WASHINGTON — Service is a major draw at Wilmington, Del.-based Happy Harry’s Discount Drug Stores, which staffs each location with a trained cosmetician.
“We think we offer a good in-between to department stores and mass merchants,” said Alan B. Levin, chief executive officer and son of the original Harry, during a recent visit to the company’s headquarters. “We offer the service of a department store and the value and selection of a mass merchant.”
Together, cosmetics, fragrances, skin care and hair care products account for about 10 percent of the company’s sales, which reached $107 million in 1993, up about 10.5 percent against 1992.
Merchandise is sold at a 10 percent discount from the suggested retail price.
Each of the 29 Happy Harry’s stores — 26 in Delaware, two in Pennsylvania and one in southern New Jersey — keeps a cosmetician on staff nine hours a day and trains other employees to pinch-hit during odd hours.
Cosmetician trainees get on-the-job experience for one to four months and also participate in vendor training programs.
“The only difference between [our service] and a department store is that we don’t physically apply the makeup,” said Fran Travis, cosmetics merchandiser. Instead, the cosmeticians advise shoppers, design displays and keep their section tidy.
The effort was evident during a recent visit to two stores, where the upside-down lipsticks and powder smudges common in many drugstores were noticeably absent.
Cleanliness is a key factor in keeping customers coming back, since cosmetics is a “look-good, feel-good department,” said Jon E. Rudden, vice president of merchandising.
Valerie Cheyney, the chain’s cosmetic buyer, said Happy Harry’s has experimented with the physical application of products on a small scale, but it did not generate much enthusiasm among customers.
Happy Harry’s maintains relatively heavy staff levels throughout each store. A minimum of six employees is always working at each location, even during slow periods, while other drugstores may have only a cashier and a pharmacist on hand, Levin said. The company employs a total of 825 people, with 740 of those actually working in the stores.
“We just think that’s the only way to do business down here — it’s part and parcel of what we do,” said Levin, who noted he was carrying on the philosophy of his late father. Harry Levin started the business 30 years ago with a 600-square-foot store in Wilmington called Discount Center.
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Flexibility is another key part of the stores’ service orientation, the executives noted. Employees are trained in all the necessary tasks, from ringing up purchases to filling out film-processing envelopes. If a company executive is visiting a store during a heavy business period, such as Christmas, the executive also is expected to pitch in wherever needed, according to Cheyney. “That’s part of the management’s philosophy,” she said.
Happy Harry’s tries to inspire the same customer loyalty as a small-town store by training personnel to be friendly and by keeping each worker in one location so he or she can build relationships with shoppers.
Another “small-town” service Happy Harry’s offers is the special-ordering of hard-to-find products. For example, Happy Harry’s once called around to find Revlon’s Intimate fragrance for a customer two years after the product had been discontinued, Levin said.
“We got her two cases with 36 [2-ounce] bottles each and she’s finished with them already; she used about one [bottle] a week,” he noted.
Although Happy Harry’s dominates Delaware’s drugstore sector, it always is looking for ways to stay ahead of the competition. This year, for example, the company expects to increase its 1993 advertising budget of $850,000 by about 20 percent, to more than $1 million. Most of the growth will be in radio advertising.
The company also has erected purple and yellow billboards featuring its signature caricature of Happy Harry and the message “I’m Just Wild About Happy Harry’s.”
“We felt it was time to remind our customers what our company is all about,” said Rudden, who noted that the company traditionally has relied on newspaper circulars and direct mailings.
The company also tries to keep a high profile by staging frequent promotional events, many in cooperation with vendors. In January, for example, about 700 Happy Harry’s customers signed up for a Revlon promotion called Club Unforgettable.
Participants got free sample gifts and one coupon for each of the next six months offering deals such as $2 off the retail price of a fragrance.
About 10 percent of Club Unforgettable participants are turning in the coupons each month — a very high rate for this type of promotion, Cheyney said.
In addition to the extra business generated, Happy Harry’s now has 700 names and addresses to target with special mailings. Another set of coupons was just made available for the second half of the year.
Not every promotion has a noticeable impact on sales, however. For the current prom season, for example, Happy Harry’s and Almay staged a drawing for prizes that included limousine service, dinner and flowers for the big night.
Although the sign-up sheet was kept on a counter with Almay’s teen cosmetics line, the stores saw little increase in sales. “The teens were more interested in cutting their prom expenses” than buying cosmetics, Cheyney said.
Happy Harry’s also encourages its sales associates to be creative on the selling floor. Particularly appealing displays are rewarded with televisions, dinner coupons and cash bonuses of up to $300.
“This is very popular among our girls,” Cheyney said. “It’s fun, it’s exciting, and they feel like they’re getting something extra.”
The company’s personnel policies appear to inspire loyalty. Cheyney has been with the company for 18 years, after starting as a cashier.
Travis also began as a cashier 22 years ago. Many of the cosmeticians and cashiers have worked with the company for at least 10 years, Cheyney said.
While the look of Happy Harry’s stores varies according to the local income level, Levin said he wants to introduce a slightly more upscale format to compete with department stores, which many shoppers have been leaving for the mass market.
A prototype store set to open in Kenneth Square, Pa., next spring will feature sponge-painted walls. Levin also wants to move cosmetics in all the stores from wall displays to shelving units.
A recent visit to a 9,400-square-foot unit in a middle class section of Wilmington found a clean store and friendly personnel, although narrow aisles, handwritten sale signs, cardboard promotional posters hanging from the ceiling and brown linoleum floors gave it a definite discount look.
The Happy Harry’s that anchors the Branmar Plaza shopping center in a wealthier area of north Wilmington is much more appealing. The 18,000-square-foot former racquetball club — the chain’s largest unit — has a spacious feel and spotless white floors.
However, the cardboard floor displays holding items such as Old Spice cologne and Love’s body mist, as well as myriad plastic shelf displays holding perfume testers, were different from the look of a department store.
Bodycology’s 6-oz. cucumber facial cleanser was priced at $2.99, while Naturistics’ 8-oz. raspberry bath gel was selling for $4.67.
Despite the esthetic differences, Cheyney said she sees more and more customers who have rejected expensive department store brands such as Clinique and Elizabeth Arden.
While cosmetics sales are strong, Cheyney said the time is ripe for a hot, innovative new product in that category. “There hasn’t been a big product that makes a really big boom since no-color mascara,” she said.
Revlon tops the list of lip and nail sales, while the stores also offer Max Factor, Maybelline, Bonnie Bell and Cover Girl. Revlon’s Exotica lip colors “flew off our shelves,” and lip glosses also are popular right now.
While a major presence in its three-state area, Happy Harry’s has a mom-and-pop philosophy when it comes to expansion, with no desire to stray far from its current operating area.
The firm now plans to add two stores in southeastern Pennsylvania and one in Delaware over the next 15 months.
“It’s tough to establish credibility in a new region,” Levin said, “so we step instead of jump.”