Steve & Barry's coming to Univ Mall

[usfdba]

Hmmm...Bulls gear for under 10 bucks?  Someone mentioned this store in another thread awhile back, and it just so happens one is moving into the JC Penney's space:

http://tampatrib.com/Business/MGBQLTAKBGE.html

Budget Sportswear Store Coming To Tampa

By MICHAEL SASSO msasso@tampatrib.com

Published: Nov 22, 2005

TAMPA - -- Dollar stores have proved that you can sell kitchen spatulas and sunglasses at ridiculously low prices. Now, a fast-growing clothing chain, Steve & Barry's University Sportswear, is betting it can do the same with T-shirts and sweaters.

Steve & Barry's will open the first week of December at University Mall, on the first floor of the former J.C. Penney store. Price is its claim to fame. Everything in Steve & Barry's stores sells for $9.98 or less, including all T-shirts, college-branded sweatshirts and even varsity jackets.

So far, its cut-rate prices have allowed Steve & Barry's to double in size in the past year. Based in Port Washington, N.Y., Steve & Barry's has grown to 115 stores in 29 states from about 60 stores at this time last year, company spokesman Rick Gomes said.

"From the inception of the store, their [founders Steve Shore and Barry Prevor] mission has always been to help the consumer save money," Gomes said. "Many of the apparel companies out there could be charging what we charge, but they choose not to."

When Steve & Barry's opens, it still will look like an old JCPenney. Steve & Barry's wants to open before Christmas, even though renovations will not be completed. In February, it will close for about a month to finish renovations, Gomes said.

Among its merchandise: About 1,000 different T-shirts will be on display at one time, said Prevor, co-chief executive officer of the company.

As its name suggests, Steve & Barry's University Sportswear has oodles of college-branded clothes. All told, the company holds 350 licenses with colleges and universities, so it can create its own T-shirts and other apparel with college logos, Prevor said. About 30 percent of Steve & Barry's merchandise carries a college or university logo, Gomes said.

According to media reports, the company is relentless at slashing its overhead costs to keep prices low. One recent Forbes magazine article labels Prevor a "tariff engineer" for his ability to take advantage of quirks in the U.S. tariff system. For example, a nylon jacket from China might ordinarily carry a duty of 28 percent. But Prevor orders a version that has a water-resistant coating. The jacket then can be reclassified as "rainwear," which carries a tariff of 4 percent, Forbes wrote.

Steve & Barry's will be the second University Mall anchor offering cut-rate prices, along with Burlington Coat Factory. Nonetheless, mall general manager Tom Locke said the mall is not turning into an off-price shopping center, such as Tampa's Britton Plaza on South Dale Mabry, which is home to Burlington Coat Factory, Stein Mart, Marshalls and Big Lots.

Lill Hanson, a retail real estate broker with Grubb & Ellis in Tampa, said the new Steve & Barry's store is a sign of a growing trend at enclosed malls. Too many malls have the same tenants and struggle to stand out. So, many malls are signing leases with nontraditional mall tenants, such as Target, Hanson said.

"I think that malls are all getting to be so much alike, so it's good to have a little different type of a user," Hanson said.

[Guest]

Wait, I thought USF was buying University Mall for space to build a stadium??

;-)

[ZeroBullChip]

They have one at festival bay in the big zero.  It's pretty nice, they had USF stuff there.  

[Paisa el Toro]

I like S&B's stuff. They had one in Lansing, MI, which carried nothing but MSU and UMich stuff. It'll be nice to get some cheap USF T-shirts.

[Bobcat99]

This is AWESOME. I think their clothes really kind of tend to suck, but they do have really, really cheap items like underarmour-type clothes.

Way too much space is taken up by novelty t-shirts that aren't funny, though. Guess what, kids: "Federal Bureau of Intoxication" wasn't funny the first time around, and it didn't get better with age.

Still very exciting that they're moving in.

[smazza]

great

they fill a void