WISEBUYS BREATHES LIFE INTO FORMER AMES STORES
From: HFN The Weekly Newspaper for the Home FurnishingNetwork Date: October 13, 2003 Author: Thau, Barbara
CANTON, N.Y.-Is WiseBuys the second coming of Ames?
A handful of Ames Department Stores, the regional discounter that liquidated its 327 stores last year, are being turned into WiseBuys, an off-price retailer founded by Joe Ettore, former chief executive officer of Ames.
The first WiseBuys store opened Sept. 27 in Canton, near the Canadian border.
The 40,000-square-foot unit includes general merchandise as well as a home furnishings assortment that accounts for a hefty 35 percent of the mix.
Ettore, who is serving as founder and chairman of the chain, hopes to open about six or seven WiseBuys units between this year and 2004 in upstate New York on former Ames sites. A second store is slated to open in Gouverneur, N.Y., this month.
The stores will be located in small towns and rural areas closer to shoppers' homes than their nearest mall.
"It's much like an Ames, but with a lot of refinement," Ettore told HFN.
The day-to-day operations of the everyday-low-price-retailer are in the hands of CEO Joe Lachausse, a former executive at warehouse club BJ's Wholesale. Former Ames store managers have also come on board, said Ettore.
While WiseBuys' home mix includes everything from housewares to domestics to ready-to-assemble furniture -- "using a lot of the national suppliers that Kmart, Wal-Mart and Ames carried," said Ettore -- the store offers a layer of discounted designer goods such as Ralph Lauren down comforters.
By contrast, Ames was a high-low retailer.
WiseBuys also includes apparel, toys and convenience foods, several of which are leased businesses. However, for the exception of a Payless Shoe Source shop, the store's look is "seamless," said Ettore.
Ettore is also serving as CEO of Paws and Claws, a mall-based, nine-unit chain at which consumers build their own customized stuffed animals.
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