CONFESSIONS OF A FAT GIRL

Plus-Size Apparel Chains Face Growing 'Invisible' Competition

Plus-Size Apparel Chains Face Growing 'Invisible' Competition by Karlene Lukovitz, Friday, Jun 29, 2007 5:00 AM ET THE PLUS-SIZE AND BIG-AND-TALL APPAREL business is booming--precisely the reason that the major specialty chains are vulnerable to a growing but largely "invisible" threat from a host of mainstream retailers. It's not hard to understand why retailers ranging from mass to upscale are looking to increase their share of this market. According to a new study from the Packaged Facts Division of Marketresearch.com, sales of women's/girls' plus-size apparel across all channels reached $47 billion last year, accounting for 27% of all clothing sales and nearly 40% of all women's/girls' apparel sales. Men's/boys' big-and-tall sales reached $29 billion, representing more than 16% of all clothing sales and--believe it or not--50% of all men's/boys' apparel sales. In total, plus-size/big-and-tall sales accounted for 43% of all apparel sales, up nearly a full percentage point from 2005. Between 2001 and 2006, the plus-size and big/tall segments grew by 41% and 40%, respectively, and they're projected to grow by 37% and 47% between 2006 and 2012, to reach $65 billion and $42 billion. That's average growth of 41%, to nearly $107 billion, for the market as a whole. The specialty market is heavily dominated by just a few chains. On the women's/girls' front, Charming Shoppes generated an estimated $2.2 billion in plus-size sales in its most recent fiscal year through Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug, Catherines Plus Sizes and a new intimate-apparel chain launched last year, Cacique. United Retail, Inc. and its Avenue brand runs a distant second (about $462 million in sales). Casual Male Retail Group, with its Casual Male XL and Rochester Big & Tall brands, with $468 million in sales, is the only major player in the big/tall specialty sector. The specialty majors and a plethora of smaller players generated an estimated $12.5 billion in plus-size sales and $7.1 billion in big/tall sales last year--nearly $20 billion in total. That means specialty chains have a 26% market share, to non-specialized marketers' 74% share ($56.3 billion in 2006 sales). Most of these non-specialized sales are through mass merchandisers, supermarkets, chain drugstores and department stores, but PF estimates that up to $8.6 billion is generated through direct-sales channels such as mail-order houses, e-tailers and television home shopping. Most important, non-specialty retailers hold that nearly three-quarter share of market while making virtually no effort to promote the availability of larger sizes--in fact, using quite the opposite strategy. PF notes that Wal-Mart in all likelihood sells more plus-size/big-and-tall apparel than any other retailer, and that brands like Ralph Lauren and Liz Claiborne also quietly carry large sizes (up to 22 or 24 women's). In other words, while specialized marketers/brands position on size, non-specialized marketers extend the same brand positioning across all sizes. "It's easy to see how larger consumers gravitate to non-specialized brands if desired styles are available in plus or big-and-tall sizes," comment the analysts. In fact, they maintain, the specialty channel is to a great degree at the mercy of non-specialized channels and "will only thrive as long as mass retailer-marketers, as a group, seem to ignore larger people's clothing needs." If mass retailers began including more diverse body types in their advertising, as they now include different races and ethnicities, the specialty channel, which is "on the bubble," would suffer greatly, they predict. Because of the increasing competition and the difficulty of predicting how non-specialized retailer-marketers' strategies will play out going forward, PF projects growth for specialty retailer-marketers alone at a "conservative" 20% over the next six years (to reach $23.6 billion). What are specialty chains doing to fight back? While retail sales will always dominate, multi-channel strategies are more critical than ever now. Charming Shoppes already has several catalogs and is launching a Lane Bryant catalog in the fall. Both Charming Shoppes and United Retail report double-digit percentage growth in e-commerce (in fact, UR reported 52% growth for fiscal 06), and both are continuing to invest in online infrastructure and organization. Like apparel marketers of all kinds, plus-size marketers are analyzing the performance of their sites and are particularly drawn to the measurability of online search and affiliate marketing, says Denise Zimmerman, president and chief strategic officer for NetPlus Marketing, which numbers Lane Bryant among its clients. "There's a huge opportunity for those who are willing to add a slight level of risk, by introducing targeted online branding and image elements, like display and rich media ads" to the marketing mix, she adds. PF sees major opportunities for all marketers of larger-size clothing in the undertapped teens and tweens markets and urges upscale brands to rethink their "hidden" agendas. "The upscaling of the plus-size/big-and-tall clothing market has lagged well behind the same trend in mainstream clothing market," they note. "If marketers can overcome the idea that big body size should not be associated with their famous elegant brands, there is money to be made." The growing presence of digital measuring kiosks (DMKs) in retail stores could benefit specialty stores but is more likely to make it easy for mainstream stores to compete. Small manufacturing runs of large sizes are cost-prohibitive, but DMKs could enable custom-tailored, on-demand orders of stylish, branded clothing, points out PF.

