Atlanta's Rich's department store chain unveiled Richway, its up-and-coming discount mart division, in 1969. Operations commenced, with two Greater Atlanta stores, on March 2, 1970. These were built in Dekalb County and Cobb County. By late 1970, there were four Greater Atlanta Richway stores.
Expansion into Charlotte, North Carolina occurred in 1973, with the Columbia, South, Carolina market entered in 1977. Further growth in Georgia, Florida -and into Tennessee- followed. The size of a typical Richway store averaged 96,000 square feet. Some included a Colonial-operated Richway Foods supermarket and attached, or freestanding, Auto Center.
Richway became an operative of Cincinnati-based Federated Stores following their October 29, 1976 acquisition of Rich's. In the fall of 1983, various shuttered Gold Triangle stores in Florida re-opened under the Richway nameplate. Eventually, there were thirty-one Richway locations.
1986 brought the consolidation of Federated's Gold Circle and Richway divisions into a single entity, based in the Columbus, Ohio suburb of Worthington. Stores continued to operate as either Gold Circle or Richway, but Richway units in North and South Carolina were rebranded with the Gold Circle nameplate.
Robert Campeau's mercantile meanderings brought an end to the Richway and Gold Circle chains in late 1988. Seventy-six stores were acquired by Jericho, New York's Kimco Development Corporation. Thirty-three were re-sold to Minnesota's Dayton Hudson Corporation. They re-opened, under the Target brand, in May 1989. Thirty-one units were leased by Hills Department Stores. These re-opened, under the Hills banner, in April 1989.
RICHWAY-ANCHORED SHOPPING MALLS:
*ROSWELL MALL, Roswell, GA (1974)
*DECKER MALL, Columbia, SC (1977)
*WOODHILL MALL, Columbia, SC (1978)
Click on this link to view a vintage RICHWAY commercial!
ROSES
Like Hills, this retail chain is difficult to categorize. Although it operated 5 & 10-type variety stores for many years, Roses units eventually functioned as standard discount department stores. Over the course of time, the company, which was originally based in the South, expanded its activities into the Midwestern and Mid-Atlantic regions.
The Roses story begins in Henderson, North Carolina, in June 1915. Paul Howard Rose, and wife Emma, established the first Rose's 5 & 10 Cent Store. A second unit opened -in Oxford, North Carolina- in 1916. The first South Carolina store was dedicated -in Mullins- in 1920, with a Virginia location established -in Franklin- in the same year. By 1921, there were eleven Rose's mercantiles.
Rose's 5-10-25-cent Stores went public in May 1927, with a store count of thirty. The Tennessee market was entered -with a Newport unit- in 1929. A Dawson, Georgia store welcomed first patrons in 1935. Unlike many retailers of the era, Rose's thrived and expanded during The Great Depression. Group health insurance was instituted in September 1932. By 1939, there were 100 stores in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia, with the largest of these encompassing 7,200 square feet.
The 1940s saw Rose's implement several innovations. Bucking a national trend, women were placed in management positions. Likewise, a Profit Sharing Trust Plan was provided for employees. Up to this time, all Rose's units had been freestanding. The company's first shopping center-format store opened -in Norfolk, Virginia's MIDTOWN CENTER- in October 1947. A shift toward shopping center-oriented stores was underway.
By 1950, the Rose's store count had reached 130. The company's first computer system -manufactured by IBM- was installed at the Henderson home office in 1953. This was an unsuccessful endeavor. The "electronic brain" was replaced by a more powerful Remington Rand UNIVAC machine in 1955. At this time, Rose's stores began to feature a luncheonette or snack bar and outdoor garden center. The first shopping mall-format store opened -at North Carolina's CHARLOTTETOWN MALL- in October 1959. This unit encompassed 30,000 square feet.
A Roses opened -in Spartanburg, South Carolina- in 1961. This unit, which encompassed 50,000 square feet, was not promoted as a (quote-unquote) "5, 10 & 25 Cent Store, but was advertised as a "discount department store." Reflecting this change, the official name of the company was changed to Roses Stores, Incorporated in 1962. More upscale merchandise began to be sold after a merger with the Paul H. Rose Corporation, which operated PHR Center Shops.
Roses was on a roll in the early 1970s, opening an average of twenty stores per year. These covered between 40,000 and 60,000 square feet. A unit was dedicated -in Jacksonville, Florida- in 1970. Unfortunately, by 1974, competition from chains such as Edwards, Big-K, Zayres and Hills had begun to cut into Roses' profits. A stagnant national economy exacerbated the situation.
A new president and CEO took the helm in 1980. Lucius H. Harvin III instituted several measures that brought Roses back to profitability. One of the largest impediments had been the disparity between the physical size of Roses stores, which ranged between 4,000 and 60,000 square feet. The remaining, small-format 5 & 10-variety stores were sold to Raleigh-based Variety Wholesalers in 1983.
In 1985, the company broke the one billion dollar sales barrier. By 1989, Roses Stores, Incorporated was operating 250 stores, with operations having expanded into Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, Mississippi and Alabama.
A second wave of competition had come as a result of Wal-Mart's expansion into the Roses trade area in the late 1980s. In September 1993, Roses Stores, Incorporated filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 100 stores closed in 1994. In 1995, the company emerged from bankruptcy. The chain, which now operated 106 stores, was sold to Variety Wholesalers in December 1997. All units continued to operate under the Roses nameplate.
A new corporate moniker, Variety Stores, Incorporated, was instituted in 2001. Under the guidance of Variety Wholesalers, the Roses division returned -once again- to profitability. In 2010, stores were established in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana. The Florida market was re-entered in 2011.
New store formats were introduced in the 2010s. A Roses Apparel, Home & Grocery opened -in Elizabeth City, North Carolina- in September 2012, but was unsuccessful. A more lucrative store concept, known as Roses Express, operated in units in the 20,000 square foot range. One of the first stores was dedicated -in Smithfield, Virginia- in July 2014. As of mid-2023, there were 250 Roses and Roses Express stores in operation in fifteen states.
ROSES JUNIOR-ANCHORED SHOPPING MALLS:
*CHARLOTTETOWN MALL, Charlotte, NC (1959)
*CROSSROADS MALL, Roanoke County, VA (1961)
*THE MALL (MALL ST. MATTHEWS), Jefferson County, KY (1962)
