Reinventing one’s retail equity

For all my life, whenever I’ve thought of the Philippines and premium retail, our version of England’s Harrod’s or the US’s Neiman or Saks, I would always think Rustan’s and the Tantoco family. For high-end retail, for luxury shopping, no other department store comes close. And as Ayala Land began stretching its horizons, putting up malls in new and developing areas, it would only be natural for the real estate developer to turn to the Tantocos to partner and put up anchor stores for these developments. And it’s from thinking such as this that I surmise the marriage of strategic convenience came about, and SIAL’s Wellworth was born. For the joint venture, we have SSI, being the Tantoco-owned Stores Specialists Inc.; and AL referring to the division of Ayala Land that comes up with the malls.

Recently, I witnessed the very first Wellworth store opening, situated at AL’s Fairview Terraces. It’s four floors of well-appointed retail space, marked by quality merchandise pegged at very attractive and reasonable price points. And yes, I know how we put a pejorative slant on terms such as budget, discount, or disposable, pronto fashion; and the layout of Wellworth belies the impression that this would be the haven for this retail niche. Rather, what we have is a unique proposition that allows the SSI/Rustan’s Group to maintain its equity, with no dilution; and come up with a new retail concept that makes full use of its expertise, while making the concept be one far better suited for the areas the company and Ayala have forged.

As Anton T. Huang explained, Wellworth was a concept section within Rustan’s way back then, and as they bandied new names around, it was the name that kept reappearing as a favorite. So it’s the Rustan’s experience given a new veneer, rechristened for a specific market niche.

As an anchor store in a mall, Wellworth is a shopper’s paradise — and from what I gathered, the new Ayala developments by the UP area, the Nuvali area, and in time, BGC, have already been earmarked for future Wellworth sites. In fact, fashionable UK apparel brands such as F&F are exclusively carried at Wellworth.

Hosted by Issa Litton, the formal opening of Wellworth at the Fairview Terraces saw both Jaime and Fernando Zobel joining Anton Huang during the festivities. Good friends, the three in fact left the day after the launch for their yearly two-wheel road trip. And back at Fairview, all shopping roads were leading to Wellworth...the trip!

Sparkling comedy

The three novels today showcase the range of contemporary literary comedies; with the humor varied but consistently bright and engaging. Faulks gives us an homage to PG Wodehouse, while Smith takes on modern media and authorship. The Kenney novel is a slice of modern life, via the world of advertising.

Jeeves and the Wedding Bells by Sebastian Faulks (available at Kinokuniya) A tribute to PG Wodehouse, Faulks wonderfully takes on the balancing act of showing healthy respect on one hand, while still giving us something fresh and readable on the other hand. This is similar in exercise to how William Boyd paid homage to Ian Fleming, and recently gave us Solo, a new Bond novel. Naturally, this outing is about Bertie and Jeeves, and we can thank our lucky stars that Faulks has provided us with a new, hilarious adventure. This time, the story centers on finding true love, and how the yearning for this can result in hilarious complications, including role reversal — as in Bertie plays butler to a Jeeves impersonating a Lord. A truly rewarding read.

Raw by Mark Haskell Smith (available at Amazon.com) This one is a classic Haskell Smith road trip, where laugh-out-loud passages, and moments where one’s mouth is left hanging in naughty astonished wonder, are guaranteed. The premise is a hoot: reality star hunk Sepp is on a book tour, for a memoir/novel that was ghostwritten, and is now earning critical praise — plus it doesn’t hurt that his book fans are mostly women and he’s so ready to go topless at every bookstore. Harriet is a serious star in the literary blogosphere, and can’t believe the reception Sepp’s book is earning, out to prove he couldn’t have written the book, and calling it symptomatic of the decline of Western culture. The kind of set-up where Smith’s humor and sense of irony can go wild!

Truth in Advertising by John Kenney (available at Fully Booked) What starts off as a wry, engaging behind-the-scenes look at the world of advertising — true creativity versus “it’s a job” — elevates to a deeper read, thanks to the very human situations and humanizing vignettes that dot the landscape of this wonderfully written novel. Fin is moving up in the advertising agency he works in, thanks to a great work attitude that realizes that in his world “there is no such thing as a lie, just the expedient exaggeration.” His relationship with his estranged father and siblings take a toll on his professional life when the father gets seriously ill. With healthy doses of rich, cynical humor and incidents of self-realization, this novel aspires and succeeds in giving us more.