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Week 2: Check!

Well, this week was not the massive success I had last week but it wasn't all bad. Frankly, after eating like a pig on Sunday, I expected to gain half my loss back. So I will take the .6 lb. loss I got today. I will take it and add it to my tally. And now I have lost 11.4 pounds in 2 weeks which, really, isn't bad at all!

This weekend was tough, though, with fun social type events, a lunch date, and a trip to Dodger Stadium. I know this won't be happening every weekend but it makes me nervous. I'm a social girl and I like to be out and about. I like to dine out! I like to be with my friends. So I am just going to have to come up with solutions to these situational problems. I refuse to sit on my ass for fear cheese and crackers will be too tempting.

Anyway, Thursday night, I will be taking a little walk should anyone like to join me. It won't be til after dark and it may take me to Aroma for a water or something. I feel like having a destination will drive me a little more. Even if I have to pay five bucks for a Vos bottle.

So now... On with week 3!

A Letter on Behalf of my Hips

Dear Dodger Stadium,

I have a bone to pick with you!

Damn you and your unrealistic little seats. With your hard, cold, metal armrests that cut into my sides and leave  me bruised the next morning. Look here, stadium people, I may be heavy but I am not  morbidly obese. And I could fit into a normal chair and I am even be tolerably uncomfortable in Staples Center. But put me in those tiny Dodger seats, coupled with the girl beside me being larger than I am, and what we have are the makings of really horrible seating. It's not for the likes of me. At a concert, you stand a lot and this made it better but I will not be coming to a game there in my current size, for fear sitting in the hor sun, being squeezed in by your horrid seating might ruin me. The girl beside me kept apologizing and we both know it is not her fault. It forced me to keep myright arm around my friend most of the night when we were seated and frankly, I like my friend Jessica but I had no desire to know her in the bliblical sense!

And what, pray tell, is with your concessions? Where is a pseudo-healthy alternative? At Staples, you can get a salad or some grilled soft tacos. They have caramel apples but at least it's an apple! You can even bring in your own food and they tend to let that slide. But you can forget bringing in your own food at Dodger Stadium, you facist small-seating nazis. So what is supposed to be your healthy alternative? Carl's Jr.? Panda Express Orange Chicken? Dodger Dogs or Gordon Biersch Garlic Fries? Malts or ice Cream Sandwiches? And while I'm at it, fuck you for your $5 bottles of water and your $4.75 "large" soda. Up yours for your $13 CPK mini-pizzasthat you run out , $10 beer, $20 parking of and your lack of napkins. Grrrrr....

And if you could PLEASE rennovate your digusting murky bathrooms, I would be much obliged. The smells, the muddy ground, the leaking pipes... it's enough to keep me from drinking anything 24 hours in advance of being in your park.

Summer's Always Tough on the Big Girls

Would you be shocked to learn that fat people sweat more?

No, I didn't think so.

Look, let's be totally honest. Having extra weight on your body earns you extra skin. And thus, you end up with folds and creases where God did not intend them. The back, the armpits, the waist... Don't scrunch your nose at me, mister; it's not any easier to talk about it than it is for you to read about.

So showering takes some extra care - to make sure you wash everywhere and subsequently, wash off everywhere. Drying off takes a little extra time cause who wants to put their clothes on and find they missed a spot? Ever had a rash from soap you didn't catch? It sucks. Ever find a pimple in a weird place? On your arm? Your... knee?

(Yes, I found a pimple on my kneecap. However, this is not due to fat. This is God being cruel. I promptly said b'bye to odd pimple which, I pray, I shan't be visited by again. I am only telling you this to be funny. It does not strengthen my point.)

Anyway - where was I?

