Sunday, July 2, 2006

Rose's Discount Store


Rose's in Blue Ridge, GA. Additional photos of this store will come in the future. This was an original PH Rose location, completed in 1985.

For those of you disgruntled by Wal-Mart, Rose's was once poised to be serious competition to Wal-Mart here in the southeast. Problem was, as it was preparing for the fight it instead lost its footing and now barely holds on in a few places as a glorified dollar store. In Georgia, Rose's used to be a much more significant chain found in many locations including Lake Shore Mall in Gainesville (now a Belk Men's, Home and Kid's store). Today it is less than half the size it was at its peak in the late 1980's. Like Wal-Mart, Rose's expanded from a five and dime concept originally known as PH Rose. It was headquartered in Western North Carolina.


This location is located in the Mars Hill area north of Asheville on US 25/70 off of Future I-26. It appears to have been built in the 1990's.

The only one I personally know in Georgia still to be operational is a store in Blue Ridge located next to the Ingles, but your comments have alerted me that quite a few exist still across the state. Note the Blue Ridge store pictured above. It was built with the center in 1985 and has never been expanded or updated. Prior to 1995, it was more of a regular discount store, even including a video rental area. The store still gets decent business, though, because Wal-Mart has yet to expand to the city. This is about to diminish, though, as a new Wal-Mart opening in Blairsville will reduce the market area for Rose's.


The Sylva location uses a slightly modified all red logo vs. the older white logo. It is not known if this store is original, but it is off of US 74 (Great Smoky Mountain Expressway) on the exit named simply "Sylva".

While there is not a lot of information aside from the explosively popular Wikipedia article about it (complete with user-submitted locations), Rose's is today apparently part of a collection of dollar stores on steroids. These stores include Maxway (a staple in blue collar neighborhoods), SuperValu, Bill's Dollar Store and others. The company that has owned them since 1995 is SuperValu, and they run them today as sort of a hybrid concept. Basically, imagine Fred's, but run more like Wal-Mart in the 1980's or Big K in the 1970's. I'm amazed they are still around with so much competition on both the dollar store and discount store fronts.

111 comments:

  1. Yeah, Roses has become pretty junky in the past ten years or so. I grew up in Hampton, VA and there was a brand new one built in 1993, it closed in 1994. This store was very clean, very nice, it even had a craft department!

    I moved to Franklin, VA last year and there is a Roses in there and I walked in there, and it kind of reminds me of Big Lots--with a flooring department?! Here's a picture of the Franklin location from my blog:

    http://sickmalls.blogspot.com/2005/08/how-or-why.html

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  2. There's another surviving Rose's location: on the east side of Albany, in a (very run-down) strip center near the intersection of Oglethorpe Blvd. (US-82 east) and US-19/GA-300.

    How long it hangs in is anybody's guess, as plans are in the making to build ... you guessed it ... yet another Smileycenter in the vicinity.

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  3. Interesting that Rose's almost worked its way to Florida. I wish there was some way to know the full extent of this chain before it started faltering. The only one i ever remember seeing in my entire life was the one in Blue Ridge until i discovered a few in NC.

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  4. There was also one in Ozark, Ala. until circa 1981. A Wal-Mart replaced it, surprise surprise. I'd never been to that one, matter of fact I've never so much as darkened the doors of a Rose's. It was the only one I'd ever seen in Alabama, that much I know.

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  5. Well somehow the Rose's I know of still gets some respect. I guess it's nice to see that people don't despise a store just because it looks seedy and cannot remotely compete with the Stupidcenter. Perhaps its small size works to its advantage because people think "Fred's". In fact, Fred's almost bought them out in 1996.

    And speaking of W-M buy outs, they bought out Kuhn's Big K in 1981 in Georgia. My friend showed me one of those former locations in Dalton the other day...in a really weird spot behind the railroad tracks sitting behind this small open-air mall at the Bry-Man's Plaza shopping center. Weren't the 70's great? :-P

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  6. Last I heard (this was a little over two years ago, now), there was still an active Rose's in Macon, literally around the corner from a Supercenter! When I worked in the area, I'd occasionally duck in there to see what was on the cheap-cheap. Basically, the Rose's served the area's AA working-class population, while the Supercenter served the middle-class whites who would drive in from around the east Macon area, as well as some of the outlying areas (Gray, especially).

