THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 10, 1994 TAG: 9408100496
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 41 lines
Another discount retailer is coming to Hampton Roads, and this one will offer a warehouse full of shoes for women.
``Most women are going to Washington to buy their shoes. We expect to keep some of that business in town,'' said John Shannon, president of Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse.
The Atlanta-based company plans an Aug. 18 opening for a 12,500-square-foot store being readied at Loehmann's Plaza, a Virginia Beach shopping center.
Off Broadway ``looked at all the other merchants in the area and decided this was a market they need to be in. No one was doing what they were doing, '' said Joseph Mersel, senior vice president at S.L. Nusbaum Realty Co., landlord at the shopping center.
The store will be open only four days a week, Thursday through Sunday. It will sell brand-name shoes at a 25 percent discount from department store prices, Shannon said. Each store stocks at least 25,000 pairs of shoes, priced chiefly between $30 and $60, with some around $150.
Touted as a self-service warehouse, Off Broadway allows customers to try on shoes displayed on the shelves. It does not offer shoes for men because men don't have the same passion for shoes, Shannon said.
The privately owned Atlanta chain operates nine stores. Three are in Boston, three in Northern Virginia, two in Charlotte, and one in Nashville. Its parent company, Designer Shoe and Soft Shoe Inc., is located in Atlanta.
Shannon called Hampton Roads a possible three-store market. Within two years, he hopes to open another store. The company is considering space in Norfolk and nearby cities.
Shannon and partner Harvey Linden started Off Broadway in 1977. Some other stores operate under the Soft Shoe name but all will carry the Off Broadway name soon, Shannon said. by CNB