Sears Store Returning to North Adams

By Tammy Daniels
iBerkshires Staff
03:05PM / Tuesday, November 17, 2009

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A peek inside the hole in the wall that's being turned into a new Sears Hometown Store in North Adams.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — A Westfield man is expanding his Sears empire northward with the opening of a second store in the city.

The focus is on customer service and community, said new owner Neal E. Lacomb. "We call ourselves the mom-and-pop store with the big name."

Lacomb owns a Sears Hometown Store in Hadley that he describes as "very successful" and believes North Adams offers the same opportunity.

"We went with North Adams because we felt that North Adams was the type of local community that my store was designed for," he said. "The closer knit the community is, the more that type of community is looking for my crew to come in and help them find what they need. ... It's important to me to create a whole family ... employees and residents."

The Sears Hometown Store is expected to open by the end of January in the vacant space between Planet Fitness and the cinemas in the former Kmart plaza. Workers punched a hole through the building's brick wall on Monday and were working inside on Tuesday. The plaza, named Steeple City Plaza, is owned by Neil Ellis of First Hartford Realty.

The Sears store leaves at least one more location open in the building — the multiwindowed former Kmart garden center on the building's east side along Ashland Street.

The store will offer appliances, lawn and garden items, hardware and electronics. Customers may also order through the Sears online catalog and have purchases delivered to the store or at home.

Sears began developing the franchise idea in the 1990s as former catalog stores began closing. A catalog store on Main Street sold similar merchandise as the "hometown" concept until closing after a Sears department store opened in the Berkshire Mall two decades ago.

Lacomb said he'll sell everything that the mall store sells with the exception of clothing — although he'll order that for you. Another major difference will be that Lacomb's employees won't get commissions on sales. Instead of pushing people to buy what they don't need, the focus will be on matching them to what they do need, he said.

The costumer-oriented focus Lacomb learned from his own parents' endeavors has created an atmosphere reminiscent of an old-time general store in Hadley — Lacomb bakes cookies and neighbors just drop in to say hi.

He plans to split his time here and at the Hadley store, with a husband-and-wife team from Cedar City, Utah, hired to manage the North Adams store full time. They've been learning the ropes with Lacomb and his wife, Susan, in Hadley.

"They've been working at this store for six months now," he said. "I know that they know how to make [the North Adams] store my store."

Lacomb opened his Hadley store just a few months after Sears announced in early 2008 that it was looking for an investor/operator for the North Adams location. He's eyeing more stores in the future.

Entrepreneurs have to apply to own and operate a Sears Hometown Store, be able to invest from $55,000 to $100,000 into the operation and go through training.

"We've got a good owner," said Arthur Burke, regional development manager for Sears Dealer stores, on Tuesday. "We like them to be in business for more than a year to see how they run the operation. He's certainly proven he can do that." 

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