Phar-Mor takes deep-discount concept to West - drug store chain

Discount Store News, July 2, 1990

Phar-Mor Takes Deep-Discount Concept to West

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Phar-Mor, the nation's largest deep discount drug chain, is making a major expansion thrust westward.

Next month, it plans to start construction on its first California unit and anticipates opening it late next spring.

Phar-Mor will co-anchor with K mart the Santa Ana Promenade Mall in Santa Ana, in Southern California's Orange County.

The Santa Ana unit will run 64,938 square feet, on the upper end of Phar-Mor's prototype range of 55,000 square feet to 65,000 square feet.

Real estate sources say Phar-Mor is looking for a total of eight to 10 stores in the Southern California market. A company spokeswoman confirmed that Phar-Mor is negotiating for additional sites but declined to comment on the number.

In Las Vegas, Phar-Mor opened this May its first Nevada store and will open a second unit there later this year.

Another new market will be Phoenix, Ariz., with two sites under lease and negotiations pending on several others.

New Mexico will be another new Western market in 1990, with the first store there to open in Albuquerque.

Phar-Mor, which logged $1.3 billion in sales in 1989, began its westward trek last year when it opened five stores in Colorado Springs, Colo., and Denver.

They represented 10 percent of the 50 new stores it opened in '89 and helped push year-end store count to 164.

Phar-Mor plans to open more than 70 stores in 1990 and as many more next year.

Looking eastward, Phar-Mor also is negotiating for sites in western upstate New York, another new market.

Philadelphia now is as far into the Northeast as the chain has ventured to date.

By comparison, the No. 2 deep discounter, Drug Emporium, operated 195 stores at year-end. Of the total, the company owned 80 and the franchisees operated the balance of 115. Total revenues came to $1.05 billion.

Office supplies is another power department. Larger units carry office supplies, furniture and equipment, while mid-size stores carry only office supplies.