Venture will test 2nd, 3rd leased bank departments

Discount Store News, May 14, 1984

ST. ANN, Mo.--Venture is experimenting with a leased bank department.

In one of the first forays of its kind, the locally based chain last month leased 130 sq. ft. of space to the Mercantile Bankcorporation for a miniature bank branch in its Cave Springs, Mo., store outside St. Louis. the bank has two more Venture-housed branches planned to open this month.

The leased area, located inside a plasterboard partition in front of the cash registers, houses one automatic teller machine, and office space for two tellers and a bank officer.

Mercantile customers shopping the store can withdraw money from the ATM, make deposits, open new accounts and apply for consumer loans up to $10,000, according to Ted Boller, Mercantile vice president of retail planning. The only banking services not available at the Venture branch are applications for mortgage and business loans.

Like other chains testing ATM's including Hills, zayre and Gemco, Venture is looking to build store traffic by enhancing its one-stop shopping capabilities.

"We believe this will help build volume but I have no estimates at this time," said Philip Otto, Venture executive vice president. "But, we think it is an added service and another reason to shop at Venture."

The chain ran into a few roadblocks when it considered testing ATM's 18 months ago.

Not Interested

"None of the banks or savings and loan associations we had spoken to were interested in putting ATM's into our stores," said Otto. "Mercantile, our primary banker, eventually agreed to put them in provided we opened a branch."

At the same time, Mercantile had its own reasons for wanting a branch in a retail store.

"In the State of Missouri, a bank cannot have more than three branches and an ATM counts as a branch," said Boller. "So, we decided that if we were going to open a branch, we were going to save money on bricks and mortar and go into a retail store."

the demographics were alos right. Venture targets the same young, affluent consumer group that the bank is trying to attract, according to Boller.

Under the terms of the leasing agreement, Venture's sole responsibility is to provide Mercantile Bankcorporation with the space, lighting and electricity it needs. Mercantile takes care of the branch's advertising and promotion costs, which include newspaper ROP ads, radio spots, and direct mail appeals, all under the banner of "Mercantile At Venture."

The bank will debut branches in Venture's Kirkwood and Florissant, Mo., units this month.

Mercantile is distributing flyers and point-of-sale notices in the Venture stores, in addition to an opening ad campaign.

At this time, it is uncertain whether the joint effort will extend beyond the St. Louis market.

"We can only accommodate the banks in our earlier prototype stores that are over 135,000 sq. ft.," said Otto. "Many of our newer stores have 100,000 sq. ft. and some have only around 80,000 sq. ft. and they just don't have 130 sq. ft. to spare."

At present, Venture has 17 stors sized over 135,000 sq. ft., 19 that are approximately 100,000 sq. ft. and 29 that are 80,000 sq. ft. or smaller.