By Jim Bohman DAYTON DAILY NEWS
For a Wednesday, a working day for most people, it was a signal of instant success: By noon all parking lots were packed for the first official day of business at the Mall at Fairfield Commons.
Inside, throngs of shoppers marveled at the glittering marble floors, wrinkled their brows at costly sculpture on loan from the Pace Gallery in New York City and spent money.
Milton Hartley, chairman of Elder-Beerman Stores Corp., grinned as customers milled about his two-level, 150,000-square-foot department store - the largest in the mall. Hartley said the company's investment appears to be paying off handsomely.
The Elder-Beerman department store admitted shoppers Tuesday, a day early, for a trial run to make certain everything worked smoothly. "It was outstanding," Hartley declared, "a record day." A few weeks ago the company opened a new department store in Evansville, Ind., and set the previous company record for grand-opening sales. "But receipts at this store were 1 1/2 times bigger. It was humongous."
Concern that the Beavercreek Elder-Beerman would steal business from the company's seven other Dayton-area stores quickly vanished. "This store had very little impact on the others," Hartley said. Total sales at those stores were off only 1 percent. "That is amazing.
"This store is going to be a real comer. There's no doubt in my mind that it will have a real impact on our total sales." Hartley predicted the Fairfield Commons Elder-Beerman will post total annual sales of more than $25 million.
With 50 stores across six states, closely held Elder-Beerman posts annual sales of nearly $700 million.
Fairfield Commons is the first Dayton-area store for Parisian Inc. of Birmingham, Ala. Parisian president Donald Hess called Dayton "a great market. We have high expectations." The Beavercreek store is Parisian's 29th outlet and fourth in Ohio. The other three are in Cincinnati.
Hess said the company hopes for good sales from the new store because retailing in general "is flat."
James LaBreck, manager of the new J.C. Penney department store, was elated with Wednesday's business. "We're having a great day," he said. "Traffic is tremendous, and we seem to be pretty busy."
Penney held its own "invitation-only" soft opening sale Sunday with everything marked down 25 percent. LaBreck said the store was jammed. "We really weren't prepared for that much business." However, he said they were ready Wednesday.
The big retailers weren't the only ones with crowded stores. Jo Ewing, co-owner of Cat Fanatics, a small novelty shop next to Parisian, was busy helping customers. Owned by two cat fanciers, the shop sells gift items and apparel with cat motifs.
Steve Hone, whose wife Kate is a partner of the shop, said they anticipate the store "doing a minimum of $400,000 annually in sales. But you have to do those kinds of numbers to pay the rent. This is prime real estate."
A spokeswoman for the Glimcher Co., developer of the mall, declined to disclose the cost of mall space. "It varies depending on the type of retailer and the length of the lease," she said.
Robert Premus, an economist at nearby Wright State University, said the mall could do well because it caters to an upscale, niche market.
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