The Bon adding features, new look.

Byline: ED RUSSO The Register-Guard

CORRECTION (ran 11/08/02): The last name of Rosina Catanzarite of Leaburg was misspelled in an article in Thursday's Business section

SHOPPING CARTS at The Bon Marche?

What's next? Senior-citizen greeters at the door of Meier & Frank?

The second idea may not happen, but Eugene's The Bon on Tuesday introduced carts for customers.

It may seem strange for upper-end The Bon to offer carts. After all, shopping-baskets-on-wheels are standard at big-box discount stores. But The Bon and other department stores are struggling against lower-priced rivals.

The Bon in Valley River Center is one of only 11 stores nationally owned by Federated Department Stores Inc. that was selected to see how the shopping carts go over. The Eugene store was the only one out of 49 Bons picked for the trial.

Federated hopes customers will buy more if they have a cart to fill, instead of being limited by the carrying capacity of their arms and bags.

The Bon has changed other things, too, that make it more like a discount store.

Until recently, the store had 22 checkout stands tucked away here and there over its two floors. The number has been slashed to 13, including large stands with multiple cash registers at the store's three main entrances.

Curtis Diama, The Bon's Eugene manager, said customers complained in surveys that check out stands in different departments were too crowded, so getting rid of some made sense.

With centralized check-out stands at the doors, customers can wait until they are done shopping to make purchases, he said. Plus, having fewer checkout stands frees sales people to help more customers on the floor, Diama said.

The store also has introduced price-tag-reading devices throughout the store. Shoppers can swipe a price tag under a bar code scanner to get the latest regular and sale prices.

"This is our reinvent strategy," Diama said. "We want to simplify the shopping experience for our customers."

With fewer check-out stands to track sales in individual departments, The Bon has done away with commissions for many of its salespeople, replacing it with team-based incentive bonuses, Diama said. While some salespeople in such departments as cosmetic and shoes still get commissions, sales staff in other departments are organized into teams that can qualify for bonuses if they meet sales, service and new credit card account goals.

With all this change, can cheaper prices be far behind?

"Pricing has nothing to do with it," Diama said. "We have brands that customers want, that discount retail does not carry."

How will shoppers react?

Before she went into The Bon on Wednesday, Diana Avalos of Leaburg said she would use a shopping cart only if it was smaller than the ones at Target or Kmart.

"There wouldn't be enough room in the aisles" for carts that size, she said, not to mention using an elevator to move between floors

The Bon's carts resemble large baby strollers. With a child's seat built into the handle, and a collapsible mesh shopping basket, the carts are narrower and not as long as a typical grocery cart.

Surveying the cart, Avalos, who was shopping with her mother, Rosina Cantanzarite, said she would be willing to use one on subsequent trips. The cart might even lead her to buy more, she said.

The Bon is not the only Valley River Center department store to change its layout.

Earlier this year, J.C. Penney consolidated many of its check-out stands into fewer but more comprehensive customer service counters.

Jim Trench, J.C. Penney's Eugene manager, said department stores are trying to help time-strapped customers quickly find and buy what they want.

Department stores are borrowing a page from retailers such as Kohl's, Trench said. Kohl's is a Wisconsin-based apparel and housewares chain that uses shopping carts and arranges merchandise in circular, racetrack-style layouts.

Trench said he would not be surprised to see shopping carts at J.C. Penney some day.

Meanwhile, Ron Reichenberger, manager of Valley River Center's Meier & Frank, on Wednesday visited The Bon to see what the competition was up to. Carts and centralized check-out stands might end up at Meier & Frank, he said, though he had not heard of any plans.

"Service is always the issue," Reichenberger said.

As he headed back to his store, Reichenberger couldn't resist giving Diama, one of his friendly rivals, a hard time. "Where's the cereal department?" he asked.

Retail Notebook runs on Thursdays.

CAPTION(S):

THOMAS BOYD / The Register-Guard Diana Avalos (right) and her mother, Rosina Cantanzarite, check out the new carts at The Bon Marche store at Valley River Center. Another recent change shoppers will notice are large check-out stands with multiple cash registers near the store's three main entrances. "This is our reinvent strategy. We want to simplify the shopping experience for our customers." CURTIS DIAMA The Bon's Eugene manager