DATE: Sunday, September 7, 1997             TAG: 9709050792

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D11  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: HAMPTON ROADS ALMANAC '97

SOURCE: BY STEPHANIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   57 lines

RETAIL MAJOR NATIONAL RETAILERS STILL SEE IN HAMPTON ROADS, BUT REGIONAL CHAINS ARE STRUGGLING.

The Navy's leaner force in Hampton Roads last year may have helped slow what otherwise would have been a peppy year for retail sales. Lagging the state, the region posted a snail's-pace sales increase of 2.7 percent last year - almost negligible after factoring in inflation.

As for 1997, the effects of Navy job losses still may be lingering, said John Whaley, chief economist with the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission. The good news is that the local economy is healthy enough to absorb these hits, Whaley said.

Old Dominion University's economic forecasters had predicted a 3.5 percent increase in Hampton Roads retail sales for 1997. But it looks like the region's sales may exceed the original forecast, said Vinod Agarwal, an ODU economics professor.

So far this year, ``we have had very good increases, even with the (federal) job losses,'' Agarwal said.

Meanwhile, retailers still see Hampton Roads as a growing market with a lot of promise. Dillard's Inc., a department store chain, recently moved into Proffitt's Inc.'s old digs and plans to open more locations.

MacArthur Center, scheduled to open in 1999, will bring posh Nordstrom and a host of other upscale retailers. The downtown Norfolk mall also will be home to a Dillard's store that will take up 250,000 square feet - about twice the size of any department store in Hampton Roads.

Wal-Mart, Target Stores, grocer Hannaford Brothers and others continue to expand in Hampton Roads, while other big retailers have announced plans to move in. Home Depot Inc., the world's biggest home-improvement chain, says it will elbow its way into the market as early as 1998. Drugstore chain Walgreen Co. will come in next summer.

Is everyone getting a fair share of shoppers?

Not quite.

For every winner, there is a loser. Regional discount chains such as Hills Stores and Rose's have been suffering. Farm Fresh has lost sales as new grocers have moved into the market. Proffitt's, accustomed to success, departed after it couldn't make it in Hampton Roads. MEMO: BUSINESS ALMANAC ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

The Virginian-Pilot

RETAIL SALES BY SECTOR IN HAMPTON ROADS

HAMPTON ROADS RETAIL SALES

VIRGINIA RETAIL SALES

WHERE WE SHOP

SOURCE: Virginia Department of Taxation

[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]

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