honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, October 24, 2003

The ins and outs of bridal registries

• The Wedding Planner's Web log

By Tanya Bricking
Advertiser Staff Writer

 •  Where can you register on O'ahu?

The Compleat Kitchen: compleatkitchen.com, at Ala Moana Center and Kahala Mall

Executive Chef: (no Web site) 596-2433, at Ward Warehouse

Home Depot: homedepot.com, at Iwilei and Pearl City

Macy's: macysweddingchannel.com, largest selection at Ala Moana; registry available at any Macy's with a home department (excludes Waikiki store)

Mikasa: mikasa.com, at Waikele Premium Outlets

Neiman Marcus: neimanmarcus.com, at Ala Moana Center

Pier 1 Imports: pier1imports.com, in Kaka'ako

Sears: sears.com, at Ala Moana Center, Pearlridge and Kane'ohe

Wal-mart: walmart.com, in Mililani or Waipahu

Williams-Sonoma: williamssonoma.com, at Ala Moana Center

Before we did the traditional department-store wedding registry, my groom and I checked out Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse to see if we could register at his favorite store.

No such luck. Lowe's isn't equipped with the bar-code scanners and computers to do registries in Hawai'i.

Its competitor, Home Depot, has shifted with the times to allow couples to register for everything including the kitchen sink.

Wedding registries are reflecting a changing lifestyle of the 2.4 million couples who marry each year in the United States, often couples who are older and already have basic household items. More retailers are getting into the registry business, a market Internet wedding site theknot.com says accounts for $19 billion a year in consumer spending.

Home Depot is glad to see grooms getting more involved, but the wedding registry feature is underused, said Chris Johnson, a phone-sales representative at Home Depot's Iwilei store: "A lot of people don't know we have it."

Even Wal-Mart is getting in the game of gift registries, while competitors City Mill and Hawai'i's Kmart stores haven't. (Target has, but alas, Hawai'i has no Target.)

"It's popular for a lot of brides and births," said Addie Borja, a customer sales representative at the Mililani Wal-Mart. "All you have to do is come in and scan whatever items you want."

Some stores are better than others about coordinating with their Mainland counterparts to keep track of purchases and shipping. Wal-Mart doesn't coordinate with Mainland stores for shipping, Borja said.

You'll have similar logistical issues if you register at Sears.

If a relative on the Mainland wants to order off your Sears registry, the Hawai'i stores won't ship it to you. You'll have to go pick it up, said Mary Shiroma, a merchandise and customer assistance representative at the Kane'ohe store.

There are trade-offs. There's no china department at Sears, but grooms are big fans of the store, where "we're famous for the Craftsman tools," Shiroma said.

Online registry also is available, but at Sears and many other stores with Web sites, couples are still required to come in to scan the items they want.

My fiancé loved the scanner gun at Macy's. I thought he'd loathe the fine-china department, but give a man a scanner gun, and he'll zap to his heart's content.

Registries in Hawai'i range from somewhat antiquated systems to computerized lists that can be pulled up instantly at other stores or on the Internet.

Local retailers such as Executive Chef, at Ward Warehouse, and The Compleat Kitchen, at Ala Moana Center and Kahala Mall, do registries the old-fashioned way, with handwritten forms.

Locally, Macy's is the leader in the traditional department-store arena. It links with all the Federated department stores (such as Lazarus and Rich's) nationwide and keeps track of what's left on the registry.

Bridal consultant Charlotte Bugarin at the Ala Moana Center Macy's has been known to look up records for brides when a gift card is lost and the newlywed writing thank-you notes needs to know who sent what.

"We can say, 'Oh, Auntie Joan gave you that gift,'" Bugarin said.

Macy's offers a 10 percent discount after the wedding for couples to buy items left on their lists, and the registry stays on the computer for a year from the last purchase.

Williams-Sonoma also offers a one-time 10 percent discount for purchases after the wedding.

The biggest mistake couples make when registering is not registering for enough, said Sheri Nakasone, the lead sales and bridal expert at Williams-Sonoma in the Ala Moana Shopping Center.

"On average, if you have 200 guests, you should have four to five pages with about 20 items per page," she said. "They tend to forget this is their wish list."

Retailers such as Macy's, Williams-Sonoma and Pier 1 Imports simply hand you a scanner to zap away. They allow couples to make changes and additions online, at the store or over the phone.

It's a little-known fact, but even outlet stores are offering registries. Here, the Mikasa shop at Waikele Premium Outlets comes to mind.

"We don't have a ton of bridal registries," store manager Ron Nakashima said. Until the store becomes online-savvy, registrants need to go in the store and fill out a form to choose such things as crystal stemware and china patterns.

If more high-end than outlet is more your style, Neiman Marcus has a gift registry with perks that include lunch for two at its swanky Mariposa restaurant. You also get a store "gold card" for a year, a Neiman magazine and newsletter, gift wrapping and reward points toward purchases and prizes.

"Our registry is pretty rich in benefits," Neiman Marcus public relations assistant Amy Tomita said.

The lure of food might get some grooms in the door of a shopping mall. All it took for mine was a scanner gun.

Tanya Bricking writes about relationships for The Advertiser.


Warning: include(/www/blog/bloginclude.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /srv/users/thaarchives/apps/thaarchives/public/2003/Oct/24/il/il06a.html on line 57

Warning: include(): Failed opening '/www/blog/bloginclude.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/opt/sp/php7.4/lib/php') in /srv/users/thaarchives/apps/thaarchives/public/2003/Oct/24/il/il06a.html on line 57