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Talk of the bay

Target's Club Wedd is most popular bridal registry

By MARK ALBRIGHT
Published April 4, 2005

The most popular bridal registry is no longer at a department store. It's Club Wedd, the heavily promoted registry run by trendy discount store Target.

"They are a national chain, they have a computerized registry and they are more convenient to shop than a mall department store," said Peter Greene, Houseworld manager for NPD Group, a Port Washington, N.Y., market research company.

Target, along with many other types of big box stores, also stocks plenty of linens, housewares and home decor items that have become the basis of wedding showers and receptions.

These days, about a third of all newlywed couples register at discount chains ranging from Home Depot to Wal-Mart, according to a recent Houseworld survey of 8,000 brides and wedding guests. The home decor, linens and household appliance chains such as Bed Bath & Beyond, Linens n' Things and Pier One claim another third. Each sector now maintains bridal registries that are just as popular as the department stores that dreamed up the idea as a way to sell pricey china and silver decades ago.

While registries are popular with brides (the average couple registers at two or three stores), most wedding guests don't share the zeal. Only a third of wedding guests choose a gift from a bridal registry, while 10 percent use them as a guide. Most guests, 41 percent, give money as a wedding gift; the rest choose a gift of their own.

Registries are only half as popular among couples lining up for a second marriage as they are among first-timers. Only 47 percent of so-called "encore" brides even bother to register. While couples typically don't make as big a deal over a second wedding, the average second ceremony nonetheless drew 100 guests in 2004.

And last year, 39 percent of weddings involved at least one repeat-performance newlywed.

"Marketing registries to the encore wedding market is a huge opportunity for retailers," Greene said.

[Last modified April 2, 2005, 21:33:02]