ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 4, 1996 TAG: 9601040029
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
THE CHAIN'S FLAGSHIP STORE will be missed by the many downtown workers who counted on it for lunchtime shopping.
Kim Anderson was due at work at 8 Wednesday morning, but at about that time, she had three boxes of shoes tucked under one arm and was rummaging through a rack of clothes with the other.
Anderson had joined a lot of other downtown workers who were checking out the prices at the Heironimus "removal" sale, which heralds the end of the chain's downtown Roanoke presence.
By Jan. 20, or before, depending on how quickly the racks are emptied, what once was the 106-year-old retailer's flagship store will close.
Heironimus stores at Roanoke-area shopping centers are not affected by the decision of the owner, The Dunlap Co. of Fort Worth, Texas, to leave downtown.
The downtown store's retail space had been shrinking for years, anyway, scaled down from a multifloor major department store to one floor of clothing, shoes and jewelry and a basement area that featured sale items and The Lunch Nook restaurant.
Anderson and many of the other bargain seekers said they'll miss the restaurant, where they could get a quick bite and still have time to shop.
She grabbed a hot dog there Wednesday when she took an early lunch break and made a second trip to the sale. Her day's purchases: three pairs of shoes, a set of sheets marked down from $40 to $20 and some Christmas decorations.
Anderson is manager of broker services for Bayse & Co. health benefit consulting firm, which has offices on Kirk Avenue downtown.
Tanya Graybeal, who works in the Poff Federal Building, said she has been a regular lunchtime shopper at Heironimus, and always ate lunch there, too.
"I'm going to miss it," she said. "I guess I'll have to go to Towers."
The restaurant employees have been offered jobs at the Greenhouse restaurants that are a feature of most of the Heironimus shopping center stores.
Another downtown lunchtime regular, Helen Paxton, who works at Trigon Blue Cross Blue Shield, said she hasn't decided where she'll eat lunch when The Lunch Nook is no more.
Some of the comments of Wednesday's bargain hunters gave clues, however, to why the downtown store is closing.
Roy Howard, who was shopping with his wife and son, said he stopped coming downtown much after he retired from Appalachian Power Co., but that he shops at the Heironimus stores elsewhere.
Susan Reynolds, who lives in Southwest Roanoke, said she liked shopping at Heironimus, but in recent years has found more of what she needed at the Towers Shopping Center store than at the downtown one.
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CINDY PINKSTON/Staff. Early shopper Sis Richardson huntsby CNBfor bargains but was disappointed with the prices at the downtown
Heironimus store's "removal" sale Wednesday. "It's just like a
normal sale, not a clearance-price sale," she said. color.