PITTSBURGH -- Phar-Mor, the fast-growing deep discount drug store chain, will cap off 1992 with 60 new stores in two new states--Utah and New York--and several new markets including metro New York and Dallas.
Phar-Mor has confirmed that it will make its entry into the New York metropolitan market with a 67,000-sq.-ft. store in the South Hills Mall in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., about 90 minutes north of New York. The mall, realigned as a discount center, will soon be home to a new Service Merchandise catalog showroom and an enlarged Kmart. New tenants already include OfficeMax and Burlington Coat Factory.
The store is not expected to open until next year, said Carol Robinson, Phar-Mor's vice president, advertising.
Complete expansion plans for metropolitan New York have not been disclosed. However, Robinson said Phar-Mor is "actively looking at locations throughout the entire state of New York."
So far, Phar-Mor has signed a lease for a store in Henrietta, N.Y., in the Rochester market, slated to open in the fourth quarter Other stores will open in upstate New York this year, but the locations are in the final stages of negotiation and have not yet been released.
In addition, Phar-Mor is expected to open a store in Atlantic City, N.J., in July.
Phar-Mor recently entered the lucrative Dallas market with a store in Mesquite and will expand to six units there by the end of this year. The chain also will expand in Detroit, San Antonio and California. Earlier this year, Phar-Mor opened three stores in Utah, in Salt Lake City, Ogden and Orem, and will follow with a fourth store, in Salt Lake City, later this year.
Currently, Phar-Mor operates 291 stores in 33 states and expects to end 1992 with 351 stores in 35 states. Units average 65,000 sq. ft. and offer 40,000 skus of such diverse merchandise as perscription and OTC drugs, cosmetics, food, liquor and beverages, apparel, office supplies, home video, and automotives.
In addition, the chain has been testing a number of new merchandise programs including a Mrs. Fields cookie franchise, a team sportswear department and optical centers.
The team sportswear department has been "implemented in a number of locations," said Robinson. The Mrs. Fields cookie franchise was installed in a store in Boardman, Ohio, during the fourth quarter of 1991. The test will be expanded shortly to one more store.
The optical department, introduced in one San Antonio unit in early April, was expanded to two other San Antonio sites weeks later.
Programs are in the early testing stages, Robinson said.
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