    There was also one in Griffin as recently as 2000.

    -hx

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  7. There are 2 Rose's in Macon.

    One on the Southside on Pio Nono Ave. and the other on the Northside at the corner of Gray Highway and Sterling(sic) Drive. Athens had 2 Rose's, but the one on Atlanta Hwy. shutdown in about 1990 or so and currently is divided between Big Lots and Hancock Fabrics, while the Eastside Location at Gaines School Road and Lexington Road has sat empty since 1993, with Family Dollar and Advance Auto Parts each taking the corners of the store but those 2 have since moved on to freestanding stores in the area.

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  8. there is a Roses Store in Thomasville, GA that seems to be doing pretty good business. It is located in the downtown vicinity and has been operating there since the early 80s

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    1. This location will be closing within a year due to the ending of the lease in the original building which opened as a Clarks in the 1970s. the city plans to raise the building and construct a conference center or something like that.

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  9. I've got friends and family in Mineral Bluff, just past this Rose's store, and while no one really wants to drive to either Murphy or Ellijay to get to a smileycenter, they sure don't wanna see Rose's go down in favor of the smiley face either.

    In fact, local folks rejected a big waste processing plant which would have brought maybe 100 or so more jobs to the area. They like it rural.

    Smiley would probably plop a big store right smack in the middle of Ducktown TN, a town which rolls up the streets at night, if they thought people would flock there.

    We'd all do well to remember the South Park episode "Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes" when reflecting on small-businesses and the glory days of decades past.

    "smiling faces....sometimes"

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  10. I would always go to the one in Fuquay-Varina, NC. Last I saw, despite being literally across the street from a supercenter, it has a loyal following.

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  11. It seems from what I'm hearing and from the scenario with the Blue Ridge location that Rose's has a niche, and I wish that someone could take an established concept like that and run wild with it. It would be nice if Sears could scrap the Kmart name, buy Rose's and expand the store big time against Wal-Mart. It would be Rose's Revenge...they are responsible for nearly driving them out of business.

    They were even with Wal-Mart in 1987 and had a very strong market growing in those areas. After 1990, the chain has struggled to survive because Wal-Mart was determined to put an end to them and Sky City. Sky City faded and died in 1992, and Rose's took a beating but continues to be about the only small rural discounter to survive such a bash.

    Today, people angry about the dominance and pushy tactics of Wal-Mart in so many areas in the south continue to patronize this store that is today basically a cross between Fred's and Wal-Mart. I sure hope that someday they see that this feeble store has staying power and that possibly this name could meet the right amount of money and take off in this region (probably wishful thinking).

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  12. Check this out:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose%27s

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  13. i lived in asheville NC for years and at one time there were 3 roses stores there and 3 sky city stores and i loves both of them. I know live in lexington Nc and we have a roses here. It opened a few years ago when the K-mart went out of business and i still love it. I just made a purchase there today. I refuse to spend my money at wally word. I have never liked them since I saw the first one back in the 80s. I am an average middle class american and think walmart is the worse thing to ever happen to this country.

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  14. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose's

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  15. I worked at Roses briefly; my first job out of college, in their Management Development Program. I must admit it wasn't a bad program - good information and training - but it was somewhat old fashioned and rather stuffy. And I found out over my 6 months there that the whole corporation was that way...They simply were not positioned for the coming of WalMart. That is a shame, because they could have competed.
    Paul Rose founded Roses in Henderson NC I believe in the 1930s or 40s. He had begun his career in the small towns of Jackson and Seaboard NC as a boy with a lemonade stand in like 1915. I believe he died in the 60s. Interestingly, he seemed to have had a couple of failed ventures early in his career. In any event, he was not quite of the same cut as Sam Walton in Ark - Mr Rose was more of a tight businessman, i.e. a "numbers and percents" kind of guy, while Walton was a visionary. Roses Stores reflected that old resistance to change and innovation to the end.
    One person asked about the high tide of Roses. Well, at its peak in the late 80s, they were as far north as Delaware, as far west as Texas or Oklahoma, and I believe had entered north Fla (i may be wrong about that). They were also trying to upgade stores and business practices when Walmart got into NC - Roses "home turf". At that point they lost market share and $$, and nosedived. Bottom line was they waited way too late to improve themselves.

