| Posted: Tuesday, November 9, 1999 | 8:36 a.m. St. Louis Post Dispatch Grandpa's is selling out to Value City By Fred Faust Of The Post-Dispatch Grandpa's, a 45-year-old local chain of discount stores, has agreed to be acquired by Value City Department Stores. Terms were not disclosed. Grandpa's has 15 stores -- in St. Louis and in small towns as far away as Greenville, Ill., and Farmington, Mo. Its headquarters is in Bridgeton. Value City is a discounter based in Columbus, Ohio. It has 105 department stores in the Midwest, East and South, and 48 DSW Shoe Warehouse stores. The Grandpa's stores will have liquidation sales beginning the middle of this month. Then they will all close for remodeling and reopen as Value City stores. The Grandpa's store at 7077 Chippewa Street will be converted to a Value City furniture store. Tom Holley, chairman of Gramex Corp., which owns Grandpa's, said the company has about 2,000 employees. Value City has promised to keep all of Grandpa's store employees, he said. Headquarters personnel will get opportunities to work in the stores or at Value City's headquarters in Columbus, he said. Holley said his chain had about $200 million in sales last year. Throughout its history, Grandpa's remained true to its discount store roots. It didn't follow when competitors like Target gave their stores a more upscale feel. Holley said the privately held Gramex was profitable every year except 1993. But business is "much harder now," he said. "We're like the last of the regional discounters in the world," Holley said. "Thirty years ago, there were probably 40, now about three are left." To continue successfully, he said, Grandpa's would have had to expand by putting several stores in another large market. Also, family estate considerations played a role in the decision to sell. Holley, 52, is the only family member working at Gramex. He has three brothers, all of whom are teachers. "This is an opportunity to get value out of the investment," he said. Holley's grandfather, Tom Pidgeon, opened the first store in 1954 at Natural Bridge Avenue and St. Charles Rock Road. It was called Grandpa Pidgeon's Roost. Jack Holley, Tom's father, opened the second store in 1958, in East St. Louis, and others that followed. Jack Holley also developed two other concepts, Forsythe Computers and Omni Sporting Goods. Forsythe was sold in 1988 and the last Omni store closed earlier this year. Value City entered the St. Louis market in 1995. It's positioned a bit higher than Grandpa's, with some merchandise that's too expensive to be carried at Grandpa's. Value City's stock rose 50 cents Monday, closing at $17.125, a 52-week high. The company earned $24.8 million last year on sales of $1.36 billion. |