Rancho Cucamonga, CA, Jan. 8--The future of Sears, a retailer whose past is already part of American legend, may be under construction in Rancho Cucamonga, according to Press-Enterprise, Riverside, California.
This fall, Sears plans to open a pilot store called Sears Grand in a retail center on Foothill Boulevard. Compared to its mall-anchor pedigree, Sears Grand stands out for being larger than the buildings from which the company's marquee typically hangs.
The store will be 180,000 square feet, more than twice the size the average Sears. It will sell the usual Sears fare: refrigerators, washing machines, exercise equipment, power tools and electronics. What's new is milk and frozen pizzas for the refrigerator, detergent for the washing machines, Gatorade to recover from the exercise and compact discs to play in the stereo. In addition, the store will include service bays for car repairs and, inside, the soap and chamois for washing your car when you get home.
As much as the concept sounds like Wal-Mart, Sears emphasizes that it doesn't plan to enter the big-box discounter fray or go full-bore into the grocery business.
"We're in no way going to compete with the grocery stores," said Cory Rutt, a spokeswoman for Sears' corporate office in Hoffman Estates, IL. "We do have milk. I would describe the set of things we offer as pantry items or convenience items."
The Rancho Cucamonga store will be the fourth of five pilot stores Sears plans to test nationwide. The first Sears Grand opened in September in West Jordan, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City. Later this year, the stores will debut in Las Vegas and Gurnee, IL.
"With West Jordan, Gurnee and Rancho Cucamonga, those areas were chosen because of the prominence of young families," Rutt said.
Rutt said Sears Grand is a growth strategy for a retailer whose historical growth has been closely linked to mall construction. With mall construction on a fast decline, Sears Grand looks to be its own destination with the gravitational pull created by the mass of a warehouse-size store.
The company has struggled in recent years alongside retailers who don't fit the discount mold. Bob Thibbs, a Long Beach-based consultant to independent retailers who rails against the trend toward large, discount chain stores, stressed that said he doesn't see how Sears won't find itself competing in the Wal-Mart crowd.
"I think they're grabbing at straws," Thibbs said. "Now they're going to model themselves after Wal-Mart, and the problem is Wal-Mart has all the efficiencies to work on that economy of scale. ...That market continues to get crowded as everybody goes after that lowest common denominator of price. Sears is just kind of jumping on the wagon with it."
For now, Sears Grand is a relatively small experiment for the 118-year-old retailer. The five pilot stores stack against 870 mostly mall-based department stores.
"The stores in the malls are our primary focus," Rutt said. "Sears Grand is a growth strategy."
The strategy is still taking shape. Rutt said the company will use the five pilot stores to develop the prototype of the future of Sears Grand. Anything in the store is liable to change, from store layout to what goes on the shelves. Not every Sears Grand may stick with selling food. If frozen pizzas fail to justify their spot in the freezer, they could go away.
"A lot of it has yet to be determined," Rutt said. "It's too soon to tell. One of the benefits of taking the pilot-store approach is that we can learn as we go. By the time we open Rancho Cucamonga, we'll know more from Gurnee as well as Utah."