    I cannot stand Walmart now that Walton is gone. I didn't mind it so much back when they had the "Made in America" program. But their predatory practices and strong-arming suppliers while treating their workforce like dirt, is extremist capitalism. So I don't go there anymore.

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  16. The Rose's Store in Lanett Alabama has now been turned into a Fred's which is just a step below what Rose's was. I used to go to the Rose's in Lanett alot. That store helped me to build my cassette collection in the days before I had a CD player

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  17. Rose's could really fill a niche and could revive if they only knew how strongly people wish that they would grow as a competitor to Wal-Mart. With the right financial backing, they could rise again, because I've heard many people speak about Rose's well...pretty much making it plain they were in defiance of Smiley Face. I'm frustrated myself at how they completely lost traction after the 80's. Perhaps the floundering Sears-Kmart should take on the Rose's name and run with it.

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  18. We used to have two Rose's department stores in my area,which is East Tennessee. Morristown,TN (Morristown Plaza) and Newport,TN. The Morristown store was located in the Morristown Plaza next to JC Penney's from 1965 until 1988, then moved into JC Penney's space and occupied that from 1988 until 2003, when that portion of the plaza was torn down to make room for Home Depot.

    Unfortunately, the Newport Store closed in the earlier 1990s as part of the Bankruptcy deal. Now, if I wanted to go to Rose's, the closest store would be in Sylva,NC or Waynesville,NC (if that store is still open).

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  19. I remember Roses when I lived in Raleigh, NC in the 1980's and early 1990's. In fact, I still have some household items that I purchased there. There were several around town - I recall that the stores usually were nicer looking than the local K-marts (and Wal-mart was just starting to move in). Unfortunately, these stores started going downhill in the early 1990's. It appeared that they were trying to go head-to-head with Wal-Mart, when instead they should have just stuck with their current market niche.

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  20. I have many (usually) fond memories of Rose's. The two Athens, Georgia stores were the ones most frequented by me. The Willowood Square location at Gaines School Road and Lexington Road shared the strip center with Winn-Dixie (now closed), Elliot Drug (the only Athens location for this Savannah (?) chain, and later a Revco and now still operating as a CVS), as well as several smaller tenants. The store started off as a nice variety store and had a loyal clientele. Some of the check out lanes were staffed by rather cranky (at times) but matronly women with perfect blue hair. The bargains were good; motor oil and music were mainstays, as well as piece goods. That location experienced at least one major upgrade and facelift, along with what might have been an increase in retail floorspace. It had a secondary entrance/exit that served the garden center and pet areas as well. It was clean, well-organized, and fairly efficient. About the only thing that might slow things down would be the use of credit cards in the early days.

    The second (Athens) store on Atlanta Highway was built from the ground up in a shopping center that also housed and Ingle's grocery store, and several other tenants. It was actually quite modern, but only lasted a few years. Ultimately, a portion of the store housed a relocated Big Lots.

    Winder, Georgia, had a P. H. Rose (Five and Dime) store downtown for many years, that I think survived into the 80's. It was very small, but I believe it was the very store my granddaddy took me to in the late 50's (although maybe not under the Rose's name by that time yet) to buy plastic green army men.

    As to the speculation about Florida stores, I'm quite sure they had some locations. Shortly after I moved to Orlando in Spring 1979, I stumbled across 2 Rose's stores, one in Winter Park (Semoran Blvd.) and the other on Silver Star Road in the Pine Hills area of Orlando. The Winter Park store was NOT open, but the signage was still on the store front. It was in the same shopping center as an S&S Cafeteria. The Pine Hills store which I did not actually see the signage on was also not operating, but appeared similar in design. These locations later became L. Luria and Sons Cataloque Showrooms, and operated as such for many years. I know I saw that Winter Park store, and am fairly sure about the provenance of the Pine Hills store. It is possible, that the stores were built, but never operated, but that would be more speculation on my part. I was disapointed that Rose's was NOT going to be available to me; the only other choices were some really aged Kmart and decrepit Zayre stores as well as a few Woolco stores.

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  21. Wow a blog about Roses. I had no idea that I shopped regularly in a chain store that is the last link. I came online to try to find their website... HaHaHa! Oh well, by the way I love Roses and Blue Ridge, GA. I just wish the whole town would take a step back in time. Only very few years ago it was a nice little mountain town. Now it has Home Depot and Wally world.

