Have Lands’ End and Sears Finally Gotten it Right? Almost.

Bottom line, according to Mom Harris, was the cute presentation of the gift card. “This is one of the best ideas I’ve seen,” she told me. “It’s the cuteness of the little bag and key chain that made me want to do it.”

By the way, one of the best- (or worst-?) kept secrets is the reason it took Sears so long to finally establish Lands’ End departments in its stores that truly carried out the flavor of Lands’ End. An unnamed source told me that when Sears bought Lands’ End in the spring of 2002, Sears stores recently had undergone a companywide renovation. Renovating the stores all over again to make way for Lands’ End was out of the question at the time. Thus, the end result was the smattering here and there of Lands’ End products that wound up looking like an afterthought on the part of Sears store designers and merchandisers.