Sears opens third Grand store in Vegas

Sears, Roebuck and Co. opened its third Sears Grand pilot store in Las Vegas on July 31. The 165,000-sq.-ft. store features a combination of private and national brands and consumables as well as traditional department store products. Sears plans to open 12 to 14 more of these formats by the end of 2005, and it will debut a mid-sized version of the Grand concept. The company had a dismal second quarter, prompting it to cut its full-year forecast. Its sales were down from $7.9 billion last year to $7.7 billion this year with comps off 2.9%. Though Sears attributed this to slack June sales across the industry and its inventory issues and under-performing spring apparel, its home fashions generated sales growth.