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  22. I must say my favorite shopping place is Rose's. I live in N. Ga., and we are about 40 miles from Cleveland Tennessee. For years, there was a Rose's there and I happily made the trip. Sadly, it closed a few years back and now my closest Rose's is Blue Ridge, Ga, 89 miles away. I still make the trip, only less often!

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  23. Roses; I grew up on Roses in Valdosta, GA. I hear that there are two in the area--Moultrie and Thomasville. I live in VA now; I know that we have at least three in the Hampton Roads area and I'm looking for more.

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  24. A Rose's still exists in Belmont, NC (1st town west of Charlotte). A Walmart was built 6 mo. ago in Roses' backyard, literally. Roses seems to be quite empty, though it hasn't been realy busy for years anyway. I don't know how it plans to survive.

    Roses has a lot of junk, but just as many good deals too. I love bargain stores. I recently found a wood 6 drawer rolling cart at Roses for $30... the same one is being sold on the Brookstone company website for $149.95!

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  25. I feel so sad about Roses and all the other stores that wallyworld has out out of business. They are planning to build a {SUPER CENTER} across from a highschool. Talk about a traffic nightmare, man I won't be traveling that way. What about the safety of the poor students who are going to have to fight the traffic. I hate wallyworld and know and believe that greater the climb the harder the fall. I for one can not wait for that day. I hope to see the demise of wallyworld before I die.All those poor people that put their lives into their businesses only to be put aside because of the {MONSTER Called WALLMART]. Everything in their store is brought from some slave market overseas. Your hardpressed to find{AMERICAN MADE] in any of their stores.
    My wish is that everyone would shop else where for just one week.
    Ohoo, that would put a hurting on them. Not impossible, but just a dream. We could also do the oil company's the same way, by everyone staying home and off the roads for a week. Also a dream.

    But folks have heart, our God sees all and it is in His Mighty Hands and He will have the last word, I promise you. GOD BLESS YOU ALL. MAY GOD BE WITH YOU IN ALL YOU DO.
    If you do not know Him please run as fast as you can to the nearest church because the way things are going you will need a freind you can count on to always be there no matter what.No one will ever , ever love you the way He does and always will. You are His, so go see Him today.

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  26. We have one here in Aiken, SC. It seems to be doing well. I have been recently trying to track down all of the Rose's and hit all of them that I can. I made it to one in Griffin,GA, Belmont, NC and Camden, SC. If anyone know of any more that are currently open PLEASE emial me at jasonritch@mail.weber.edu
    Thank you!

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  27. To anonymous...I enjoyed the first part of your remark, but I do not appreciate you posting religious rhetoric here even though I'm sure you meant well. I am not against religion, but this is not a place to post your beliefs or to turn a diatribe about a predatory company into a sermon. This is a blog about current and past retail, and I almost did not publish your comment over this because I consider that spam. This is why I moderate all comments. I will be rejecting all future remarks with religious or political spam. Thanks.

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  28. Hi. I live near Fayetteville, NC and there are 3 Roses there. I love them. I go there all the time and always find a bargain. I am a stay at home mom and I appreciate the good buys and treasures my children and I discover at Roses!!!!

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  29. Hey everyone! I kinda know how much u love 2 hear about Rose's, so I have exclusive info on 3 surviving locations: Somerset, KY, Richalnds, VA, and Sylva, NC.

    I spent most of my life growing up in small, rural eastern Kentucky. Yeah, though we started getting our share of Wal-Mart and Kmart stores, I remember that from a small town called Isom, you had access to 2 Rose's stores: one in Hazard, KY and another in Wise, VA. In the mid '90s, however, both stores closed. By 1997, there was a Big Lots, a Family Dollar, and a furniture store in he old Hazard store, while the one in Wise is now home to a Peebles and a small Sears store.

    If I were u, I'd go and check these three other stores out...they all still do great buisness, despite Wal-Mart's rapid expansion.

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  30. There is a Roses opening here in Memphis,TN. I am not sure of the date. I was wondering just what kind of store is this. This is the first time I have heard of Roses. By reading what you guys wrote, I an assuming it is something like Wal-Mart but smaller.

