THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 8, 1995 TAG: 9501060189
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 15 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PATRICIA HUANG, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
Representatives of Lowe's Companies Inc. announced Wednesday that the company's new ``superstore'' on South Battlefield Boulevard will open by mid-February.
For ``competitive reasons,'' Cinny Haynes, a company representative, said she could not yet release the exact grand-opening date of the store, but offered that the opening would occur within the next five weeks.
Lowe's announcement came the same week that Builders Square announced it is closing its Chesapeake store because of increasing competition in the home-improvement superstore business. The Builders Square store at 1591 Crossways Blvd., across from Greenbrier Mall, had been losing money, officials of the company said.
Lowe's constructed 50 new stores across the country in 1994, including the new Battlefield Boulevard store. The 150,000 square-foot facility includes a large lawn and garden center and boasts more than 40,000 different home repair and building items.
The new store will be open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays.
``We've found resounding results in our home fashion and home decor departments,'' Haynes said, noting that Lowe's offers a wide variety of upscale indoor and outdoor lighting, tools, oriental rugs and ceramic tile. ``It's the cost-conscious do-it-yourself baby boomers that want more than six doorbells but a choice of 60. . . If dollars at the cash registers are votes then they're voting for these larger selections.''
The ``superstore'' also will offer special services such as computerized custom kitchen design, computer color matching in paint and custom cutting services for glass and other materials.
Lowe's, a Fortune 500 company, currently operates 330 stores in 21 states. Founded in 1946, the chain is in the midst of the broadest expansion plan in its corporate history, Haynes said. She likened the company's growth strategy to that of Wal-Mart, the discount retail chain.
``We traditionally target small- to medium-sized states,'' she said. Last year, the first Lowe's opened in Michigan and this year a new store debuted in Iowa. The Battlefield Boulevard store, which began construction in October 1993, will employ nearly 200 people and become one of two ``superstores'' in Hampton Roads. The other ``superstore'' will open in Virginia Beach this year.
In 1993, 57 new Lowe's stores opened across the country and in the 1994 fiscal year, there were 50 new stores. By 1996, Haynes said, they are planning for 110 to 120 more new stores.
Another Chesapeake Lowe's store on nearby South Military Highway will be converted to a contractor facility when the Battlefield Boulevard ``superstore'' opens and will be renamed, ``The Contractor Yard,'' a wholely owned subsidiary of Lowe's. Contractors and building professionals will be able to buy building materials in bulk there.
Some of the popular features of Lowe's stores, according to Haynes, are the nursery and garden centers, which include large permanent glass greenhouses. The climate controlled greenhouses have been implemented in stores since 1993 and will be included in all ``superstores'' from now on, Haynes said. They offer tropical and exotic plants year-round in addition to such items as Italian-imported ceramic planters, garden statues, fish ponds and fountains.
The new store will offer classes, or ``How-To Clinics,'' each month on such topics as how to weather-proof a house, how to install a tile walkway, how to sponge-paint a wall or how to improve home security. by CNB