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American Morning
Look at Lands' End, Where Busy Little Elves Are Filling Orders
Aired December 11, 2001 - 09:53 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: All right, before we leave you this morning, we just want to remind you, there aren't all that many days left to shop before Christmas, 14 days in all, and in recent years, more shoppers, pressed for time, have turned to catalogs for their gifts.
And we're going to Dodgeville, Wisconsin, where workers at Lands' End are as busy as little elves filling orders.
Our Jeff Flock is there. Earlier this morning, he gave us a look at the sorting and labeling process. Now he has another view of operations. How nice that they will be singing a carol at the time we checked in with you.
Good morning, Jeff.
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I tell you, that's the way it works here in Wisconsin. All is well with the world here at the North Pole, or what approximates it. This is the Lands' End choir actually. These folks gather, they typically do, all sorts of things here at Lands' End. But they during Christmas time get together and serenade their fellow workers. There is a real Christmas spirit here.
We have cameras that are positioned all over this place. This is where your orders came in, where you get the little sticker on them. They go off in these bins, and magically, they wind up somehow in your Christmas stocking.
So I've got Lee Eisenberg here, who is the creative director for Lands' End.
And I've got to ask you Lee, how's business?
LEE EISENBERG, V.P. & CREATIVE DIRECTOR, LANDS' ENDS: Business is a pretty wild, as you might see what's going on around us.
Very good. We had a record third quarter. We got off to a really good start pre-Thanksgiving and through Thanksgiving. And we are going to be announcing our holiday results in about three weeks, but we're pretty pleased.
FLOCK: Now this is three months until September 11th. Did you take a hit at that time, and what's happening now? EISENBERG: Yes, like virtually everybody, we took a pretty serious hit in the days after the tragedy. But I must say, shortly after that, business rebounded and it's pretty healthy right now.
FLOCK: Lee, hang with me here. I tell you, I want to give our viewers some sense of where people will shop. I talk about, you know, whether they shop by catalog. The truth is that most people shop at discount department stores. Survey says 82 percent of the folks shop there, category-dominant stores, about 58 percent, department stores, the classic department stores, about 54 percent, specialty stores, 48 percent, and then the non-store retailers like this, about 48 percent. And one of the things that you can do here is you can get things like your own stocking.
Is that we what we have here. Beth, these stockings?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are doing stockings today.
FLOCK: And in this bag, we've got things for all sorts of people. We've got Caitlyn's (ph) stocking, we've got Abby's stocking, we've got Paula's stocking. Oh, we've got Paula's stocking. No, no kidding. We've got one for Paula. Well, there you go. One of the key things do you is do this personalizing, and that's a fairly big deal.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's very dig deal. They actually our department motto, is we personalize the world for our department.
We just heard from Lee Eisenberg the companies take on this. What's your take? How busy has it been this holiday season?
FLOCK: I really don't know. I just come and I work.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, there's a politics answer. Very good. We will continue to watch it throughout this day here on CNN, and I'm going to be putting this in the UPS, and perhaps, Paula, you can take it home if your husband wasn't together enough to one for you, we are going to get you one here from Dodgeville, Wisconsin.
ZAHN: Oh, you are one smart man, Jeff. Make my day. Thank you.
You know, it's so funny, as I watch you there this morning, I guess we all should know how labor intensive that business is, but until you see how fast and furiously stuff is flying around there, you have no idea how busy it is.
So, Jeff, I'm going to have to figure out what my gift to you is going to be this year. You have given me a head start. Thank you very much. Enjoy the rest of the morning.
FLOCK: Thank you.
ZAHN: Thanks, Jeff.
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