1/2 Price grows 'large' in St. Louis - opening of Bridgeton, MO, store

Discount Store News, Oct 16, 1995 by Arthur Goldgaber

BRIDGETON, MO. -- Omaha-based 1/2 Price Stores is bullish on the competitive St. Louis market. The grand opening of the 30-store chain's largest unit Sept. 30 here in this northwestern St. Louis suburb is the company's second in the region. President and ceo Dennis Reaves said 1/2 Price may eventually have five or more stores in the St. Louis market.

The chain renovated a 106,120-sq.-ft. store on St. Charles Rock Road, which had previously housed both a Pace Warehouse and a Sam's Club. The store is located within the Hilltop Plaza, also features a K-mart Computer City. Not far from these competitors are several other discounters, including Wal-Mart, GrandPa's, Venture, Target, Circuit City and Best Buy, located just east and west along St. Charles Rock Road. The company's first store in the region opened last year and is located in Fairview Heights, Ill., which is just east of downtown St. Louis.

Reeves agreed that St. Louis is one of the most competitive retail markets in the country, but he is confident that his chain has a unique niche of "department store merchandise at discount prices, which provides customers with value." He said that in the first days store had been performing above expectations. Reeves added that the company plans to open a third store in St. Charles, Mo., just west of St. Louis County in the spring of 1996.

The chain has added nine stores in the past three years. Its stores are located in a 500-mile radius of Omaha in eight states: Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, South Dakota, Oklahoma and Colorado. The company also plans to add another store in Des Moines before yearend.

The store still has a very high ceiling because of its previous warehouse tenants, but 1/2 Price designed the layout format to look like a "store within a store" by constructing large partitions between sections. Each section's sign follows the store's triangle theme, and there are also department signs hanging from the ceiling. The store focuses on apparel, shoes, accessories for the family, housewares, home furnishings, electronics, sporting goods and toys.

On a store tour with DSN, David Potter, vice president and general merchandise manager, said that his chain's merchandise mix of 70% soft lines/30% hard lines is the opposite of most discounters. The Bridgeton store's largest departments are shoes and apparel--especially baby and children's clothes--but it also features the chain's largest home store, with 24,000 sq. ft. of merchandise. Potter said that this department is one of the store's most popular, and its buyer has won the store's buyer of the year award two of the last three years. Items in the department include wicker baskets, decorative gifts and accessories, Rubbermaid products and pots and pans, as well as small kitchen appliances.

Potter said that a young men's attitude apparel was another innovation at this store. The department features the layered look in button-down, collarless shirts and sweaters as well as T-shirts with slogans such as "Fear is an emotion. Bad is an attitude."

The chain's promise, which is prominently displayed in each store's entrance, is: half of department store regular prices, half of national brand's suggested retail prices and half of national brand's price on comparable items of quality and styling. However, the chain's prices will not be half of other store's special sale prices or half the prices charged by discount stores and factory outlets.

During the tour, a couple of shoppers asked Potter why Gerber baby's clothes, which were marked at $6, were not half of Venture's $8 price tag. He answered that his prices are usually 20% to 30% lower than other discounters, but not 50%.

On the grand opening day, the store featured Waterford crystal at half the suggested retail price, and Potter expected to sell all 750 pieces before noon. The selection of merchandise in most departments can vary monthly, Potter explained, depending on buyers' purchases of closeout merchandise, and the store does not have planograms. For example, Potter pointed out that the store's selection of men's winter coats are last year's lines, which the chain was able to buy in large quantities because of a warm winter.

The store features 98% name brands, said vice president of marketing and sales promotion Stan Latacha, but it can not advertise all of them in circulars because of agreements with vendors. Examples of brand names carried by the chain include L.A. Gear, Bill Blass, Bugle Boy, Fieldcrest, Cannon and Liz Claiborn women's fragrances.

According to studies conducted by the company, the store's typical shoppers are young families who own their own homes in the middle-income range, said Latacha. But the Bridgeton store's manager, Dick Clark, said the company also draws affluent shoppers in its stores in more upscale neighborhoods, such as the chain's store in a Kansas City suburb.