Pittsford Plaza grows with
upscale discount stores

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This holiday season, many shoppers will witness the apparent Midas effect that has touched Pittsford Plaza in the past few years.
Cohoe’s is the latest retailer to mine for the gold that seems to pave this stretch of Monroe Avenue. In March, the off-price retailer moved its only Upstate New York store from Jefferson Road in Henrietta to Pittsford Plaza, blaming a lack of traffic.
Since the move, Cohoe’s has seen a “very, very, very sizable increase in sales,” reports general manager Linda Thompson, who declined to disclose exact figures. She did say, however, that although the Pittsford store is the third largest in a chain of four, it ranks first in terms of growth for this year.
Thompson confirms that even with similarly targeted stores in the immediate vicinity–such as TJ Maxx and Marshall’s–Cohoe’s continues to thrive, and adds, “There is no reason to believe other off-price stores in the area are taking away from Cohoe’s business.”
Thompson also says Cohoe’s places as much emphasis on service and atmosphere as on value, while its competitors tend to focus primarily on price.
Sherry Lang, investor and public relations director for Massachusetts-based TJX Cos. Inc., which owns both TJ Maxx and Marshall’s, agrees there is a large enough customer base for the stores to coexist.
“We have (TJ Maxx and Marshall’s) stores in many markets across the country that compete successfully. There is a fair amount of crossover marketing (between the two) and we like that,” she says.
Marshall’s has operated successfully across the street from the plaza, in the Pittsford Colony shopping center, for a number of years; TJ Maxx completed renovation and a move within Pittsford Plaza in August 1996. In other areas, though–Greece, for example–TJX closed either Marshall’s or TJ Maxx.
In April 1996, Barnes & Noble opened its first area store in Pittsford Plaza. The store occupies 46,500 square feet in the former site of B. Forman, which went out of business in 1992. Rachel El-Yafi, manager of corporate communications for Barnes & Noble Inc., says the company has been very pleased with the response it has gotten from Rochester customers, and adds the store has done “very well” in terms of sales. Barnes & Noble currently operates 504 stores in the United States.
Pittsford Plaza also was the site for Bed Bath & Beyond’s first Rochester venture. The New Jersey-based housewares giant opened a 40,000-square-foot store in October 1996, but a company spokesperson refused to comment on how its sales have been.
Eugene Fram, Rochester Institute of Technology’s J. Warren McClure Professor of Marketing, says the choice of location for these chains’ first Rochester stores can be attributed to the affluence of the area.
For example, Barnes & Noble was a logical choice for Pittsford Plaza because wealthy people tend to be better-educated, and therefore read more, explains Fram. Bed Bath & Beyond and the other home-oriented stores springing up in the area also make sense, he adds, because affluent people are more inclined to spend money on furnishing and redecorating their homes.
That these stores, as well as many others, have found success in Pittsford Plaza is not surprising. According to the Census Bureau, Pittsford has a median household income of $69,574, in contrast to a median of $35,337 for the entire city of Rochester.
Yet other experts point to the increase in value-conscious shopping, and many of the stores in the Pittsford Plaza area, such as Cohoe’s, are considered bargain spots for the more affluent.
Although Pittsford is inarguably one of Rochester’s wealthiest suburbs, the plaza has endured some quiet times.
When it opened in 1961, the original tenants included J.C. Penney, Edward’s and Star Market. Bed Bath & Beyond now operates on the first floor of the Penney’s site, and TJ Maxx on the second. Chase-Pitkin Home and Garden recently opened where Edward’s (and then Kmart) used to be, and Pittsford Plaza Cinema is in the former location of Star Market.
John Kraus, president of Genesee Management Inc., which manages the plaza for Wilmorite Inc., prefers to say that the years when major anchor stores had shut down and left large vacancies were simply transitional. “There has never been a time when one would view (the plaza) as being in distress,” he says.
“Pittsford Plaza’s location is so superior to other strip-type locations in Rochester that merchants would never have gone by and not weigh up the possibility of being on Monroe Avenue in Rochester,” he explains. He adds that the plaza has always exceeded expectations in terms of sales, and has seen “one improvement after another.”
Kraus points out that in addition to the high-quality stores in the plaza itself, many stores along Monroe Avenue also help draw traffic.
“Competition breeds business,” he says, citing upscale women’s clothing stores as well as jewelers and music stores in the vicinity. He describes area merchants as an eclectic mix and says he believes that they all help each other.
There is no doubt that when Kraus mentions “high-quality” stores in the area, he includes Wegmans, yet another resident of Monroe Avenue to undergo recent renovations.
The grocery superstore was overhauled in 1997, and was the largest in the 54-store Wegmans Food Markets Inc. chain at the time it reopened. It contained many area firsts, including gourmet cooking classes, a wood-fired brick oven for baking bread, and a two-story Market Cafe. Says Kraus, “Having a neighbor like Wegmans is a positive thing.”
Will this “golden road” lose its shine anytime soon? Most likely not. Fram predicts we will see other specialty stores opening in the area, and maybe a discount or upscale department store (such as Kohl’s or Jacobson’s, respectively), but says either way, he expects 3349 Monroe Ave. to endure as a “major plaza” in Rochester’s marketplace.
Says Kraus, “The future is as bright as or brighter than the past.”

11/20/98