Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 19, 1994                   TAG: 9401190033
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Sandra Brown Kelly
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

YOU THINK THAT STORE'S BIG? LET'S GO PLAY IN LOWE'S

A $139 saw with its own carrying case isn't a typical impulse purchase, but these new superstores inspire bizarre thinking. When a place has so much to see that you could almost spend your vacation inside, there must be something in it you need.

Store maps are displayed at the entrance. The place is nearly big enough to hold TWO football fields, which shoots down the football field as a symbol of largeness.

And Lowe's, while a big store by local standards, is small compared to the hyperstores being opened elsewhere by Wal-Mart and Kmart.

These stores aren't just for shopping. They're recreation. They are places where you can while away a slow, or cold, afternoon or evening.

I stayed two hours in Lowe's on a blistering cold Saturday afternoon and didn't see the whole place. Nor did I find the snack bar that Tommy Smith, operations manager, says exists.

A store that large needs a small espresso shop where customers can take breaks and just visit. And Lowe's has taken care to provide that other important convenience - its bathrooms are large and easily accessible.

The best way to describe the new Lowe's is to borrow the answer I got when I called an employee of the Super Kmart Center in Hickory, N.C., to ask what advice she would give shoppers: "It's a big place that takes a long time to see."

The Kmart center is half again as big as the Roanoke Lowe's, but this Lowe's is more than a place where you run in to buy a screwdriver.

New employees are taken on a three-hour tour when they begin, Smith said, and no employee is expected to be knowledgeable about the entire place.

Each of the store's 13 departments has its own expert.

"Roanoke hasn't seen anything like this," he said.

The store has what's probably the area's most expansive collection of storage units and an impressive selection of home office equipment.

Fortunately, too, it sells a few knicknacks that satisfy the urge to spend money, but cost less than the cute little saw.

I haven't tried my new $4.97 purple Webster dust mop yet, though.

The "store of the future" - the entertainment concept - is coming at us from all directions.

Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corp. just opened a store in Memphis, Tenn., that has two drive-through lanes so customers can watch doughnuts being made while they wait for their orders.

The company plans to open a couple dozen of the new stores this year.

Krispy Kreme President Scott A. Livengood said the drive-through concept isn't just a place to pull in, get hot doughnuts and "rush on to the office or home."

"The stores were designed to be fun, to entertain children and adults alike," he said.

The January Market Basket survey of statewide food prices shows that an order of 40 commonly purchased food items in Roanoke that cost $71.18 in January 1993 now costs $74.09, an increase of 4 percent. The total is down 0.3 percent from $74.29 in December.

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services does the survey each month, shopping at supermarkets in four metro areas and using a list of 40 items. This month, the survey says, the order costs $78.54 in Norfolk, $79.51 in Richmond and $85.85 in Northern Virginia.