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  31. Wow! I can't believe there are so many people who love Roses! I am a northern implant to the south, Morganton NC, actually, and I stumbled across Roses here just a few days after I moved. I was amazed, Coming from the north, it was the coolest bargain store I had ever been in. Move over ValueCity! I found JCPenny, Croscill, Waverly and Laura Ashley in the Home Dept. And in clothing, well, I found high dollar brands and even Abercrombie Jeans! I have since discovered 2 more of these stores, one in Marion NC and one in Hickory NC.. The one is Hickory and the one is Morganton are VERY BUSY. My husband is a native of NC and he told me they used to be all over and then they started going out of business. He didn't believe me when I told him about what I found in there. Now he shops there with me all the time! He loves it! He thought it was just a bunch of junk. They do have some lower end stuff, but you will find high dollar items if you just look, and there is NO COMPARISON to the prices at KMArt and WalMart. I do wonder why they don't have a website though, at least with a list of there current operating stores... I would go to them all! They really have awesome stuff!

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  32. I had no idea this has been going on. I love the Roses here (Fayetteville, NC). I shop there all the time and would be really upset if we didn't have one.

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  33. Kingsport, TN used to have a Rose's up until about twenty years ago when Wal-Mart started coming on strong in the region. Rose's was a very popular store in that not only did it have a wide variety of merchandise and even a pet department but had a large restaurant attached that was very popular with the retired set for breakfast and lunch. I remember going there many times as a child with my mom as it was considered a bit "uptown" compared to the Big K less than a half-mile away. We also had a W.T. Grant's on the west side of town that also had a grill but by that time it was also in a major decline and closed. After Wal-Mart took over the Big K, Rose's time was over pretty quickly. Mind you this was many years before their Supercenter concept came along. In any event, it destroyed all of the area Rose's stores. A Goody's replaced it for about fifteen years and when a new development called Stone East Commons replaced the site of our original Kingsport Mall last year, Goody's moved to it and now the quite large store space is vacant. Now we have two Wal-Mart Supercenters that have managed to shut down almost all general retailers and hardware stores in the area so that they, Home Depot and Lowe's have it all to them selves. Such a shame. I hate Wal-Mart even if they are only a tenth of a mile from my house and the second Lowe's is due to open right across from my house next week.

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  34. I am a current employee at one of the Roses stores and an ex employee of Goody's Family Clothing. Yes, its great that Roses has survived so long against walmart. But in order for them to stay in business they need to make some changes. Only problem is that the managers at my store wont listen. For example, if something comes as a set...lets say a shirt and skirt....and the skirt is missing but the shirt is still in good condition. We cannot sell that shirt without the skirt, and if we can't find the skirt we have to damaage it out and throw it away. We do the same thing if a 6pck of socks is missing one pair, and to many other similar things. They should discount it...say sell a pair of socks for $1.00. Thats what Goodys does. Or donate the items to a crisis center or a shelter, not only is that generous but tax deductible. The other major thing they need to do is properly recover the store and clean it. The store I work at never actually "cleans" the floors. Its just quickly and carelessly mopped with plain water. Anyone have an email adress I could send some of these ideas to...like a corporate person?

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  35. I worked at Roses Willowood, Athens briefly - summer '86, Christmas '86, '87, '88

    Barry

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  36. We now have a Roses in Memphis, TN. I didn't know what the store was, just decided to drop in one day. I can honestly say I would rather drive the 7 miles to Roses than the mile and a half to walmart. I have told everyone I know about it, I just love it!!

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  37. We have a Roses still in North Myrtle Beach, SC in the Windy Hill section. My grandmother worked in the stock room there for years. The parking lot is usually pretty empty, but they've recently gotten better stores in the center there and that seems to be helping.

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  38. Fancy reading about Roses! That's a name that strikes close to home.

    I don't think the retailer had a large presence in West Virginia, but they did have two stores near my hometown: One in Princeton (which surprisingly is still open to this day, even though everything else in the strip center is shuttered), and one in Bluefield (which, as far as I know, is not).

    Although we shopped there often in the late '80s and '90s, to be honest the store was never a favorite of mine to visit as a kid. Hills had a snack bar, while K Mart had an aisle layout I loved weaving the shopping cart in and out of. Roses had neither. Their tan plastic-molded shopping carts were scratchy to sit in, and I was once terrified by a merchandise display at the end of an aisle cul-de-sac. Don't ask; I was four at the time!

