WASHINGTON — When the company you just bought is the subject of a “Saturday Night Live” parody, you know it’s time for a change.
That’s what Doug Ewert, the CEO of Men’s Wearhouse, which bought men’s apparel chain Jos. A. Bank last year, tells The Washington Post he thought after a skit on the NBC late-night comedy show last year skewering the latter chain’s trademark “buy one, get three free” sales.
Cast member Vanessa Bayer portrayed a mom who claimed that her favorite cleanup tool was suits from Jos. A. Bank. “With their innovative ‘buy one, get three free’ pricing, a suit from Jos. A. Bank is effectively cheaper than paper towels,” Bayer said, wiping up an orange juice spill with a suit coat.
“With four suits for the price of a modest dinner, I can feel good about throwing them away when I’m done.”
“When ‘Saturday Night Live’ parodies your pricing promotions, you know you have a problem,” Ewert tells The Post. “It stung.”
So this weekend is your last chance to get four for the price of one — though, if the numbers are to be believed, not many people will flock to the stores to take advantage: Jos. A. Bank sales in stores that had been open more than a year were down 9.4 percent in the second quarter of this year, The Post reports.
“They were hurting their own margins and they were hurting their own credibility” with such low prices, Richard Jaffe, a research analyst with Stifel, tells The Post.
From now on, Ewert says, Jos. A. Bank sales will be more along the lines of, say, “one suit for $299, two for $500.”
“We’re going to flip the promotional messaging to talk about what they’re going to pay instead of what they’re going to save,” Ewert tells The Post.
