• by Sarah Mahoney , Staff Writer @mahoney_sarah, October 16, 2024

Harry & David, famous catalog merchants of Moose Munch and Royal Rivera pears, is back in the physical retail game, opening six pop-up shops in Macy’s. The company, owned by 1-800-Flowers, closed most of its stores during the 2020 pandemic. It hopes the move will help it connect with customers who are already familiar with the tower-of-treats gift-basket brand -- and also make some new friends.

The step back into brick and mortar retail comes as the company battles declines in gift-giving as consumers cut back on discretionary spending. In its most recent quarter, the company says revenue in gourmet foods and gift baskets fell 13% to $105.2 million. Greg Sarley, Harry & David’s senior vice president of merchandising, tells Retail Insider what the company hopes to learn from the pop-up experiment.

Interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Retail Insider: Harry & David is best known as a catalog company. Why go back into physical retail now?

Greg Sarley: If you look back on our history, we had as many as 150 stores in the early 2000s. At the beginning of the pandemic, we decided to exit all remaining brick-and-mortar stores to focus on our ecommerce business.

My background is in physical retail -- I started at Harry & David as a store manager in 2000. I’ve always loved stores, and the idea with these pop-ups is to add another touchpoint, allowing our customers to experience the brand in a more interactive way. They can pick up the product, see it, and do a little sampling. It will help us reconnect with customers in ways they haven't been able to in a long time.

Retail Insider: Is the primary hope that you’ll remind people of what Harry & David is all about? Or is it meeting newer, younger audiences?

Sarley: Both. In conjunction with Macy's, we've picked the locations that made the most sense for both of us. These pop-ups are all chosen from Macy’s top 50 stores in the New York and Los Angeles metros. We already have a lot of fans there, and we can market to them and drive them into those stores. Macy's is a good partner for us, and we've had a wholesale relationship with them for years and years. This seems like a no-brainer for two iconic brands to team together.

Retail Insider: Who is your audience?

Sarley: We’re typically targeting women in their 50s, with a little more disposable income, and customers looking to elevate a gifting experience. They are also buying something for themselves. Maybe they're trying out the brand with a bag of truffles or a jar of relish.

But as we move toward the post-Black-Friday period, [these pop-ups] will become gifting hubs. People like to give gifts in person: the bus driver, the teacher, the close friend. The assortment is fairly tight, but we’ve put our best foot forward. People will have a lot of options, given the square footage. We've never done a shop-within-a-store before, so we thought this was a good way to put our toe back in the water. Macy’s is in a period of exploration, too, and is looking to give customers more options with pop-up shops like this one.

Retail Insider: What do you hope to learn?

Sarley: This is a chance to figure out a way to give the customer a representative view of what we're all about. We don’t have a lot of refrigeration in these shops, so that’s a limitation. But we have our Royal Riviera pears and other iconic products, like pepper and onion relish.

Retail Insider: How will you market these?

Sarley: We’re working with Macy’s on that. Once we get them all opened, we'll market to our existing customers within those markets and do online advertising for people who aren't in our current file.

Retail Insider: What kind of results are you expecting from these pop-ups?

Sarley: This is about driving brand awareness and meeting customers where they are. In that sense, it's advertising but also providing an experience, giving them different ways to interact with the brand.

Christmas is when we shine and are the most relevant in customers' lives. Layering in physical retail makes a good, complementary approach to our online business. Even if people don’t buy something from the shops, they’ll see them. And just like seeing a TV ad, you’ve put an impression in their mind. We expect them to browse initially, then buy more later as the gift-giving season heats up. It's that omnichannel approach, merging both a D2C and in-person experience.

Sales aren’t the only important thing. Ultimately, we’re looking for awareness. These shops are billboards for the brand, so we’ll track lift. We don’t just want customers for this season but to plant that seed and continue to grow with them in the future.

We think the stores look fantastic, and even as we’ve been setting up, it’s made me smile to see how customers respond as they see our name.