Double Dealing

Despite her best efforts, Jacqueline Lehrer Kleinberg ended up with two sets of Waterford salt and pepper shakers, three mini-Cuisinarts, two hand-held mixers and two sets of candlesticks. Siegrid Yu got four frying pans. And don’t get Leah Ingram started on the bride with 36 sets of dinnerware--and no cups.

The bridal registry is a beautiful thing. It helps couples with few household items get off to a good start and makes shopping easier on wedding guests.

But while your guests may find it easier, the couple (read: bride) often has to put in a lot of work to try to avoid ending up with doubles.

Kleinberg is proof of that. In preparation for her October 1996 wedding, she registered with, perhaps, two of the most popular registries: Macy’s and Crate & Barrel. She chose Macy’s for most of her formal items like china and stemware, and, with 250 invited guests to accommodate, her wish list was long. “As we got closer to the wedding day, I would check the list every couple of weeks,” Kleinberg says. “Then when I started actually receiving gifts I would check every three to four days.”

Yet, she still had doubles. Plus, some items were listed as purchased but were never received. It turned out they had been returned, but the list was never updated.

In the end, her returns gave her $1,100 in Macy’s credit, which Kleinberg and her husband used to buy remaining items on their registry. “It just seems like the burden is on the person that’s registered,” she says.

You got it.

According to estimates, the bridal registry business rings up $7.5 billion annually. Nowadays, while department and specialty stores still rule, registries are popping up at travel agencies, home improvement centers, bookstores, banks, sporting goods stores, music stores, even the Barbecue Hall of Flame. But, on average, handling a returned item adds 20% to a retailer’s cost. Mulling over these facts, a frustrated bride wouldn’t be silly to ask: If they can put a rover on the red planet, why can’t they invent a registry that updates instantly?

“You would think [stores] would make updating a priority,” says Ingram, author of “The Bridal Registry Book” (Contemporary Books, 1995). “Couples can be diligent, call and update and still it makes no difference.”

Ingram reports that in researching her book and hearing from brides and grooms, Crate & Barrel rates high for keeping lists updated.

Gift-givers who visit the store can punch up registries on kiosks, get an updated printout and start shopping. But, the store updates purchases every 24 hours. That means if someone is shopping at the Century City store, and then 15 minutes later another person pulls up the same registry at South Coast Plaza and buys the same gift, it’s doubles troubles. The store promises--and delivers--painless returns, but are they trying to make that window a little smaller?

“We think [24 hours is] pretty good,” says company spokeswoman Bette Kahn. “Even if we continuously updated, that wouldn’t eliminate all the problems.”

True enough. But with most registry systems computerized, it still seems as though the information could and should move quicker.

Enter the scanning gun.

Once the sole domain of Target’s Club Wedd, the gun is about to celebrate its first anniversary at Federated stores, which include Macy’s. Once notoriously known for delays of up to five days, now, on a good day, the “trickle-down” time for a Macy’s registry could be from 10 seconds to 20 minutes, says Susan Finkelstein, vice president of special services at Macy’s.

Now, bridal consultants enter a short history on couples and assign them an ID number. Then they all walk through the showroom, zapping desired items’ UPC bar codes, which automatically adds them to the registry. Quantities must still be put in manually. So far, Macy’s is the only major department store in our area to add the quick scanning system.

The improvement was sparked by good old competition, Finkelstein says. “There’s something like 2.5 million couples marrying each year; that’s about 2% of the population. And it’s a recession-proof business.

“It’s a critically important time. The experience a woman has with the registry could determine how she feels about Macy’s for the rest of her life.”

The store also has two Web sites, https://www. weddingline.com and https://www.macys bridal. com, allowing brides to check on their registries at any time. There’s also online purchasing in selected categories for gift-givers.

“In the next year or two, I hope we’ll provide online registry purchasing worldwide,” Finkelstein says.

Doubles can still occur if the shopping day is especially busy, thus overloading and slowing down the computer, or if the gift-giver doesn’t identify the purchase as a registry item. So, now the store has “completion specialists” who help guide couples through the returns process.