EL SEGUNDO HERALD September 1, 2016 Page 7 Seniors 5 Ideas for Celebrating Grandparents and Forging Deeper Bonds with Family “National Grandparents Day happens every September, but grandparents and families shouldn’t have to limit the celebration to just one day of the year. Here are five fun ideas for staying in touch with family, no matter how near or far they live.” (BPT) - There’s no arguing grandparents have special relationships with their grandchildren. Whether they are a couple hours’ drive away or a flight across the country, distance doesn’t dissolve this bond. National Grandparents Day happens every September, but grandparents and families shouldn’t have to limit the celebration to just one day of the year. Here are five fun ideas for staying in touch with family, no matter how near or far they live. Play games online together Technology can be a wonderful way for different generations to connect long- distance. Beyond phone and video calls, schedule time for grandkids and grandparents to play virtually. There are numerous programs that let players in different locations challenge each other to cards, checkers, chess and more. Interactive sketching apps make drawing or playing tic-tac-toe a breeze from two locations. A little play can make everyone’s day. Schedule weekly phone calls Making a weekly phone date ensures everyone stays in touch. Long-distance phone calls are easy and budget-friendly when you use an affordable cellphone provider like TracFone. With a new 30-day smartphone-only plan with talk, text and data for just $15 a month on the largest 4G LTE networks, you’ll have enough money left to spoil the grandkids. And, with no activation or cancellation fees, you can change your no-contract plan as often as your needs change, without penalties. Learn more at www.TracFoneSwitch.com. Read a book together The written word has a way of bringing people together. Pull up video calling for the whole family to read a goodnight story together. Older kids can select a series of interest with their grandparents and read at the same time, meeting each week via a video or phone for a discussion. Perhaps Grandpa or Grandma can start by suggesting their childhood favorite, and family members can take turns selecting books from there. Pen pal exchanges In a digital world, it’s rare to receive letters. However, kids love to get mail, so why not start a pen pal exchange? Small kids can color pictures while big kids can practice penmanship and writing skills. Grandparents and grandkids alike will love receiving fun surprises in the mail from each other. Strive to send items once a week so everyone has something to look forward to. Video performances If you cannot connect in-person but the kids and grandkids want to show off their talents, try a video performance! Whether it’s demonstrating the year’s dance recital choreography, practicing a new tune on the piano, or acting out a fun play, kids will enjoy showing off and grandparents will feel extra loved. Hit the record feature and send grandparents the file afterward so they can revisit any time they’re missing the grandkids. • Burkley & Brandlin LLP A T T O R N E Y S A T L A W Living Trusts/Wills, Probate, Employment Law, Personal Injury Trust and Estates Litigation, Business Litigation, Civil Litiga tion 310-540-6000 Lifetime El Segundo Residents *AV Rated (Highest) Martindale - Hubbell / **Certified Specialist Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law, State Bar of California, Board of Legal Specialization Brian R. Brandlin • Bruce R. Brandlin • Christopher P. Brandlin ‘Almost Famous’ Clothing Company Slips Comfortably into America’s Malls By Rob McCarthy Kate Hudson went from being almost famous to a leading actress in Hollywood with just one film, so it’s hardly a surprise that her clothing company shot to fame quickly in the fashion industry. Hudson is the co-owner and celebrity spokes model for the Fabletics line of yoga pants, sports tops and activewear for women and men. She started the El Segundo-based apparel company three years ago with partners Adam Goldenberg and Don Ressler, who made space for Fabletics in their existing headquarters for their online clothing company JustFab. The partners assembled a team of fashion designers to create activewear to compete with the high-end brands, which Fabletics deemed beyond the price range of many women and working mothers trying to stay fit and look good doing it at the gym and yoga studio. The company personalized online shopping by offering a membership with discounts and a monthly shopping service. Items start at $25 for members, according to the web site. The “Almost Famous” actress Hudson picks which styles gets shipped to members in the loyalty program. There’s more to Fabletics than meets the eye though. This is an apparel company that had no retail stores until last year and was only selling online. And yet, it attracted 1 million customers