'Grand' format will boost Sears at home

By Carole Sloan -- Home Textiles Today, 4/14/2003 12:00:00 AM

HOFFMAN ESTATES, IL —

Home fashions will have a larger home in the new "Sears Grand" stores that will begin test programs this fall.

The five planned pilot stores will be the first off-the-mall units for Sears full line stores with the initial opening in West Jordan, UT, a suburb of Salt Lake City. The second pilot store will open in Gurney, IL next year. All will be one level.

The "Sears Grand" stores will be considerably larger than Sears mall units. Typical selling space for current Sears stores is 90,000 to 95,000 square feet, according Linda Blakley, a Sears spokeswoman. The new stores will have 155,000 square feet of selling space in a 210,000-square-foot store.

The stores will carry home fashions, with a larger footprint being planned. But at this time, Blakley added, "decisions about particular lines of business are still being made."

Sears will introduce new merchandise categories including toys, plants and fertilizers, beauty products, dry groceries and greeting cards. "We have improved our full-line stores to the point where current consumer trends need to be served," Blakley added. The new stores will let us be more able to provide everyday solutions to these product needs."