Sears Canada will increase its focus on plus-sized womensear. It will initially open five plus-sized shops-in-store of about 4,000 square feet. Much of the new merchandise will be by Penningtons, a plus-size women’s clothing label owned by Reitmans. Pennington’s also has free-standing stores.
The five Canadian Sears stores will pilot the plus-sized womens shops and Penningtons will also be carried on Sears’ website. More Sears plus-sized departments are expected to open nation-wide in 2014.
Penningtons is known for its reasonably priced, quality womenswear which starts at size 14. Sears will be the only Canadian store to carry Penningtons apart from Penningtons free-standing stores.
Sears Canada has started positioning itself as a department store that focusses on suburban and smaller-community customers. Expanding women’s plus-sized offerings may be an intelligent move in an effort to keep existing customers who may no longer fit into some clothing sold by competitors.
