Appliance, electronics retailer hhgregg plans to open store in Wilkes-Barre Twp.
Published: November 5, 2009
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share thisWILKES-BARRE TWP. - Indianapolis-based appliance and electronics retailer Hhgregg will open a 25,000-square-foot-store in a shopping center behind the Wyoming Valley Mall in the spring.
The store will move to the site that formerly housed Kids R Us, said Joseph Ohrin, marketing director at the Wyoming Valley Mall.
"We are pleased to introduce a new retailer in the electronics category into the region," said Joseph F. Coradino, president of Philadelphia-based Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, which owns the Wyoming Valley Mall and the shopping center behind the mall.
This will be the first store in Pennsylvania for Hhgregg, which operates 126 stores in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina and Tennessee.
A typical store employs 35 to 40 people, said Jason Chudoba, spokesman for Hhgregg. The retailer features electronics, household appliances, laptops, cameras, cell phones, digital televisions, mattresses, luggage, GPS systems and more. It also offers in-home delivery and installation service.
Hhgregg's planned opening follows the January closing of bankrupt electronics retailer Circuit City in Wilkes-Barre Twp. Circuit City closed 567 U.S. stores in all and left about 30,000 people without jobs.
Hhgregg will compete with electronics mega-chain Best Buy, which has a store in the nearby Arena Hub. Hhgregg plans to open 20 to 22 new stores in the next year and 40 to 45 new stores in 2011.
Contact the writer: dallabaugh@citizensvoice.com
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