Tuesday Morning wants to double store base

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 1/16/2004 12:00:00 AM

NEW YORK — Event-based discount retailer Tuesday Morning feels that in view of the favorable value-oriented market, it can double its store base to more than 1,000 stores, up from its year end total of 577.

It is underpenetrated in the Northeast, said Loren Jensen, chief financial officer and executive vice president, but there "are opportunities coast to coast."

California, one of the retailer's denser states with 72 stores, could add more, for example. Small markets, where perhaps the only department store closed as department-store retailers pulled back, are other areas ripe for its format, he added.

Its low-cost operating model can fit it in many destination spots, but, "You will never see us on the end cap in a shopping center," Jensen told attendees at SG Cowen's Consumer Conference last week. "We manage our real estate dollar very carefully."

Requiring only $95,000 for fixturing and start up costs, and $135,000 for net inventory, a new store will reap a 70 percent return on investment within a year, said Jensen.