    Here's a newspaper ad I scanned in from 1983, for "The Discount Store That Doesn't Discount People" itself:

    http://www.andrew-turnbull.net/new/roses2.jpg

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  39. I go to school in Chestertown, Maryland and we have one here. I have the feeling it'll be sticking around too, since Chestertown has offically won its battle against Wal Mart.

    As a college student I love it, it's cheap and it has everything. We're even doing out Writers' Theatre show for this semester based on the place.

    I perfer it Wal Mart here, it adds a character to the place. However dirty the floors may be, it's still a Chestertown staple.

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  40. I WORK AT ROSES IN WEAVERVILLE, NC..ITS A GREAT BARGAIN STORE BUT I ADMIT WORKING THERE IS STRESSFUL IN A SMALL AREA LIKE WEAVERVILLE UD BE SUPRISED HOW MUCH BUSINESS IT GETS BUT SAD TO SAY F***ING IS OPENING UP IN ANOTHER YEAR OR SO ... SO WHAT DOES THAT TELL YA.. ITS OPENING OPEN NOT EVEN 6 SECONDS AWAY

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  41. I can't believe so many people love Roses. There was one in LaGrange, GA when I was a kid. It closed in the late 80s I think. I remeber going there often. I bought my first make up there.

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  42. Holy crap, I never thought that a little discount store like that would stir so much passion! I think it's pretty obvious we're all fed up with the control of the market by Wal-Mart and it's smaller, more stuck up cousin Target. If I were in the retail business, I would recommend some company with some clout buy the Rose's name and stack it up against Wal-Mart keeping what people DO like about it as it's retail format, but larger like a typical standard Target and with a completely outlandish 21st century design scheme paying ode to the radical modernism of the 50's and 60's to make it stand out against that behemoth with everyday deceptive prices.

    I clearly see some ideas used by Rose's that would make it stand alone against the other retailers. Perhaps the most successful of the dollar store chains should buy it and expand it to something bigger and better. After all, realize that most successful discount stores started one of two ways: as an expansion of a five and dime concept (Kresge, Waltons) or as a discount division of a department store (Rich's, Dayton's).

    I would love to hear your suggestions on who you think would be the best company to buy Rose's and run away with it to make it reasonable competition against Smiley Face and do the best job running it...floundering Sears Holdings? Macy's? Fred's? a grocery chain? a drug store chain? If not that, how could this ruby of a chain be shown for its real value ?

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  43. I miss Roses. There's one in Emporia, VA (my hometown) that's still hanging on. It's been rumored to close for many years now, but has survived although almost every other business in that shopping center has succumbed to Walmart. Although one savvy business owner (a shoe store) packed up and moved with the Walmart instead of closing his business, which has been in Emporia since I can remember (at least 37 years)

    My sister and I passed by the Franklin, VA Roses but unfortunately we didn't have time to visit it. There's one in Hopewell, VA and also in Ashland, VA.

    They're a little junky but I always find things that other (big, mega-mainstream) places just dont sell anymore, like cloth diapers, and diaper pins. I was desperately searching for a specific piece of clothing for my daughter's Halloween costume, and found it--where else?--at Roses FOR ONLY $5.00. The little church shoes I bought her are not uber-expensive-quality, but have held up far longer & look better than shoes I've bought her from Walmart.

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  44. I was so happy to see this page! Roses is a part of my early life that still lingers a little. I remember our Danville KY location as a nicer version of the K-Mart and Wal-Mart(formerly Big-K) down the road. They even added on and revamped the whole store in the late 80s before kinda dropping out of it. I now have to drive an hour and a half to Somerset or Elizabethtown (yes the same one as the movie) to get my Roses fix every now and then. God bless em. I wish they'd make a comeback. www.non-filters.com

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  45. What other discount stores are tied in with Roses?There are several other companies, other than Max-all does anyone no who they are?

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  46. Yes. there are still several Roses in NC that I know of, including stores in Durham, Fuquay-Varina (just outside of Cary), Wilson and Siler City. The one in Fuquay has been operating across from a Wal-Mart Super Center for several years but still does a good business (although it is a bit run down).

