Holiday gift wrapping harder to find in retail stores
But Brookfield’s Von Maur still offers service for its customers
If you’re a shopper who hates to wrap gifts or can’t do it without making the finished package look like a kindergartner’s arts-and-crafts project, the holiday season has become a bit more challenging as free — or even paid — gift wrapping has become more difficult to find at stores.
You might get a free box at a department store checkout desk, but when it comes to wrapping, you’re usually on your own.
That’s why for wrap-dreading shoppers, the customer service room at the new Von Maur department store in the Town of Brookfield might seem like a holiday dream-cometrue.
There, stocked with six styles of seasonal wrapping paper and a generous selection of ribbons, workers will box up and wrap with precision — at no charge — gifts bought in the store by Von Maur shoppers.
“For our customers, it’s a huge deal. It’s part of the reason they shop with us,” said Rana Konkar, a floor manager who oversees customer service for the luxury retailer. “It’s a little extra touch.”
From November through December, Von Maur employees will gift wrap about 70,000 packages at the company’s 32 department stores — not including gift-wrapped items ordered online — and consume a good portion of the 2.2 million feet of wrapping paper the company ordered this year.
In an increasingly do-it-yourself world, that makes Von Maur a throwback.
Von Maur, which opened its first Wisconsin store last spring at The Corners of Brookfield retail-residential development, today is one of relatively few stores that still offer free gift wrapping for customers.
The reason gift wrapping in stores has diminished is simple, said Marquette University marketing professor Syed Akhter: It costs money to provide such service.
At a time when stores are facing increasing competition from online retailers and fewer consumers are visiting shopping centers, many are trying to hold down costs. For some, the expense of adding employees to do the wrapping, plus the paper and other materials, isn’t worth the benefit, Akhter said.
“For the retailer side, it’s not adding great value to the service that they provide,” Akhter said. “But at the same time, it’s also adding a significant amount of cost.”
Retail consultant Anne Brouwer said as retailers have analyzed vari-
ous ways they could trim expenses, services such as gift wrapping — even when done for a nominal charge to customers — probably stood out.
“Given the environment and the difficulty within the department store sector over the last several years, that was probably one of the first things to go,” she said.
However, Brouwer, senior partner at Chicago-based McMillanDoolitte, said Von Maur customers may have come to expect it.
“I suspect that’s one of the areas where Von Maur sees an opportunity to differentiate itself, and their loyal customers are probably taking more advantage of it,” Brouwer said. “And they may have also figured out operationally how to do it effectively, more so maybe than others.”
Von Maur suggests such service is part of its corporate DNA.
“We’re fancy,” said Caryn Lisowski, manager of customer service.
Von Maur hires and trains up to 30 seasonal workers at a store to help wrap gifts during the holiday period, and all customer service employees also know how to wrap. Lisowski said.
“Closer to the holiday we will have about 45-minute waits. That’s how utilized it is,” she said.
While Von Maur is at the top end of the gift wrap service spectrum, there are many levels of service below.
A check of retailers at Mayfair mall indicated department stores such as Macy’s and Boston Store don’t offer gift wrapping.
Nordstrom at Mayfair — also a luxury retailer — wraps only smaller items from its beauty department, such as makeup or fragrances, if a customer requests it. Nordstrom, however, does provide special gift boxes and bags.
“We can package any purchases in our signature silver boxes at any register in the store, boxed with tissue paper and topped with a silver bow, or during the holiday season, customers can also choose a holiday-themed decorative sleeve that matches our holiday decorations,” said Nordstrom spokeswoman Anya Pavlovic.
Generally, designer boxes that can be highlighted with a ribbon and/or a bow increasingly are showing up at retail stores.
Some specialty retailers, such as upscale cooking and dining retailer Williams-Sonoma, will wrap gifts in the store, as will high-end purse merchant Kate Spade, according to employees.
Retailers also may bring in community groups whose volunteers wrap gifts for a donation — a strategy shopping malls themselves have taken. But neither Mayfair nor Brookfield Square will have that type of service available this year. At Southridge Mall in Greendale, a gift wrap service fundraiser will be conducted during peak hours on Saturdays and Sundays near Macy’s, with proceeds going to the South Shore All Abilities Playground, according to the mall’s website.
For those who must wrap but could use some lessons, The Container Store at Mayfair is ready to help. At 1 and 3 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, experts at The Container Store put on gift wrapping demonstrations.
Although all employees at The Container Store learn to gift wrap, “a select few in each store are trained to host our gift wrap and box demos,” said Mara Richter, spokeswoman for The Container Store.
“These bow experts are hand selected because of their passion and expertise in this category,” Richter said.
She said The Container Store has more than 300 gift wraps, and that the company still sells “far more wrap than gift bags.”
“During the holidays, people do take more time to wrap, but we do tend to see gift bag sales ramp up closer to Christmas, probably for those lastminute shoppers,” Richter said.
Many retailers that sell products online offer to gift wrap them for an extra fee. Prices charged for online gift wrapping might allow the retailer to break even on the cost of the service, Brouwer said.
For those who choose to wrap or are forced to, Von Maur’s Lisowski, who has been wrapping gifts for her family from the time she was a girl, has a tip. She said attention to the corners of the package is important to fashioning a well-wrapped present.
“The key thing is to make sure you get the corners nice and crisp,” she said.