Mall Is Jampacked For Mervyn's Opening -- Other Stores Benefit From `Sea' Of Shoppers

EVERETT

Mervyn's recent opening at Everett Mall created Christmas in July for the shopping center's retailers, says Linda Stribling, the mall's general manager.

Last Sunday, the first day of Mervyn's grand opening, shoppers packed the mall at levels retailers see only at Christmas time. After the parking lot filled, determined shoppers left their cars across Everett Mall Way and dodged traffic crossing the four-lane road to visit the newly renovated store, Stribling says.

"It's obvious shoppers have been just waiting for Mervyn's to open . . . Christmas is the only time of year that we are that jampacked," she says.

Greg Louie, merchandiser at the Everett Mervyn's, says no customer count is available for opening day. "Visually, it was a sea of people. It almost reminded me of the Torch Light Parade, from the moment we opened until we closed the doors," he says.

The opening of Mervyn's increased traffic for retailers throughout the mall, Stripling says. One worker at the KarmelKorn Shoppe near Mervyn's agreed, that business at that shop has increased significantly since the anchor tenant opened.

At Smart Size, a women's clothing store located next to Mervyn's, customer traffic has at least doubled since the new store opened, says Kris Anderson, assistant manager. "It's been wonderful . . . We're not bored anymore," she says.

Mervyn's grand opening continues through Sunday.

The Hayward, Calif.-based retailer, a Dayton Hudson Corp. subsidiary, said, in September, it would move from its other Everett location to the vacated Frederick & Nelson store at the mall. The store was one of five locations F&N initially closed as part of the company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. When F&N left Everett mall, various merchants said they welcomed the change to Mervyn's.

Mervyn's bought three of the five closed F&N locations, including Everett, the Tacoma Mall store and the Capitol Mall location in Olympia, for about $11.5 million. After undergoing extensive renovations, all three stores staged simultaneous grand openings last weekend. Another Mervyn's, currently under construction, is scheduled to open at Southcenter in October.

F&N closed its doors at the Everett Mall in September. However, legal issues surrounding the bankruptcy prevented Mervyn's from beginning renovations until January. The closure left merchants in the F&N wing of the mall without an anchor tenant to help draw customers for the past 10 months.

Although acknowledging that the renovations at the Everett store were extensive, the company would not say how much was spent.

"For competitive reasons, we never disclose how much we invest in a location," says Kathy Blackburn, a Mervyn's spokeswoman. Blackburn also declined to disclose sales volume for individual stores. Average annual sales volume at a single store is $17 million, she says.

Customers who frequented the old F&N store in Everett will probably notice that Mervyn's seems significantly smaller. The 120,000-square-foot store now has only about 70,000 square feet of selling area, which is typical of a Mervyn's store, Louie estimates. The additional space is being used for storage and office space.

The Everett Mervyn's employs about 150 workers. The majority of the workers came from the now-closed Everett Mervyn's store, Louie says.