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  47. Growing up in Dalton, the closest Rose's was in Cleveland, TN. It always seemed more like an oversized variety store than a discount store, but some other locations seemed to be closer to the discount store model. Generally, Rose's was more like an update on the model of store that Woolworth's/Kresge/Murphy/McCrory were with the larger ones falling into the Hill's arena, a tad below KMart or Zayre, but often more appealing.

    I remember purchasing one of my first LP's(on vinyl at that) at the Rose's in the Albertville/Boaz, AL area, in a small mall, several years before Boaz was transformed into an outlet mall mecca. It was the Go-Go's "Beauty and the Beat". They actually carried a better music selection than the Kuhn's Big K's which were bought out by Wal-Mart. At the Big K, the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack would have been the most current release. Like most variety stores Rose's carried a good selection of craft items like glue, glitter, clay, paints, etc., sewing notions and piece goods, cheap but good toys, model cars, and pets. The big discounters never really made a big investment is these lines, and WalMart seems to be slowly eliminating fabrics and sewing needs.

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  48. There is a surviving Rose's in Florence SC. It was a place where I hung my hat for a while almost 30 years ago. It wasn't pretty then and it really isn't pretty now.. It is less than a mile from a supercenter. (When the supercenter was built in the late 90's, Rose's comment was that Wal-Mart would not cut into their business. How could it not?) The strip mall that Rose's was the focal point of has been torn down around it to make room for a Home Depot. Rose's refuses to sell. There is a Big Lots two miles down the other way. K-Mart, though looking kind of rough is hanging in, Fred's is flourshing, Dollar General is everywhere and a new Super Wal-Mart is going up across town. How long will Roses's be able to hang on?

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  49. I have not shopped at or even seen a Rose's store in more than 25 years. However...I am writing a novel in which someone shops at a Rose's.
    Here is what I'd like: anyone who can tell me if what my character is purchasing is something that a Rose's would actually have to sell. I had just about decided to leave this part out of my story until I found this site.
    He is purchasing an inflatable raft or canoe, not like you would have to go to a sporting goods store for, but it needs to be big enough for a grown up to use,colorful like for kids, maybe a family sized inflatable. What do you think...would they have sold that in the seventies? THANKS (Write to me at charnorr1@aol.com if you wish)

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  50. I live in Somerset, Ky. We also have a Rose's. It has been here for as long as I can remember. I regularly shop there for my children's clothes and shoes. Every time I enter the store it is always full of customers, which is good considereing there is a Wal-Mart and a K-mart with in 15-20 minutes of Rose's.

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  51. The Rose's in Griffin, GA, is still open as of February 2008!

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  52. There is a Rose's in Burlington, NC and it is great for hard to find items and their prices are the best. I hate Wal-Mart and won't go there, but Rose's is a good alternative. They have another store in Durham. Both seem to be doing a fine business.

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  53. I'm originally from Hickory-which still has a Roses. I now live between Burnsville, NC and Weaverville, NC-both of which have them. They are pretty basic these days and have a lot of junk but there are some treasures amongst the junk. It's worth a trip-I love Fred's but Roses has some things Fred's doesn't-and prices lower than WalMart.

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  54. I can confirm the presence of Rose's in Florida. Both my mom and my aunt worked at the Roses's in Deland, Florida throughout the 70's and into the early 80's. I believe it closed in the early 90's. I concur with a previous post about the amazing record department that they had,not to mention pet, toy and sporting goods departments.They even had a cafeteria which served the best breakfast bisquits!!!! Anybody who thinks Walmart is a great retail store must not remember the great department stores of the 70's!

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  55. I am from Michigan and go to North Carolina at least twice a year to visit family. My trip is never complete unless I go to Rose's in Weaverville.

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  56. I shop at the Roses Department Store in Griffin, Ga. about once a month. An older lady told my Mom that she had been working there for over 40 years. You can tell it's pretty old when you see the little snack bar, the Icee machine, and counter with stools. It's a big store and has many choices. Around Christmas they sell large boxes of German Gingerbread cookies for $5.00. Oh and they have a nice little gardening department.
    -ambimoss

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  57. Roses department Store
    1108 Zebulon Rd
    Griffin, GA 30224
    (770) 228-4806

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  58. There is a Roses in Murfreesboro Tennessee. It too is junky. I do remember my parents shopping at the one in LaGrange, Ga. when I was little. Does anyone remember the old "Grants" stores. I know there was one in Newnan, Ga many many years ago.

