Roses is stocked and

By JAMES CLARK

Roses has all types of lawn furniture, including an outdoor swing that will sell for $50 as a grand opening special.

On most Sundays, the news that Roses is on the verge of opening would be the top Business Pulse story of the day. But with Bookland and Ironhorse Trailers, Roses is relegated to the No. 3 spot.
But don’t let that diminish the importance of what I’m about to say. Roses is progressing very well at its store at Three Star Mall and an opening date is currently set for April 17.
‘We’re grand-opening ready,’ said store manager Chad Jones. ‘We look good. About the only thing left is to fill in a couple holes in our inventory and to finish some training. Other than that we’re ready to go.’
Roses currently has 40 employees out of a mind-boggling 1,200 applicants. The store will be open Monday thru Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
While touring the store Friday, I was fairly well impressed. It’s not another U.S. Factory Outlets, but rather another solid general retailer for our community.
Roses has a little of everything. Merchandise I noticed includes: lawn and garden, snacks, soda, kitchen and bathroom items, purses, clothes, furniture, lamps, TVs, vacuum cleaners, and sporting equipment.
And since I know you’re wondering, yes the prices are low.
Chad told me the biggest challenges have been getting the store ready with an inexperienced crew and an inexperienced home office.
‘If you look at Roses, the company was on the downswing for awhile,’ said Chad. ‘Now Roses is on the upswing and we’re opening three stores as we speak. But Roses doesn’t have a lot of experience in opening stores. The people at our home office don’t have a lot of experience opening stores. So they’re getting a lot of feedback from us and it’s been a learning experience for everyone.’
Now that the store is largely stocked, the focus turns to the cash registers, which are high-tech pieces of machinery. Everything is touch screen and the registers are operated entirely by code. There are no keys needed.
While employees are getting ample training, Chad says there is no substitute for live action when anything could happen with a customer.
‘We can teach all we want to, but until we open the doors and it’s the real deal, we don’t know what’s going to happen,’ said Chad. ‘That will be a big challenge for us.’
One thing I should emphasize is every Wednesday at Roses will be senior citizens day. That’s when people 55 and over get 10 percent off their entire purchase.
Be on the lookout for Roses to open in the very near future.