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American Morning
A Look at How Lands' End Fills Holiday Orders
Aired December 11, 2001 - 07:53 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: These two weeks before Christmas, a peek at the catalog season. If you're ordering anything from Lands' End, we're going to show you how Santa's helpers process and fill that order.
Our own Jeff Flock is standing by at the mail order fulfillment center in Dodgeville, Wisconsin to give us a little tour and gauge the buying mood this year -- good morning, Jeff. Have you done all of your shopping in the last five minutes?
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I would imagine I will get it done by the time we leave here today. Perhaps you can see the people that have already done their shopping. Take a look at this. This is all of the stuff that's already been bought and paid for, and it's now on its way. Here's a nice little fleece pack (ph) -- all sorts of things out here today.
I want to give you a quick buzz through this catalog fulfillment center. First, to the big room, where it all comes in from the manufacturers, they store it in a massive room. As I said, it's -- I'm told it's the biggest room in all of Iowa County, Wisconsin, about 65 feet tall, those bins in there. Then it comes to areas, where people can actually get their hands on it. Pickers take it off the shelves when the order comes in, and throw it on conveyor belts.
Then it comes up here to where I'm standing with a guy named Matt, who is one of the people who gets thrown into the fray here. I see you've got -- what does it say -- SWAT team on you there? What the heck does that mean?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: SWAT (UNINTELLIGIBLE) workers at any time.
FLOCK: That means you do whatever they tell you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pretty much.
FLOCK: Yes. How is it this Christmas season, pretty busy?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's as busy as other ones.
FLOCK: Maybe I'll let you get back to work. I know you got stuff flying past you, and I don't want you to be like Lucy Ricardo there. You know, I want to give you some perspective, Paula, on how big this operation is. Catalogers -- if you look at the top catalogers in the country, when you throw out the office supply catalogs and the computer ones, J.C. Penney, the top cataloger, Federated Department Stores, No. 2, Spiegel, Bryant Lane and then Lands' End is No. 5.
The other piece of perspective we want to give you is on consumer sentiment this year. You know, they always ask consumers at the beginning of Christmas whether they expect to spend more or less, the same. The number this year: 56 percent say they will spend the same or more. That's a little bit down. I've got Lori Lease with me, who supervises this whole area as this stuff piles up here. What kind of a Christmas is this? Give us a real sense for the pulse?
LORI LEASE, OPERATIONS MANAGER, LANDS' END: Well, this time of year, it's always busy for us. It's one time a year, where we really are churning out the work. As you can see, things are happening there very fast for us.
FLOCK: Have you got enough merchandise? I know a lot of people have talked about, you know, we don't -- they have bought less merchandise this year, because they're concerned.
LEASE: Actually, we're not in that situation. It's fortunate enough for us that we were ahead of the game and bought a lot of merchandise, so that we could service our customer.
FLOCK: Good deal. And the last thing -- this is the busiest week of the year for all of this. Are you up to the task?
LEASE: We are. We are skilled and ready to go. At this time of the year, we have to be ready.
FLOCK: Lori Lease, I'm going to let you get back to work. And I'll tell you, I'm looking here (UNINTELLIGIBLE) I'm going to get in the way here. They've got some beautiful fleece material. We've got some stuff for underwear. We've got all sorts of things.
Lands' End, the catalog, this is where it all comes through, and we will, throughout this day on CNN, be giving an up close and personal. Next hour, perhaps we'll give you a peek in there, the place where, if you'd like it, they'll monogram your whatever item. I think there are a couple of items with the name Paula on it over there. We'll take a look at that in about two hours' time, Paula -- back to you.
ZAHN: Well, Jeff, that would be a miracle in my household, because we all procrastinate. So if they're that far ahead of the game, I am one happy woman, Jeff. Thank you. You know, it's amazing that these folks...
FLOCK: (UNINTELIGIBLE).
ZAHN: It's amazing that they can process 60 of these orders per hour. We were watching a man in a moss-green shirt. It looks like his hands must move about 50 miles an hour there -- a lot of intensive labor going on there.
FLOCK: You said it.
ZAHN: See you in the 9:00 o'clock hour -- thanks, Jeff.
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