Sears' Appliance Concept

Sears Holding Corp. (Hoffman Estates, Ill.) will open three new Sears Home Appliance Showrooms in the Houston area this month.

It’s part of an effort by the retailer to serve the consumer who lives in outlying suburbia, between metropolitan and rural areas.

“We are catching that next new wave of growth in Houston,” Steve Titus, vp and general manager of Sears dealer stores, told The Houston Chronicle. “Growth in the city’s outer ring has been phenomenal.”

The more than 860 Sears dealer stores, a concept Titus helped launch in the early 1990s, sell appliances, hardware and lawn supplies. Two of these stores will be owned and run by Sears. The third will be owned by a local dealer.

The 5000-square-foot concept will feature kitchen vignettes and a children’s play area. It will also have a “softer” look inside, focusing on women, Titus says, “because the female is the decision-maker in the vast majority of household-appliance purchases.”

It also aims at consumers whose average incomes are “a little higher, people perhaps more interested in products that are a little more expensive than average,” Titus told The Chronicle.