Caldor

Norwalk, Conn. -- Caldor Corp., operating under bankruptcy protection, yesterday posted a deep and unexpected fiscal third-quarter loss because of falling sales and sharp discounts.The Norwalk-based discount chain posted a loss of $32.6 million, or $1.92 a share, compared with net income a year ago of $1.07 million, or 6 cents a share.Wall Street expected the discount retailer to post a profit of 4 cents a share for the quarter ended Oct. 28, according to three analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research.

The new Caldor opening Nov. 1 in Severna Park Mall will offer bettermerchandise and snazzier displays than the Caldor that pulled out two years ago, prompting a mass exodus of merchants, mall management says.The discount outlet will join the existing Giant Food as anchor of a $4 million, reconstructed strip shopping center, which will reopen as Severna Park Centre in spring, said Thomas P. Turchan Jr., managing partner with Severna Park Mall Associates, the center's owner.The troubled mall, which the current owner took over in 1986, hasremained nearly empty for about a year.

Severna Park Mall didn't look a bit like the ghost town it had become.Cars filled the parking lot Thursday as shoppers streamed into the new Caldor for its festive grand opening.Colorful balloons waved from storefront railings, managers wore carnations on their lapels and clowns handed lollipops to children entering the store.The discount outlet, which closed two years ago in the same spot at one end of the Ritchie Highway/McKinsey Road mall,had returned. And that was just fine with bargain-hunting locals andformer Caldor customers.

Caldor Corp., the nation's fourth-largest discount department store chain, bowed to relentless financial pressure yesterday, filing for bankruptcy protection, culminating weeks of speculation about the troubled retailer.Over the past month, the Norwalk, Conn.-based company repeatedly denied that its vendors were halting the delivery of goods and that factors, middlemen who guarantee that vendors will be paid, were no longer approving the shipment of merchandise.But yesterday, Caldor finally acknowledged that there were problems, citing its recent slide in retail sales, the flagging confidence of suppliers and the hammerlock of competition from other retailers.

Do or die.That's the mantra of two veteran, national discount stores on U.S. 40 in Ellicott City as they gear up for the retail free-for-all that pits them against each other -- as usual -- and against the two new kids in town.As the anchor stores of Chatham Mall on U.S. 40, Kmart and Caldor's strategy to fend off Target and Wal-Mart is to be prettier, shinier and friendlier.Because there are only so many dollars to go around, the real battlefield has become image and customer service, retail analysts said.

Police arrested a Baltimore woman Monday on charges that she stole nearly $130 worth of underwear from the Ferndale Caldor department store.Dawn Cecelia Adams, 28, of the 2400 block of McElderry St. was charged with theft.A Caldor security guard called police shortly before 10: 30 p.m. after he caught a woman walking out of the store with the items.The guard told police he saw the woman hide several pairs of bras and panties in a bag, then leave the store. The guard detained the woman until police arrived.

Man charged in stereo theft from storeCounty police working the light rail detail arrested a South Baltimore man Thursday and charged him with stealing a $180 Sony stereo from the Caldor store in the Cromwell Fields Shopping Center, officials said.John F. Mariner, 20, of the 1100 block of Sargeant St., was charged with theft under $300, police said.

County police arrested a Baltimore man Wednesday evening for allegedly trying to shoplift $130 worth of compact discs from JTC the Caldor store in the 7300 block of Baltimore-Annapolis Blvd., authorities said yesterday.A security officer at the Caldor store said that he saw a man come into the store shortly after 6:30 p.m., put six compact discs under his jacket and try to leave the store without paying for them.The security officer stopped the man and recovered the property.He held the man until a Northern District officer arrived and took him into custody, police said.

You might think that when you spend $6 million to renovate a shopping center and then fill it with tenants, you're out of the woods. But as Richard Dube knows, it's not something to count on.Mr. Dube is now in the middle of his second rehab job at the Catonsville Shopping Center, the 283,000-square-foot strip center at U.S. 40 and St. Agnes Lane he bought in 1987. The first time around, anchor tenant Ames filed for bankruptcy and, in 1992, walked out on its lease, sending the president of Westchester, Ill.-based Tri-Land Properties Inc. back to the drawing board.

Anne Arundel County police have arrested 20 people, most of them on theft charges, since they beefed up patrols around light-rail stations in Glen Burnie, Ferndale and Linthicum last week.Captain Gary Barr, Northern District Commander, said yesterday that 11 of those arrested were charged with trying to steal something from the Caldor store in the Cromwell Field Shopping Center, across Dorsey Road from the Cromwell Station rail stop.The department began its Light Rail Enforcement Initiative last Wednesday after officers noticed an increase in shoplifting arrests at stores in the area, Captain Barr said.