WISEBUYS TO OPEN IN FORMER AMES SPOT; DEPARTMENT STORE TO OPEN IN PULASKI BY SPRING; STORE WILL CREATE 55 JOBS, COUNTY SAYS.(Local)
From: The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY) Date: October 8, 2003
Byline: Edwin Acevedo Staff writer
WiseBuys, a North Country-based retailer, plans to open a new store by spring in the vacant 59,600-square-foot former Ames building in Pulaski.
The opening will create at least 55 local jobs, according to Operation Oswego County.
The store, at 3779 state Route 13, will sell men's, women's and children's clothing of the same quality, brands and pricing that you'd find at TJ Maxx, said Joe Lachausse, WiseBuys' chief executive officer.
At WiseBuys, however, you're more likely to find your size, Lachausse said Tuesday.
"At TJ Maxx, you might find a rack with 200 items, and 98 different items," he said. "Ours is one item, and you have all the different sizes. It's priced the same. It's an everyday low price, and it's branded products."
WiseBuys stores are a new chain that will go into buildings formerly occupied by Ames discount stores, said L. Michael Treadwell, executive director of Operation Oswego County.
Ames, a 44-year-old Connecticut-based retail chain, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2001 and last year closed its 327 stores, including six stores in Onondaga County and six more in Cayuga, Madison and Oswego counties. Except for the Pulaski location, WiseBuys has no immediate plans to reopen any of those other former stores, including the one in Oswego, Lachausse said.
"Ames represented a vital retail destination and filled an important role in the Pulaski community," Treadwell said. "We are fortunate that WiseBuys realized the potential of the Pulaski location."
The business plan starts with five stores, said Thomas Scozzafava, WiseBuys' founder. A store in Canton opened last month, and a store in Gouverneur is scheduled to open in November, Scozzafava said.
He said he is in negotiations involving potential locations in Lowville, Penn Yan, Potsdam, Saranac Lake and Tupper Lake for the remaining two stores.
The headquarters, which are under construction, will be in Gouverneur, Lachausse said.
Each WiseBuys will include a Payless Shoe Source store, Lachausse said. The store-within-a-store allows Payless to use its own employees, its own registers and its own supply system - all independent of WiseBuys.
"It allows these smaller communities to have a quality footwear provider with a full range," Lachausse said.
"This (Canton) location opened up with more than 7,000 pairs of shoes. That's a lot of options on footwear."
A Potsdam-based bagel store, called The Bagelry, will sell sandwiches and wraps inside WiseBuys. The Bagelry also will sell ice cream, floats and other frozen desserts using products from Mercer's Dairy of Boonville.
About 25 to 30 percent of each location will be dedicated to selling food, including milk, cheese, deli meat and other groceries, he said.
Additionally, the stores also will sell stereo and television equipment, home fashions, crafts, appliances, sporting goods, toys, convenience hardware and other department store merchandise, Lachausse said.
Managers at each store will have flexibility to tailor their merchandise to local areas, Lachausse said.
For example, if fishing equipment turns out to be popular sellers in the Pulaski store, managers can order merchandise directly from vendors to meet demand. If a WiseBuys store has a large number of college students for customers, store managers can accommodate them, too.
"Each community is different, and we recognize that," Lachausse said. "Before, they could never customize their product mix to the community."
The project will receive a $250,000 low-interest loan from the Oswego County Industrial Development Agency, New York Business Development Corporation and Key Bank, Treadwell said.
Scozzafava is the brother of Dierdre Scozzafava, a Republican Assemblywoman from Gouverneur whose district includes the Oswego County towns of Boylston, Orwell and Sandy Creek. The Scozzafavas are two of four business partners. Lachausse said he and his wife, Amy, are the other two.
