Bye Bye Bealls, Hello Gordmans
Don’t let the yellow “Store Closing Sale” sign in Bealls fool you. The retail chain is merely re-branding its stores from Bealls to Gordmans, according to officials at the stores’ parent company, Stage Stores Inc.
“Stage is excited to announce it will convert the Bealls located in Amarillo to a Gordmans’ off-price retailer in 2020,” said Cheryl Moralez, senior manager for brand publicity at Stage. “The majority of the Stage nameplates will convert to Gordmans beginning in early 2020. A few stores may continue to operate under their current nameplate.”
“The Amarillo Bealls stores are planned to close in the days leading up to the Gordmans grand opening in 2020,” Moralez said. “The conversion from Bealls to Gordmans takes less than two weeks.
“During the transition of our stores to Gordmans, our associates at these stores will be offered jobs at Gordmans,” she added. “If additional associates are needed they will be hired during job fairs, which will be announced at a later date.”
Currently the Bealls location in Westgate Mall is actually hiring new associates right now.
Gordmans stores operate on what is called an “off-price concept,” which means the company sells items at lower prices than those typically charged by competing retail businesses.
Gordmans typically buy up overstocked goods or items at the low end of a seasonal demand cycle to enable them to undersell competitors and still turn a profit. Other stores doing this include TJ Maxx, Burlington and Ross.
The success with off-price retailing at its other stores is prompting the shift from Bealls to Gordmans, Stage officials said. Stage Stores operates in 42 states and has about 625 stores under the Bealls, Goody’s, Palais Royal, Peebles and Stage brand names.