Thursday, September 25, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Las Vegas part of Sears' grand new look

Shoppers take a look around Friday during the grand opening of the Sears Grand in West Jordan, Utah. AP Photo Robert and Natalie Guillory shop Friday with their children Benjamin and Natalie at the grand opening of the new Sears Grand in West Jordan, Utah. AP Photo

Stop me if you've heard this one.

A major American retailer plans to open a new Las Vegas-area store late next year. The one-story, off-mall location will include plenty of nearby parking, dual front entrances and an adjacent outdoor nursery with accompanying garden products.

Inside the 165,000-square-foot store, customers will circle a racetrack-shaped path that surrounds a large apparel department. Nearby sections will offer goods and services such as auto parts and repairs, one-hour photo developing, home electronics, paints and hardware.

Greeting cards, toys, milk and cosmetic products can also be found, and those too tired to shop can instead grab a cup of coffee or pastry while sitting inside the store's snack area.

A new Wal-Mart, Target or Kmart store?

Certainly.

But in this case, the retailer in question is Sears.

A grand dame of American retail is undergoing a face-lift, and Las Vegas will serve as one of five test markets for Sears, Roebuck and Co.'s new "Sears Grand" concept.

The Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based company remains a retail powerhouse with $41.4 billion in revenue last year from Sears stores and other subsidiaries, but its ability to grow has been hindered by its long-standing reliance on shopping mall-based locations. If popular among consumers, Vice President Teresa Byrd said, Sears Grand could help the nearly 120-year-old chain to expand in new directions, or at least what amounts to a new direction for Sears.

"We fully expect a (same store) sales increase in our full-line stores, but there really are not a lot of opportunities to increase the number of stores in the malls," Byrd said. "This offers us an off-mall growth opportunity."

Most of Sears' 870 stores are attached to shopping centers such as Las Vegas' Meadows and Boulevard malls. But U.S. mall construction has slowed in recent years while Sears' desire to place stores closer to its customers has increased. Both factors led to the creation of Sears Grand, Byrd said.

Sears already operates a stand-alone store at 1245 Warm Springs Road in Henderson, but its local Grand store will be nearly 44,000-square-feet larger than the Henderson location and will offer goods and services not seen in traditional Sears stores, Byrd said.

Standard Sears stores average between 160,000 to 180,000 square feet, and the company also has about 300 smaller full-line stores of less than 68,000 square feet. The five proposed Sears Grand stores will range from 165,000 to 210,000 square feet, targeting shoppers with household incomes that range from $30,000 to $80,000, Byrd said.

Sears will later study results from its initial Grand stores to develop a prototype store for more widespread use. The company could eventually phase out up to 300 smaller stores in favor of the Grand concept, though Byrd said it's too soon to speculate if or when that could occur.

The first Sears Grand store opened to customers on this past weekend in the Salt Lake City suburb of West Jordan, Utah. A grand opening celebration is planned for Oct. 11.

Other announced sites include a spring 2004 debut in the Chicago suburb of Gurnee, Ill., as well as a late 2004 or early 2005 opening in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. The fifth store site has not been announced, Byrd added.

Las Vegas' Sears Grand store will be the company's third overall when it opens in fall 2004. It will be in Triple Five Development of Nevada's Grand Canyon Parkway center at 4355 Grand Canyon Drive off Flamingo Road west of Interstate 215.

"We were trying to get a mix of different demographic areas, a mix of different-sized markets," Byrd said of the sites so far selected.