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SEARS OPENS THIRD 'SEARS GRAND' IN LAS VEGAS
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Sears Roebuck and Company opened its third Sears Grand store in Las Vegas on July 31, 2004.
The 165,000-square-foot store has a one-level warehouse feel.
The store features a diverse selection of convenient new products and services that
complement popular Sears products, such as books and magazines, key cutting, diapers, health
and beauty aids, CDs and DVDs - even pantry items. Sears Grand offers what Sears
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Sears Grand
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is known for - appliances, lawn and garden supplies, tools, automotive products and services, sporting
goods, apparel, and hardware - with a mix of convenience-inspired items.
"Sears Grand offers busy shoppers a way to manage their lives and households more efficiently,"
said Teresa Byrd, vice president, general merchandise manager for Sears' off-mall stores. "We
listened to our customers and designed Sears Grand as the ultimate solution for busy families.
It's the heart and soul of the Sears shoppers' love-including the quality brands and services
we're known for-with an added level of convenience and ease."
The layout is slightly different in the Las Vegas Sears Grand, with "convenience" items split
up throughout, one main entrance in the front, and a circular "boulevard" in the middle, as
opposed to the drive-aisle type boulevard featured in the first two stores. Like the Utah store,
the Vegas store has an outdoor lawn & garden nursery. While the Illinois location does not feature
an outdoor nursery, Sears says all Sears Grands moving forward will have outdoor lawn & garden
nurseries. Special features at Sears Grand- setting it apart from standard stores-include price
verifiers throughout the store, a self-serve shoe department, a convenience "pantry" department
and pet supplies. The store also includes a key-cutting area, custom window blind cutting and
paint mixing.
Sears will be opening a Sears Grand store this fall in Rancho Cucamonga, California, with the
next two stores scheduled to open in Austin, Texas and Cape Gerardo, Missouri. Sears plans
to increase the pace of growth for its Sears Grand format, targeting three of the newly
acquired Kmart locations for conversion to Sears Grand stores. Sears said the company plans
to be operating 12-14 Sears Grands by the end of 2005.
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FARM MART INVOLVEMENT WITH 4-H BENEFITS LOCAL YOUTH
Across the country, 4-H youth are benefiting from a recent FARM MART fundraising initiative, in which
FARM MART Retailers request donations from their customers to support the local 4-H chapter. The
fundraising initiative runs during the August/September FARM MART Circular promotion and is aimed
to not only raise funds for the organization, but to also raise awareness for the work that 4-H does
for the local youth and community. In return for their donations, customers write their names on a
4-H clover replica to display in the store.
FARM MART/4H Circular
(click to enlarge)
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Backed by the National 4-H Council and local 4-H chapters, the funds raised by each store will
go directly back to the county 4-H offices.
4-H, the youth education branch of the Cooperative Extension Service of the United States Department
of Agriculture, is a community of young people across America who are learning leadership, citizenship
and life skills.
FARM MART, a division of PRO Group, Inc., is a group of independent farm retailers who are focused
on serving the needs of local communities, placing special emphasis on supporting youth-oriented
activities and clubs, such as 4-H. Many independent, family-owned FARM MART retailers were themselves
once active in 4-H, and continue to play an active role in their area 4-H
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chapters. Randy Burns, manager
of retail space systems and merchandising/advertising coordinator for PRO Group, Inc., says, "It is
important for youth to have an appreciation of agriculture and how agriculture supports our society."
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Don Robison, managing director of FARM MART, was himself an active 4-H member. Don says, "4-H is
America's premier youth development organization and we are pleased that many of our FARM MART
retailers are already actively supporting 4-H in their communities. Our new promotional endeavors
simply take those efforts to the next level. FARM MART Retailers and 4-H Youth, alike, can benefit
from the collaboration of these synergistic activities. We are elated to be partnering with an
organization like 4-H."
FARM MART Vendors, Ames and Fi-Shock, are supporters of the program.
TALENT:
Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What's a sun-dial in the shade?
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