other emerging countries in Asia, Rubel said, declining to specify.

Store Specialists manages 72 brands and 340 stores in the Philippines, including Gucci Group NV and Zara. Payless has more than 4,500 stores in North and South America and the Middle East.

Collective Brands, based in Topeka, Kansas, rose 66 cents, or 3.4 percent, to $20 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have gained 71 percent this year.

The retailer will report third-quarter earnings tomorrow.

Good luck to Payless as they penetrate the shoe market in the Philippines!