THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 24, 1996 TAG: 9604240530
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM SHEAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
The checkout counters were still encased in protective plastic Tuesday, and coolers for dairy products and frozen foods were standing in the aisles.
But Virginia Beach Federal Savings Bank showed off a tiny alcove inside the Harris Teeter supermarket on Virginia Beach Boulevard near Little Neck Road.
When the Harris Teeter store opens in June, the unfinished space will house a Virginia Beach Federal branch.
``You will see a 300-square-foot bank branch inside a 66,000-square-foot bank lobby,'' Virginia Beach Federal president and chief executive John A.B. ``Andy'' Davies Jr. joked.
``Why are we here? The number of people that Harris Teeter anticipates coming here is a thousand times the traffic at a normal bank branch,'' Davies told a gathering of city officials, Virginia Beach Federal officers and directors and Harris Teeter employees.
In addition to reaching a greater number of prospective customers, branches in supermarkets are less expensive to install and operate, said John Chattleton, the thrift's executive vice president for lending and retail banking.
Putting an office in a Harris Teeter store, he said, will cost Virginia Beach Federal about $175,000. That compares with $750,000 to $1.2 million to buy the real estate and build a free-standing branch at a shopping-center outparcel.
The new branch, which will be open seven days a week, is the first of several that Virginia Beach Federal expects to open inside local Harris Teeter supermarkets.
Another will go into a Harris Teeter store due to open in the Greenbrier section of Chesapeake in November. A third is planned for a Harris Teeter store that will open on Warwick Boulevard in Newport News next spring.
The use of supermarket space for branches is the latest part of Virginia Beach Federal's four-year-old effort to expand its branch network and reach a greater number of local consumers.
It's also a strategy that has gained acceptance among big and small banks. Central Fidelity National Bank, a statewide bank based in Richmond, has been operating branches inside Farm Fresh supermarkets in Hampton Roads and the Richmond area since the late 1980s.
Since January, Central Fidelity has added branches in three Wal-mart Supercenter stores in the state and plans to open outlets in four more Wal-mart Supercenters.
Meanwhile, CENIT Bank installed a 900-square-foot branch in a Super Kmart Center in the Kiln Creek section of York County last November.
``If there was one overriding goal, it was to build our checking-account volume,'' said Steven E. Kocen, first vice president for marketing at CENIT's parent, CENIT Bancorp Inc.
``The office,'' he said, ``has far exceeded our expectations for attracting non-interest deposits and for making loans.''
CENIT will put a branch in another Super Kmart Center due to open next October on Military Highway in Norfolk. A third branch will go into a Super Kmart planned for Holland Road in Virginia Beach. That facility is expected to open next January. by CNB