New Stores

With all the subtlety of tipsy tourists gliding down New Orleans' Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras, thousands of eager shoppers danced their way behind a jazz band through the front doors of Nordstrom at The Mall in Columbia for the first time Friday.As the Columbia Herald Trumpeters serenaded the crowd with the jazz standard "When The Saints Go Marching In," the mall's new and improved wing anchored by retail giant Nordstrom and 40 other stores made its long-awaited debut.Colorful confetti was fired from miniature cannons.

Grocery retailers across the United States have slowed their expansions in favor of refurbishing old sites and beefing up specialty departments, but in the Baltimore area a handful of chains are racing to build stores in a battle for market share.Supermarket construction has reached a frenzied, nearly unprecedented pace as local and national companies extend their reach into the region, real estate experts say.By the end of next year, more than 40 new or expanded stores will have opened in just over a three-year span, according to a study by KLNB Inc., the Towson real estate brokerage firm.

Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc. saw earnings dip 12 percent in the second quarter, the Hampstead-based men's apparel retailer reported yesterday.The chain reported net income from continuing operations of $526,000, or 8 cents per share, compared with $597,000, or 9 cents per share, during the corresponding period a year ago. It attributed the decline to costs of operating new stores, increased advertising to sell leftover spring inventory and becoming Y2K...

With its new department store at The Mall in Columbia mostly completed and scheduled to open in September, Nordstrom Inc. is continuing an aggressive push along the East Coast.The Seattle-based retailer, which distinguishes stores with espresso bars, cafes, live piano music and shoeshine stands, will open its fourth department store in Maryland on Sept. 17 -- the latest since becoming an anchor at an expanded Annapolis Mall in 1994.The retailer known for customer service and large size assortments expanded to the East Coast just over a decade ago and entered the Baltimore-Washington market in 1991, opening in Bethesda and at Towson Town Center in 1992.

ST. LOUIS -- May Department Stores Co., parent of Hecht's, Lord & Taylor and others, said yesterday that it plans to invest $3.6 billion over five years in its department stores.By 2002, May will add 100 new department stores to its existing base of 370 stores, remodel or expand 100 stores and invest $350 million in new technology to improve service, Chief Executive Gene Kahn said in a statement to the company's annual meeting.May Department Stores, which had $12.4 billion in sales for the year that ended January 1998, plans to invest $725 million this year to open 19 new stores and expand seven stores, adding 2.9 million square feet of retail space by the end of the year, the retailer said.

RECALL THOSE famous battle cries of the past: "Remember the Alamo!" or "Geronimo!" or "To the Bastille!"Add to the list a new one: "Wal-Mart!" As in the world's largest retailer chain, with about 2,400 stores in the United States alone. One's coming to a location near you, sooner or later.Perhaps it is the company's gigantic size that stirs so much public fear and opposition. Books have been written about the variety of community challenges the retailer has faced in locating new stores. The arguments range from archaeological and historical to environmental to scenic beauty.

Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc. plans to accelerate its growth by opening twice as many new stores as it originally planned over the next three years, the men's clothing retailer said yesterday.The Hampstead-based company plans to open 65 more stores nationwide. Most will add to Bank's existing base of 87 stores in 31 states, but some will replace older stores. The expansion would accelerate the pace of 10 to 12 new stores per year that the company had previously planned."There's a greater demand for us," Timothy F. Finley, Bank chairman and chief executive officer, said yesterday.

Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc. reported a strong profit gain of 12 cents per share for the third quarter ended Oct. 31, despite flat sales at stores open at least a year.Income from continuing operations climbed to $2.2 million, or 32 cents per share, from $500,000, or 7 cents per share, in the third quarter of 1997, the men's apparel retailer said yesterday.After backing out a one-time $1.4 million tax benefit, the company's earnings rose 71 percent, to 12 cents per share."It sounds like they had a terrific quarter," said Kenneth Gassman, a retail analyst with Richmond, Va.-based Davenport & Co., who follows the company.

Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc. yesterday reported a sharp jump in first-quarter earnings, driven by the strong performance of its new stores and surging sales in its men's clothing line.Income from continuing operations rose 89 percent, to $828,000 for the quarter ended May 2 from $437,000 in the same period a year ago, the Hampstead-based retailer said.Operating earnings doubled to 12 cents per share in the quarter, compared with 6 cents a year earlier. The latest figure beat analysts' expectations of 8 cents per share.

Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc. said yesterday that its second-quarter earnings more than doubled from the same period a year ago, beating analysts' estimates and giving the Hampstead-based men's retailer its best second quarter in recent years.Income from continuing operations jumped 138 percent to $597,000, or 9 cents per share, for the quarter ended Aug. 1. That compared with $251,000, or 4 cents per share, for the second quarter of 1997, Bank said.The latest figure beat analysts' average expectations of 6 cents per share.

