One On One: J&R's Jason Friedman

By John Laposky On Feb 28 2012 - 10:27pm

NEW YORK – J&R executive VP Jason Friedman sat down with TWICE to discuss the retailer’s latest “super boutique,” J&R Jr., on the day of its grand opening.

Friedman: TWICE. I love you guys. It’s interesting that you want to cover this. I’m really glad.

TWICE: Well, we recently returned from CES and saw a lot of kids stuff and baby technology. Seems like a natural direction to go.

Friedman: Yes, I went to CES specifically to see all the cool kids stuff. It was clear we were onto something with this.

TWICE: Have you had much experience in this market? Obviously J&R sold some kids stuff. Did you have to bring someone in from the kids market for this?

Friedman:Yes. We brought is some people who had some experience in this market, both locally and nationally, and also relied on our team’s experience here at J&R. We have been selling Leapfrog and VTech stuff, for example. The LeapPad was our hottest seller at Christmas time. That was kind of our foray into it. Plus we have a lot of kid’s musical instruments, video games and, of course, DVDs and CDs, so that was the core foundation and we built on that.

TWICE: Is this something J&R has been talking about for awhile?

Friedman: It’s something I’ve been talking about for a while. Once I had my second child a year ago and I saw I was buying a lot of the same kids gear over again: the stroller, the car seat and all, I decided that there’s definitely some kind of fusion here, of kids tech and cool gear. Especially a lot of the strollers are pretty high tech and pretty high priced, so I saw a synergy there. I had kids, and my parents are J&R, and I was always nicknamed J&R Jr. The idea almost wrote itself. It’s my baby.

TWICE: Pun intended. Is this new space?

Friedman: This was actually the computer software floor. With downloads and apps, people aren’t buying much boxed software anymore, so that’s been consolidated to one display rack downstairs as opposed to the 15,000 square feet we have up here.

TWICE: So are you doing as concentrated an effort online with this concept?

Friedman: Absolutely. That’s actually where I started. I started JandR.com 16 years ago. So that was actually my primary concern, getting the stuff online where we can reach the most amount of people, and then I saw downtown Manhattan becoming the fastest-growing part of the city for young families, I decided, ‘OK, let me dip my toe in real retail.’ Before that I kind of kept to my office and ran the website.

TWICE: So you had a lot to learn?

Friedman: Yes, and I have a core team here that has a lot of experience. We started with half the floor and as we went along we kept adding things. We originally didn’t think we were going to have toys. We didn’t plan on being in car seats ... definitely not cribs. But as we went along and designed the space, things started to snowball.

Eventually I had to have a conversation with my dad, and I said, ‘I think I’m going to take over the whole floor.’ And now we’re already talking about what other space in the building we can take over because this is already busting out of its space. We expect this to grow.

TWICE: What other non-traditional categories has J&R been expanding into in recent years?

Friedman: Definitely toys. For J&R Jr. we’re concentrating on educational toys, and as you can see around you, arts and crafts right upfront as you enter. This is all great grab-and-go stuff, for birthday gifts for example. You can find a $30 or $40 item — we do free giftwrapping. This kind of stuff flies off the shelves.

It’s not a coincidence that we scheduled the grand opening for today because, as you know, Toy Fair starts this morning at the Javits Center, so to really make a statement with the toy industry, telling them ‘Hey, we’re here!’ We’re running a free shuttle from the Javits. This is a relatively small category for us right now, but we’re definitely looking around at Toy Fair for direction to expand. And that’s going to require more floor space.

TWICE: Tell me about the electronics merchandising. I see everything from VTech to iPads ...

Friedman: Well, that was a big thing for me. My five-year-old knows how to work my iPad better than my wife does. I ended up giving my daughter my old iPhone when I upgraded, my old iPad when I upgraded. Meanwhile, the portable DVD player has been abandoned. She’s completely comfortable with it, and that’s not unusual for kids that age. So we incorporated iPads in kid-friendly cases throughout the store for kids to play while mom and dad shop. We loaded them up with all the kids apps. That led to stocking all the iPad accessories — for hanging it over the car seat, different mounts and holders, games from Lego, Crayola, etc.

In other electronics we’re stocking decibel-limiting headphones, walkie talkies, boomboxes, kids digital cameras from Fisher Price and, of course, the nursery staples. Baby monitors and humidifiers have become so high-tech, everything’s digital.

We’re trying not double up on stuff that you would find in our regular housewares boutique. We edited our mix and tried to find the four or five most kid-friendly or parent-friendly models of each device. We wanted a mother to come in here and have a clear choice of good, better, best, to do the work for them so they can come in and get out.