Try sleeping in the Summer when you're overweight. My God, people, it's horrible. I wake up every morning tangled up in whatever structure I put my pillows in so I could be comfortable the night before. Because maybe if I lay just so.... I won't be as hot, I won't sweat as much, and I won't feel like a total heffer. The heat is not kind.

In the morning, the shower is a wonderful way to relax, even if only for 6 minutes, but then the cycle begins again....

The Night Hell Froze Over

There is tofu in my sensible microwave meal by Jenny. And it doesn't suck!

Holy hell. Miracles do happen.

Heading Into Week 2

So it seems I have laughed in the face of pratical medicine.

Today was my first weigh-in at Jenny Craig and..... drumroll please.... I have lost 10.8 pounds.

TEN POUNDS! Ridiculous, right? I mean, I made her wait half an hour and weigh me again because I don't think it's physically or medically possible to drop 10 pounds in 7 days. But the scale showed the same reults, down to the decimal, both times I weighed in. And it's possible, I suppose, that the woman last week made an error but I've been thinking back on it and I just don't think she did.

So really, I have lost over 10 pounds. Which is amazing and awesome and it just totally recharges me to wanna try even harder.

For lunch today I had the most delicious Jenny Craig Pesto Pizza and a side of raw veggies. Oh, and the apple I decided to save from my mid-morning snack. I am STUFFED!

And it feels great!!!

I got some photos for you....

This tall, lanky blonde was signing up while I was waiting for my counselor. I mean, WTF, man? I think it's horrendous for skinny people to show up at places like this and pay to drop 5 pounds. Hag.

This is Denise, my counselor. She's my angel. She took one look at that scale and was as stunned as I was. It was hilarious.

MECCA.

So The World Isn't Made for Fatties

On Saturday night, yet another reminder of the size of my ass, ladies and gentlemen.

It's not too horrible to go to a concert but shit, if I wanna sit down, t's horrible. First of all, I am worried that I am crowding the people on either side of me. And I don't know what's worse- if those people are my friends or if they're strangers. I am worried about my knees knocking into the back of the head of whomever is in front of me. I am, most likely, pouring off the sides of my seat, because I just don't fit in there like I should. Arm rests? A real bitch because they cut into my side. I can't keep my soda in the cup holder in front of me cause I need the space for my legs. And so I chugged it so that I could just drop the empty cup on the ground under my seat.

And I still managed to have fun, by the way. I would hate for you to think I didn't.

It does make one wonder, though, what people larger than I have to do to sit down at Staples Center.

Tonight at dinner, by the way, it priavtely amused me that I put my napkin in my lap. Food never makes it past my boobs and I don't know why I bother, except that I suppose decorum dictates I do so.

This is not unlike school, where I do not fit comfortably in the desks. I think so much so at this point that I just dread attending Summer classes (in the Fall and Spring, we're in the Comm building where the facilities are far nicer and far, far more comfy). But anyway, they are these little black folding chairs where the desk comes up from one of the armrests and folds over your lap. A skinny person can do it, I'm sure. But I have to drag over an additional chair/desk and use the desk from it so that I do not have to suffocate myself. It angers me every time but how do you fix that immediately? You can't. I'm done being humiliated by having to do this, however, as this blog has completely freed me of caring for some reason.

I shall now continue to enjoy my Jenny Craig Veggie Bruschetta chips. Not their best item, but tolerable for a late night munch.

Day 1

I would first like to thank everyone. Your support has been overwhelming and wonderful and immensely flattering. It's making what I am doing so easy. My friends rule.

Today has become increasingly more challenging but truth be told, it was not as hard as I thought it would be.

Yesterday, after work, I went to Trader Joes and bought all the produce and dairy that Jenny does not supply. It was sort of fun. I'd pick up an item, check it off, and repeat. It was rather gratifying. I never make lists for the store, I just cruise the aisles and take what I need.

For breakfast today, I had banana almond crunch cereal and a cup of strawberries. The cereal, which I had with nonfat milk, was delicious! Really! My mid-morning snack was a peach which I have decided is the most beautiful fruit. Doesn't it remind you of a sunset? I forgot my snack bar thing so I screwed myself there but I was STARVING for lunch. With my boss' hankering, it took me an hour to get through my small salad and my marvelous turkey burger.

Mid afternoon: carrot sticks, slice of low-fat cheese.

I don't remember what's in store for me for dinner but I'm sure it will also be shockingly delicious.

Day one? Conquered. I feel triumphant and ready to take on the world. It's utterly bizarre.