THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 13, 1994 TAG: 9411110107
SECTION: HOME PAGE: G1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARCIA MANGUM, HOME & GARDEN EDITOR
LENGTH: Long : 167 lines
Going from an old Home Quarters store to a new HQ Plus is like getting called up from the minor leagues to the majors.
It's not just a bigger version of the same thing. Sure, there's row after row of tools, hardware and home and garden supplies. But HQ Plus also has services that do-it-yourselfers and contractors never dreamed of.
There's a drive-through building supplies area where you load up without leaving your car; a Kids Quarters area where you drop off the children while you shop; a snack bar where you can relax after you've shopped till you've dropped; HQ University to teach you everything you need to know; and numerous consultants in various departments to help you figure out what you're doing and what you'll need to do it.
All in all, HQ Plus stores cover 187,500 square feet of shopping space, compared to 86,000 in the older stores, and there are about 40 percent more employees to assist in the home improvement endeavor.
Company officials hope the new HQ megastores, which opened this fall at the old Princess Anne Plaza on Virginia Beach Boulevard in Virginia Beach and across from Patrick Henry Mall on Jefferson Avenue in Newport News, will be the answer to the do-it-yourselfer's dreams.
``It's everything we were before - plus,'' said Frank Dozci, chief executive officer of Home Quarters Warehouse Inc.
That ``plus'' is not just a marketing tool; it's numerous additional products and services that resulted from market research by the Virginia-Beach-based home-improvement store chain, which now has 62 stores in 19 states along the East Coast and in the Midwest.
Of those stores, 19 are the new, larger stores, the prototype for which was built in Chesapeake in July 1993. That store has all the services of HQ Plus, except the drive-through lumber area.
An HQ Plus at Janaf Shopping Center in Norfolk is scheduled to open in early spring, and the company is seeking sites for bigger stores in Richmond and Hampton.
Customer surveys showed a need for child care on the younger end of the demographic spectrum and somewhere to sit down and have a cup of coffee on the older end, said Noel H. Goulston, HQ's director of special market development. With Kids Quarters and the HQ Express snack bar, both groups are happy.
``Of all the things we've done, that child care center has been the most positively received change we've made here at HQ,'' Dozci said. HQ is the only home improvement chain locally to offer child care. Haynes Furniture pioneered the idea in this area and was pleased with the results, he noted.
Kids Quarters is a welcome addition for Virginia Beach residents Ellen and Timothy R. VanPelt and their 6-year-old son, Timothy Jr.
``My kid likes it, and it's very convenient for me as an adult, because you don't have a nagging kid who doesn't want to be there,'' Ellen VanPelt said. ``Matter of fact, he complains because I pick him up too soon. I wish every store had one.''
She said she appreciates that it's free, well-staffed and secured by a photo identification system that ensures only the parent can pick up the child.
The Kids Quarters facilities were carefully thought out, Dozci said. ``They have soft floors so the kids bounce back up, they have the little toilet facilities suited to their size, and they're very well secured. We take a lot of pains to make sure the children aren't released to someone they don't belong to.''
In addition to the picture IDs, security includes forms that parents fill out and limited access to the area. The service is for children between ages 3 and 8, and there is at least one employee for every six children.
Although Kids Quarters may be the most appreciated change for many families, the most obvious addition is the building supply area, a completely covered, 40,000-square-foot drive-through, where people can purchase hard-to-handle building supplies, such as lumber, bags of concrete, fencing, gypsum and wall board, vinyl siding and cinder blocks.
``We stock things that because of their size and weight people would prefer not to handle them two or three times and push them around the store,'' Dozci said. ``You can simply drive in there, get around to where the product is stored or displayed, load it into your car or truck or ask for assistance and then drive on through and pay, without getting out of your vehicle.''
The drive-through area is laid out similarly to how a customer would want to load the goods, such as plywood, then lumber, then soft goods, Goulston noted.
The checkout gun uses radio frequency to transmit prices back to the register without unloading the materials. ``We're trying to use the latest technology to make it easier and quicker,'' Goulston said.
