Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 12, 1995 TAG: 9501130028
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The home and garden supply center at Valley View Mall has lost money for several years, company spokesman Richard Gross said. Its closing is part of a cutback shuttering 17 other stores - among the smaller outlets in the 131-store chain - in the Carolinas, New York and Maryland. The Landover, Md., retailer said its future is in large, warehouse-style home centers.
The Roanoke Hechinger opened in May 1987. Mall officials haven't announced another store to take the space Hechinger leases.
Employees received the news in a Wednesday morning meeting. One employee was asked how they had responded. He said nothing but mimicked a long face.
The employees, who had heard rumors the store would close, will receive severance pay and help finding new jobs, the company said.
Retail stores paid an average hourly wage of $6.50 in spring 1994, according to the most recent pay records available from the Virginia Employment Commission.
Outside the store Wednesday, a customer lashing a brown box of ceiling material to his car roof lamented the closing. Consumers who want to hunt for the best prices will no longer have three large home centers in the area to shop, Otis Ogden of Roanoke said.
"All the building supply stores you're going to have left is Moore's [Lumber & Building Supplies] and Lowe's. Just two stores. I like to shop around,'' Ogden said.
The closure plans perplexed Richard Brizendine of Lexington, headed to the parking lot with an armload of tubular light bulbs. "It's convenient, and they have quality products at fair prices," he said.
Customers still have plenty of time to shop, however. amid the scent of freshly cut lumber in over 11/2 acres of merchandise at Hechinger in Roanoke. The store will continue regular operations into the spring, then begin liquidation sales. Closing is expected by September, Gross said.
The closing will leave Floyd County cabinet maker Brad Warstler without a spot for buying hard-to-find items he occasionally needs. He came out of Hechinger's on Wednesday unaware of its fate and, when told it would close, pondered stocking up on a style of French door he had just bought.
"It makes me feel like I ought to get a couple more of these," he said while packing two of the beveled-glass doors he said he couldn't find anywhere else.
Hechinger remains a leader in the home center industry, having turned a $3.3 million profit during its most recent quarter on sales of $634 million. It operates as Hechinger and Home Quarters Warehouse.
But retail analyst Kenneth Gassman at Davenport & Co., a Richmond securities broker, said the closings point up the company's need to shore up finances. Hechinger shareholders are receiving less than 5 percent return on their investment, while Lowe's provides a 17 percent return and Home Depot more than 20 percent, he said.
by CNB