who buy off the web site three to four times a year, according to the company. Spokesman Shawn Gold calls its methods for selling active-lifestyle clothing to global consumers a “21st century approach to retail.” The clothier opened for business in fall 2013 and quickly reached milestones that it shared with customers and visitors to its web site. Fashionista Hudson and her partners made 1 million online sale in the first 15 months, and began shipping to Europe, Canada and Australia. Fabletics added a men’s line in mid-2015, then reached into Spain and the Netherlands. Fabletics is still a relatively new brand, yet Gold says it holds a competitive advantage over clothing retailers that have been around for decades. Hudson’s company knows what its customers like, based on personal information they provide on the web site. Fabletics uses customer data to manufacture the styles, colors and sizes that it will sell. Getting stuck with unsold clothing is costly to the retailer and reflects in the prices charged to the customer. “We’re using data and personalization to both elevate the customer’s experience and take a significant amount of risk out of the fashion industry,” Gold said. He referred to the risk of manufacturing and buying clothing that consumers don’t want. By basing its clothing production on customer likes and sizes, Fabletics says it accurately predicts she customers will buy 95 percent of the time. The ability to create products the consumer will buy removes a nagging inefficiency within the fashion industry. It also lowers return rates on merchandise. The company patterned its production after JustFab, which similarly keeps a personalized customer database. Though brick-and-mortar retailers, including Nordstroms, offer a personal shopper service, they only have a fraction of their customers enrolled in the popular service. A startup company like JustFab or Fabletics has collected customer information from the beginning, and had dodged the “ship and pray” business model where buyers for retailers and boutiques use a shotgun approach to their inventory. Being an online retailer definitely has its advantages, though lately even Amazon is saying that retail stores might be the next evolution for e-commerce. Founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos said recently he was toying with an idea of opening Amazon bookstores. Amazon is the world’s largest e-commerce company, and dominates online sales in every product category, from gaming to groceries. Walmart is a distant second to Amazon and it’s falling further behind in online sales, according to published reports. If Amazon thinks readers want to hold books before buying them, what does that mean for the clothing industry? Fabletics thinks that retail stores make sense, too, because 80 percent of all clothing is purchased in them. Even if online clothing sales reach 50 percent in five years as expected, that’s 50 percent of the market that Fabletics doesn’t want to leave on the table, according to Gold. Last fall, the clothier opened its first store in Woodland Hills and it hasn’t stopped since. The company opened six stores a year ago, and the newest Fabletics store is opening this month in the Del Amo Fashion Center. This data-driven clothier is as much a technology company as it is a fashion company, Gold points out. He likens a visit to one of the stores like walking into an Apple store. It’s a chance to try out the products first, and maybe go home and purchase online. Fabletics’ goal by opening mall stores is to give visitors “a better customer experience,” he said. Again, data and buying patterns determine where the company will open stores because Fabletics plans to stay close to its active customers, according to Gold. By the end of the year, the outfitter will operate stores in Woodland Hills, Mission Viejo, Torrance, Las Vegas, Honolulu, Denver, Salt Lake City, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Charlotte, Newark, Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., and single stores in Delaware, New Jersey and Maryland. The El Segundo headquarters employs 400 people, and nearly one-third are involved in media and marketing and not fashion design, according to the company. The JustFab facility on Apollo Drive close to Manhattan Beach includes nearly 40,000 square feet for web and production work. Crews have access to two sound studios and three photo studios where they produce television commercials and The online sportswear company is coming this month to Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance. See Fabletics, page 8 Douglass M O R T U A R Y “Our Family Serving Yours Since 1954” B U R I A L - C R E M A T I O N - W O R L D W I D E T R A N S F E R P E T M E M O R I A L P R O D U C T S 500 EAST IMPERIAL AVENUE EL SEGUNDO, CALIFORNIA 90245 Telephone (310) 640-9325 • Fax (310) 640-0778 • FD658
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