Beauty and Cover Girl take hit at Duane Reade.
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008At a small Duane Reade in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park area, the cosmetics department was relocated to a less favorable space in the store and Cover Girl was dropped. More space went to budget lines such as Wet ‘n Wild. Sally Hansen got more and better space as well.
An employee at the store said Cover Girl was dropped because the beauty department had been downsized and that a Duane Reade four blocks south carried more makeup lines. At the 14th Street and Third Avenue store, it appeared that Cover Girl’s space may have been downgraded to make way for additional space at Max Factor.
Beauty departments in mass are in jeopardy as retailers look for product categories that have higher inventory turnovers. While there is nothing catastrophic in losing space in a small drug store, one has to wonder if this move portends poorly for the mass makeup business and Cover Girl in particular.