May Stores to Build 100 New Units : Retailing: The $4.6-billion expansion will include major outlets in Glendale and West Covina as well as 1,200 new Payless ShoeSources nationally.
In the face of one of the deepest retail-industry slumps in years, May Department Stores on Friday announced a 100-store, $4.6-billion expansion that includes plans for two new Robinsons-May stores in the Southland later this year.
The plan, which also calls for the opening of 1,200 new Payless ShoeSource stores nationwide, will be one of the largest expansions in retail history. The additions, to be completed by 1995, will significantly raise the stakes in a retail war that has forced a number of major players to seek bankruptcy court protection in recent years.
The new local Robinsons-May sites will be at the Galleria shopping center in Glendale and at the Plaza mall in West Covina. The two stores will open in October, the company said.
The new West Covina store will replace a May Co. store that the retailer closed in January. That closing was one of 12 stores May shuttered in Southern California as part of a consolidation of the Robinsons and May Co. divisions into a single chain. The creation of the new Robinson-May stores was aimed at eliminating weaker outlets and better positioning the chain to compete in Southern California.
By announcing the locations Friday of new Los Angeles-area stores, May is following through on plans to selectively expand in the Southland despite the region’s persistent economic troubles. The announcement is a sign that May is optimistic about California’s longer-term economic prospects, said Jim Abrams, a May spokesman.
“California is an important market and we plan to compete aggressively,” Abrams said.
May, which has 50 stores in California, is also planning to open a new store at Farmers Market in Los Angeles and in Murietta Springs in Riverside County--two sites announced last year. The Murietta Springs store will open in 1994 or 1995.
At the time of the consolidation announcement last year, the St. Louis-based retailer said it would build eight new Southland stores but provided few locations and no timetable for any openings.
Industry analysts said May--with strong sales this year at its chains in 28 states--is well positioned to expand successfully.
“A number of retailers are hurting, some have failed and the shake-out will continue--but May is a savvy operator and will continue to do well,” said Johnson Redbook Service analyst Ed Johnson.
While other retailers have been struggling this year, May had $2.32 billion in sales in its first quarter--the best first quarter sales performance in the company’s history. Earnings for that quarter totaled $96 million, an 18% increase over the same period a year ago.
In contrast, R.H. Macy & Co., the giant New York-based retailer, is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. Los Angeles-based Carter Hawley Hale Stores--operator of the Broadway department store chain and one of May’s major competitors in Southern California--emerged from bankruptcy reorganization last year.
The company said it will announce the location of other new Southland Robinsons-May stores and the site of new Los Angeles Payless stores when it completes land or lease deals.