Many of HQ's other services greet customers as they enter the front doors. Such things as the ``university,'' a contractors' center and a tool rental department line the inside front wall. And straight ahead is an interior decorating display.
``The emphasis as you come in is design, rather than lumber,'' Goulston said, explaining the company's desire to extend its home furnishings services.
Each HQ Plus has in-store design consultants who will answer customers' questions and go to their homes to offer free decorating advice, Goulston said.
Five interior decorators on the Virginia Beach store staff handle about 50 to 60 requests a week to go to homes and give advice on draperies, wall coverings and windows. They also offer frequent classes on such things as hanging wallpaper, applying faux finishes and choosing window treatments.
The HQ Plus stores devote three aisles to decorating and have catalogs for ordering much more, including custom draperies, valances and curtain rods. In addition to the window coverings and wall treatments found in all HQ stores, the megastores also carry towels, bath sets and designer linens.
There are racks of wallpaper books and tables for customers to peruse them; or if you prefer to choose an in-stock pattern, there are some wallpapers and borders sold by the foot, so you can buy exactly what you need. If faux finishes are more your style, there are kits for stenciling and sponge painting - and classes to teach you how.
``We're getting a lot of special orders,'' said interior decorator Tammy Cole. ``Right now a lot of women are shopping to redo their homes for the holidays.''
The idea of free consulting services and help for the do-it-yourselfer extends throughout the store. There are many more decorated areas suggesting ideas, from baths to bird baths.
``We've tried to do a good job in presenting ideas and showing how they'd look in your home,'' Goulston said.
The kitchen and bath design area has numerous complete displays, computer designing programs and about half a dozen associates trained to assist. As with the interior decorators, they will go to your home for free consultations, Goulston noted.
Similar services are available in building project design for larger structural projects such as decks and room additions and in the greenhouse for landscaping and yard services, Dozci said.
The numerous consultants replace the ``answer desks'' in the older stores, Dozci explained.
Rhonda Byrd, a Certified Virginia Nurseryperson and sales manager for the greenhouse and outdoor area, said experts will create a landscape plan in the store for customers who bring in a plot plan or will go out and take a look at the lawns and yards. They also design and install ponds.
``It's all free if they call,'' she said. ``We may not get to it that day, but we will within a week or week-and-a-half.''
HQ uses independent contractors for installations, but it checks out the contractors and will stand behind the work, Dozci noted.
Like the interior decorators and other HQ consultants, Byrd and her staff offer seminars through HQ University. Current topics include fall lawns, fall gardens and deck building. All sessions are free and most last 45 minutes to an hour.
Two new services cater to each end of the HQ market, the do-it-yourselfer and the pro. The tool rental department is ``for when people want to take on a project but it requires an expensive one-purpose tool,'' Dozci said. HQ Plus stocks approximately 125 tools that people can rent for specialized tasks - things like tile cutters, power washers, log splitters and power augers.
On the other end of the service spectrum is the Contractor's Desk in a separate enclosure near the drive-through lumber and millwork areas. There the pros can get a cup of coffee - even ice for their coolers in the summer - and assistance without having to mingle with the amateurs.
HQ Express, the in-store snack bar, is used by contractors, other shoppers and sales associates alike. ``We got that idea by listening to customers who said, `It's a great store, but it's a big store. We wish you had somewhere we could sit down and relax,' '' Dozci noted. Now HQ offers coffee, sodas, sandwiches and other light snacks.
Goulston acknowledges that the huge store and all its services can be overwhelming to some customers, and that's why HQ attempted to segment the stores. ``It takes the fear factor out of it,'' he said. ``It's stores within stores.'' ILLUSTRATION: RICHARD L. DUNSTON/Staff color photos
Denis A. Crisp of Virginia Beach loads lumber in HQ Plus'
drive-through area, while Timothy R. VanPelt Jr. plays in Kids
Quarters.
RICHARD L. DUNSTON/Staff photo
Jeffrey and Kim Harris stop for a snack at Food Express in HQ Plus
while their 3-year-old son, Jeffrey, sleeps in his stroller.
by CNB