Closeout retailer C-Mart said yesterday that it will shut its year-old Landover store to focus on expanding its Web business and becoming national rather than regional in focus. C-Mart's opening of the Landover store, in an old Sam's Club near FedEx Field, marked the first expansion for the company, which started in an old five-and-dime in Harford County in the 1970s. Its no-frills stores and handwritten advertisements have helped it develop a cult following. The owners at the time said they wanted to be closer to shoppers in Prince George's County and Washington who for years had made the trek to its Joppa store.

SEATTLE -- Starbucks launched its first national television advertising campaign yesterday to drive more people into U.S. stores, which saw a 1 percent falloff in traffic last summer. U.S. sales still rose 19 percent, partly because of a 9-cent price increase on coffee drinks, according to Starbucks Corp.'s fourth-quarter earnings released Thursday. The first-ever traffic decline has executives worried, and they announced several broad initiatives: conducting a prime-time TV campaign between now and Christmas, having district managers spend more time in stores and cutting back on the variety of drinks they serve.

Rite Aid Inc. took over 25 Eckerd stores in Maryland yesterday, including nine in the Baltimore region, shoring up its position as the second-largest drugstore chain in the state. The Maryland stores are part of Rite Aid's $4 billion deal for the Brooks and Eckerd chains, which was announced in August and completed yesterday. In all, Rite Aid bought 1,854 Brooks and Eckerd stores, and six distribution centers in 18 states, making it the largest drugstore chain on the East Coast, the company said.

A day after announcing it was building a Supercenter in Cockeysville, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said yesterday that it is opening two more of its megastores in the Baltimore area. The world's largest retailer said it plans to open the new stores at 3601 Washington Blvd. in Arbutus and at 407 George Claus Blvd. in Glen Burnie. The stores are expected to open in the fall. On Tuesday, Wal-Mart said it would close its Hunt Valley Town Center store this fall to make room for a new Supercenter at 10400 York Road.

As Boscov's department store chief Kenneth S. Lakin stood last week among the buzz of workers preparing to open three new stores in the Baltimore area, he was reminded of advice an uncle once offered while building the 95-year-old family retail chain. "You can always get married again," Al Boscov once said. "But you can only open a store once." Boscov's executives, in the midst of the company's largest expansion in its history, are bringing new stores to the Baltimore area Oct. 28 in Marley Station Mall, Owings Mills Mall and White Marsh Mall with $12 million in renovations.

Dunkin' Donuts plans to double the number of doughnut and coffee shops it has in the Baltimore area during the next three years. The Canton, Mass.-based doughnut chain plans to open 91 stores in the area by 2010, or one Dunkin' Donuts for every 16,600 people. There are currently 76 stores. The expansion is part of a larger strategy by Dunkin' Donuts to create a 15,000-store operation by 2020. It now has about 4,400 franchises in 36 states. It is also targeting areas such as Washington, Charlotte, N.C., New York, Chicago, Atlanta and Nashville, Tenn.

A summertime trip to the beach often includes an outlet shopping excursion, and the first stop for many travelers has historically been just across the Bay Bridge -- a halfway reprieve spot for those headed to Ocean City or Rehoboth Beach, Del., from Baltimore or Washington. But the shopping landscape on the "Upper Shore" has changed drastically in the last decade. Evolving traffic patterns and highway expansions have hurt retail on both sides of the bridge, leaving whole developments desolate.

THE ISSUE: The owners of Westfield Shoppingtown Annapolis have received preliminary approval from the county for a 300,000-square-foot expansion of the mall. Construction is expected to begin early next year. No agreements have been signed, but possible new tenants include Dick's Sporting Goods and Crate & Barrel. YOUR VIEW: What new stores would you like to see in the expanded mall? Tell us what you think at arundel.speakout@baltsun.com by tomorrow. Please keep your response short, and include your name, address and phone number.

GETTYSBURG, Pa. - For decades, Pennsylvania's state-controlled liquor store system has lumbered along, an elephant-like monopoly reaping hundreds of millions of dollars a year while losing customers in droves to border-state stores with cheaper prices and more aggressive marketing. But take notice, Maryland and other neighboring states. Jumbo is stirring. Proclaiming itself ready to enter a new era, Pennsylvania opened four outlet liquor stores yesterday with newly competitive prices that it hopes will have a speed-bump effect on its residents, who regularly violate state law by heading over the border to avoid their commonwealth's 18 percent liquor tax. "The whole idea here is to be competitive to the extent we can," said Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board spokesman Bill Epstein.

Kohl's Corp. plans to open its first store in Baltimore County as an anchor of a redeveloped Yorkridge Shopping Center in Lutherville, a trustee for the center said yesterday. The Wisconsin-based discount department store signed a lease at the strip center on York and Ridgely roads and plans to build an 88,000-square- foot store that will anchor a renovated center, said Sidney Weiman, a trustee for the family trust that owns the center. Plans call for demolishing less than half of the center, including space once occupied by a movie theater and space now occupied by a Michael's crafts store.