Published: March 04, 2009 08:09 am      

Roses Store filling Value City void in Cumberland

CUMBERLAND — Wilson Sawyer paid his first visit to the Queen City recently, arriving at the Greater Cumberland Regional Airport following a flight from Charlotte, N.C.

The corporate executive liked what he saw.

Tuesday, Sawyer told the Times-News he is opening a 50,000-square-foot department store at the former Value City location on Queen City Drive and that the store would employ 40 people.

“I think it’s a great city. We’re very impressed with the community. We’ll try to make up for Value City leaving. We’ll fill the void,” said Sawyer, who is president of Variety Stores Inc., which plans to locate a Roses Store at 50 Queen City Drive in the next few months.

Sawyer said Roses Store is a “discount store that operates with a wide variety of family apparel, traditional discount store items, candy, housewares, domestics, toys, seasonal products” included in its retail inventory.

The store will operate from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.Monday through Saturday, and from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.

Sawyer said the decision to locate in Cumberland — one of 12 new Roses Stores scheduled to open in various states this year — was reached because “we thought it was a real opportunity with Value City leaving.”

“We are a neighborhood store with customers typically coming from a 1- to 3-mile range.

“Our philosophy is to operate an everyday low-price store rather than a discount store. We consider ourselves an extreme-value store. Our reason to survive is that we think we can save our customers money,” said Sawyer, who said his company has also looked at other locations formerly occupied by Value City stores.

The family-owned company is reportedly signing a multiyear lease. “We expect to be there for lots of years,” he said.

There are 102 Roses stores operating in 14 states. In Maryland, Roses Stores are located in Baltimore and Lexington Park. Roses Stores are also located in Princeton, W.Va., as well as Harrisonburg and Charlottesville, Va.

Variety Stores Inc. also operates Maxway Stores, Super 10 and Super Dollar stores.

Asked to compare his store with similar retail businesses, Sawyer said, “We are different but we have similarities will all the big retail stores.”

Roses Store is expected to open sometime between July 1 and the middle of August. The North Carolina-based company will make announcements concerning job applications and hiring in the near future.

Contact Jeffrey Alderton at jlalderton@times-news.com.