Downtowns lucrative for Saks

Saks Fifth Avenue is planning additional “main street” department stores, after successfully experimenting with smaller, downtown locations in Greenwich, Connecticut, and Charleston, South Carolina. These stores are about a third the size (35,000 to 50,000 square feet) of Saks mall stores, and are placed on streets with lots of pedestrians. New stores are scheduled to open late in 1997 in Austin, Texas, and La Hoya, California; in 1998, two more will open in Santa Barbara and Napa Valley, California. At least two more stores may open in the next two years.