Caldor builds urban focus with N.Y. units - opens stores in Flushing, New York, and Bronx, New York, New York

Discount Store News, Oct 18, 1993 by Jill Lettich

NEW YORK -- Caldor is building its reputation as an urban retailer with the opening of two stores in New York this month. Stores opened in Flushing, Queens, and on Bruckner Boulevard in The Bronx.

Caldor has been operating in metropolitan New York, via its store in Staten Island, but the two new units plus the three others opening in Queens, The Bronx and Brooklyn, could establish Caldor as a New York City discount store. Its regional nemesis, Bradlees, has plans for a Brooklyn store, but that unit will not open until 1994.

The two Caldor stores opened this month--acquired from Alexander's in '92--posed a few challenges for the Norwalk, Conn.-retailer. Foremost was the multilevel configuration. Though Caldor does operate two-level stores, Flushing has four levels, and the Bronx store has five.

Also an adjustment was the urban setting, which required merchandise tweaking. The Flushing store included some merchandising that seemed designed especially for a city store. The women's department, for instance, featured gold lame and other evening style dresses--not common in most suburban Caldors.

"With these stores, we have the opportunity and the space to get into some new businesses," said Gary Vasques, senior vice president and director of marketing. "We also had the benefit of knowing what were successful departments for Alexander's. Outerwear, for example, was a strength for them and we've decided to expand that department."

Caldor will open another store in The Bronx this week, and a unit in Rego Park, Queens, next year. The company also has acquired a two-floor Macy's site in Flatbush, Brooklyn, that will probably open next year.

The new units that opened earlier this month are decidedly bigger than the typical Caldor prototype, which averages 113,000 sq. ft. The Flushing store is about 165,000 sq. ft., and the Bruckner Blvd. store about 184,000 sq. ft.

Some of the extra square-footage was immediately relegated to basic operational space required in a multilevel unit: space for carts and checkout areas on each floor, as well as escalators and elevators. Vasques said additional space was used "to expand in areas that we would normally focus on--domestics, apparel and electronics, for instance."

As with all multi-levels, adjacencies can be a challenge, but Vasques noted that "we tried to keep the existing prototype adjancies as much as we could." The breakdown of departments includes:

* First floor: women's apparel and men's apparel, accessories, jewelry and cosmetics;

* Second floor: shoes, infant and children's apparel, housewares and domestics;

* Third floor: furniture, lighting, giftware, luggage, sporting goods, consumer electronics, hardware and automotives;

* Lower level: toys, juvenile furniture, health & beauty care, books, pets, stationery and greeting cards, candy and snacks.

The lower level also features a Nathan's Food Court.

Vasques would not comment on the volume these units are expected to produce, but analyst believe the urban sites could boost company sales by about 8%. According to a report by Oppenheimer & Co., sales in the five former Alexander's stores are expected to reach over $200 per square foot and generate per stores sales of $30 million. Caldor's sales for fiscal 1993 should reach $2.5 billion, compared to $2.1 billion in 1992.

It has been Caldor's willingness, more so than many other discounters, to move closer to more densely populated urban areas that has helped it differentiate itself from its national and regional competitors.

In addition to the New York City stores, the chain is opening two units in the Washington, D.C. suburbs in the fourth quarter.

Bethlehem, Pa., another new market, will open in November as will a fifth store in the Rochester, N.Y., area.

For 1994, Caldor expects to open another 14 to 16 units, bringing its total from the current 143 to about 160 stores.