Consumers in Greater Baltimore will soon have more choices for buying flat-screen TVs, refrigerators and iPods. Electronics store
hhgregg will open five stores this spring in Baltimore and Anne Arundel Counties, marking one of the region's biggest retail expansions in years. A sixth store, a distribution center, will open in Brandywine, in Prince George's County.
The Indianapolis, Ind.-company is spending around $2.7 million to open each new store this year, according to public financial documents. That means it will invest about $14 million in the Greater Baltimore region. Each store occupies around 30,000 square feet.
The company is capitalizing on cheaper real estate by expanding at a time when many chains are scaling back, says Jeff Pearson, hhgregg's vice president of marketing.
Hhgregg also sees a void in the consumer electronics market since Circuit City went out of business shuttering all of its stores nationwide last year. Four of the new hhgregg stores will land in former Circuit City locations. One outlet, at 6711 Ritchie Highway in Glen Burnie, is the site of a former Best Buy that moved across the street earlier this month to 6722 Ritchie Highway.
The other hhgregg stores will be located at:
• 6026 Baltimore National Pike, Catonsville;
• 7667 Arundel Mills Boulevard, Hanover;
• 801 Goucher Boulevard, Towson;
• 14301 Mattawoman Drive, Brandywine; and,
• 150 Jennifer Road, Annapolis.
The electornics retailer put Baltimore on its expansion map because of it's high household income, population density and an interest among residents in buying electronics, Pearson says. Baltimore ranks No. 3 on its list of cities in which it will add new stores this year, after Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
In choosing a location, hhgregg looks for areas that contain a number of retailers � including competing big-box retailers like Best Buy and Home Depot, Pearson says. That way, it can catch the eye of shoppers on the hunt for new gadgets.
Hhgregg currently operates around 130 stores in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. It pulls in about $1.4 billion in annual sales.
Sources: Jeff Pearson, hhgregg
Writer: Julekha Dash