Langhorne, Pa. – Sixth Avenue
Electronics has opened its second Philadelphia-area store and has begun work on
its third.
To support the expansion, the New
York metro area specialty chain has acquired a 500,000-square-foot facility,
expandable to 1 million square feet, in
nearby Somerset, N.J., which now serves as its central distribution center and
houses its e-commerce and service operations. The company also plans to move
its headquarters there in the near future.
The new store, the chain’s 18
th
,
is located at the Oxford Valley strip mall, here, where it faces hhgregg’s
first Philadelphia site, which opened in May. The store had a soft opening Wednesday
and officially debuts next week.
The company wouldn’t disclose the
location of its third Philadelphia store, slated to open in October, although a
report in the Philadelphia Business Journal
places it in nearby Deptford, N.J. The publication said Sixth Avenue paid $7
million for the two 35,000-square-foot sites, which were former Office Depot stores.
Sixth
Avenue opened its first Philly store last year in Montgomeryville, Pa., across
from fellow Progressive Retailers Organization (PRO Group) member World Wide
Stereo.
The
market, which had been devoid of a regional-chain presence since the demise of
Tweeter Home Entertainment, is quickly becoming a CE/majap battleground as
Sixth Avenue and hhgregg backfill the area. New York powerhouse P.C. Richard also
plans to enter the region later this year with two big-box stores.
Sixth
Avenue recently added major appliances to its mix under former Best Buy majap
exec Tom Cook. Its newest stores will feature 10,000-square-foot white-goods
departments with kitchen vignettes, live appliances and cooking demos, the
company said.
Operations
VP Tom Galanis doesn’t believe the Philadelphia market can support three
specialty chains, but said Sixth Avenue, which began in Manhattan, is well-versed
in the high costs, cut-throat competition and tough, sophisticated customers of
the New York-Philly corridor.
