We've got a niche that works.
Discount retailer Roses is opening its first store in the Chattanooga area next week as the company tries to woo bargain shoppers.
A 22,000-square-foot Roses Express is slated to open Thursday in Fort Oglethorpe at LaFayette Highway and Cloud Springs Road at the site of a former Food Lion supermarket. Later this year, the company plans another unit in Dalton, Georgia.
Kevin Pitt, a district manager for North Carolina-based retailer, said Roses Express carries such items as clothes, health and beauty aids, and some food goods.
"It has the same prices as other discount stores here if not better," he said.
Pitt cited the "depth of apparel" offerings within the store.
"That's our space," said the district manager. "We've got a niche that works."
Roses traces its roots to Variety Wholesalers Inc., a family owned business that began in 1922. In 1949, John W. Pope took over his family's five-and-dime stores, eventually growing them into a retailer with 380 locations mostly in the Southeast, according to the company's website.
Today, Pope's son, Art Pope, serves as chairman of the privately held retailer that operates out of the Roses, Roses Express, Maxway, Super 10, Bargain Town, Bill's Dollar Store and Super Dollar nameplates.
Pitt said a Roses Express store is typically a little smaller than a Roses unit, which tend to run about 40,000 square feet. That larger store is planned for Dalton with a tentative November opening date, he said.
The Fort Oglethorpe store, located in Cloud Springs Plaza, expects to hire between 25 and 30 employees, Pitt said.
"We're still looking for people," he said, noting that Thursday's planned debut is a "soft opening." A grand opening is slated for Aug. 29, Pitt said.
He said he's hopeful Roses will open more area stores, including some within Chattanooga itself.
"We should have several stores in this market," Pitt said about the retailer that has other units in the Nashville vicinity, Upper East Tennessee and the Atlanta area.
Cloud Springs Plaza also offers shoppers a Big Lots store and a Babcock Home Furniture and More unit.
Variety Wholesalers, based in Henderson, N.C., employs more than 7,000 people at its more than half dozen brands of stores.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318. Follow him on Twitter @MikePareTFP.