Former discount retail execs team up on new retail, wholesale business
ST. LOUIS — A group of former executives from Save-A-Lot, Grandpa's Stores and Deals: Nothing Over a Dollar has teamed up to create a new business venture that they said would combine wholesale, retail and e-commerce components.
The retail and e-commerce component of the business will operate under the name Here Today and will sell "deeply discounted" merchandise including consumables, electronics and small appliances, storage, health and beauty, home decor, pet products, seasonal, gifts and others. The stores will range from 15,000- to 20,000-sq.-ft. and will open in accessible, high-traffic neighborhood strip centers, starting with four stores in the St. Louis market later this year.
The group opening the new company includes Bill Shaner, who served as president and CEO of Save-A-Lot Stores from 2006 to 2011; former Grandpa's Stores president and CEO and Deals founder and president Tom Holley; Grandpa's, Deals and Save-A-Lot former EVP merchandising Larry Tyler; Grandpa's, Deals and Save-A-Lot former EVP real estate development Rick Meyer; and former Grandpa's, Deals and Save-A-Lot buyer and category expert Jeff Schneider.
"We believe that we can deliver exceptional values at a time when consumers place tremendous importance on saving both time and money," Holley said. "We're taking the best parts of some of the other value-centric retail formats out there, blending in on-trend merchandise, pricing it to knock people's socks off and bundling it all in a store that is truly inspiring. In doing so, we believe we will transform the category of off-price retail."
The wholesale division of the company will be called STL Global Sales and will sell discounted consumables and general merchandise across multiple categories to a network of wholesale contacts ranging from major national chains to small, independent wholesalers and retailers.
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