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C+CT

Kroger launches fashion apparel brand

July 11, 2018

The Kroger Co. will introduce an apparel brand this fall called Dip, developed by fashion designer Joe Mimran.

Mimran, a Canadian designer known for having brought out the Club Monaco, Joe Fresh and Pink Tartan brands, brings a 30-year fashion career to bear on this exclusive clothing line, which the supermarket chain says "makes effortless style easy and affordable to achieve."

Apparel is not new to Kroger. Though best known for its supermarkets, the company also owns the Fred Meyer department store chain, where the company has been selling roughly a dozen third-party brands for years. The company also carries seasonal apparel at some of its nearly 2,800 supermarkets. 

Dip will replace several of the company's private-label clothing brands, says Robert Clark, Kroger's senior vice president of merchandising, in a press release.​

“Imagine grabbing a few groceries and then being able to dip over to the next aisle and finding your new favorite top or pants”

Clark says Dip — which will launch with men's, women's, juniors', kids' and baby collections — is designed to help busy, on-the-go people live with style and get the most out of their fashion dollar. "The flexible collections and seasonal highlights make creating outfits, or outfitting an entire family, quick and simple," the company said.

The name Dip is something of a nod to its supermarket host: "We know customers want to quickly pop in and out of the apparel department, not spend hours browsing," Clark said. "Imagine grabbing a few groceries and then being able to dip over to the next aisle and finding your new favorite top or pants."

It is not unknown for a supermarket chain to sell clothes. Canada's Loblaws supermarket chain, which launched the in-house Joe Fresh apparel line in 2006, has expanded that brand to a network of freestanding stores. And in Europe, hypermarkets that sell groceries and apparel are ubiquitous. 

By Brannon Boswell

Executive Editor, Commerce + Communities Today