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  59. There is still a Roses in Somerset, KY and I LOVE it!!! It reminds me of a larger Big Lots. There's more to choose from and the prices are lower than at Big Lots. I don't think the one in Somerset could replace a Wal-Mart, but if there's something I can get at Roses, I will go there instead of Wal-Mart.

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  60. As a former employee of the Morristown, TN Roses store, I must say I have enjoyed reading this blog. I worked in the Sight and Sound Dept.(electronics) from 1988-1992 and then was in the management training program, which didn't last for long because of the 60+ hours salary which was not enough pay... We all loved our store very much. We worked very hard to satisfy our customers. The main problem with Roses Stores Inc. was their upper management in Henderson, NC. They refused to listen to new ideas and were still attempting to conduct business as always... in the past. No new ideas were listened to. There was excessive WASTE in this company. Many stores were not updated to keep up with the new age of retail. Also, Roses persisted in advertising items that were not abundantly in stock. These items were advertised in weekly circulars. When customers arrived to purchase items on sale, few or none were available and RAINCHECKS were issued. Who wants a raincheck? Also, shoplifting, employee theft, etc. was rampant. It was as if no one cared. Upper management (Henderson) was to be respected, not questioned. Roses store employees at our store went to meetings on Friday mornings and got to talk about problems and then watch videos of Mr. Lucius Harvin, Roses CEO, telling us how "good" things were... LOL! We all knew it wasn't. I mean come on people, one store in Myrtle Beach, SC, The Village Square store was a Prototype store, opened in 1990, 1991?, kept open for 6 months, then was closed... This same scenario happened in other locations as well. They were opening brand new stores and only keeping them open for a few months to a year, then quickly closing them. What kind of management is that? Spending money on stores that were located in bad locations, only to close soon. $$$$ wasted..
    This Morristown store was one of the best in the Roses Stores Inc. chain, pertaining to sales. Most employees in this store cared. We worked hard. Very hard. What is so funny, one can go online now and type in certain Store managers, assistant manager names and find resumes of these people who are/were searching for jobs. I guess they weren't so high and mighty after all, they were just like us regular employees searching for the next job.
    Anyway, I could go on and on about the problems with Roses, but to sum it all up, Roses saw it's demise due to several factors. The inability to listen to it's hourly employees, store management and it's most important aspect of all. It's Customers. Roses stressed the importance of it's ROSES MISSION STATEMENT....
    To Be a customer driven discount retailer consistently excelling at satisfying:
    The needs of the consumer
    The well being of all of our associates, and
    The expectations of stockholders
    Roses Stores Inc. forgot it's on mission statement.
    By the way, I read a post above written by a person titled redhead, I worked with this pretty little redhead in hers and my Sight and Sound Dept.. She was one of the finest people I ever worked with. Gosh, if we could just go back to those days, we had a lot of fun didn't we gal? Anyway, my name is Douglas W. McKinney and I was the dept manager in the Sight and Sound dept at the Morristown, TN location. I started out as part time in 1988 when the new store was being contstructed and then full time in 1989, then worked until October 1992, and left from the management training program. We had a great group of managers at this store, well most of them were.. anyway, I have tons of fond memories of Roses. Anyway, redhead, when you read this, contact me sometime, or I will probably just see you at Wal-Mart. I will see you around. Thanks for this fantastic blog. It is awesome! Sincerely, Doug

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  61. I am glad that we still have a Roses in Hickory, NC. I do shop then and there, but I live on the other side of town so other chains get my business. I remember moving into Hickory in 97 and we would shop there often. There were people there too, but like most of you guys said about Roses is true. The stores are outdated and it looks like a mess in there. Whenever I do go to Roses, it's just to kill time. But like I said in the first sentence, I'm glad we still have a Roses Store.

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  62. There's an active Roses in Elizabethtown, KY. I've never been there, but as I was searching for info on it & discovered this blog, I think I'll check it out today! I've also seen an active one in some small town in Delaware, but only passing through, so I don't know the name of the town.

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  63. Roses is alive and well in downtown Thomasville, GA. I frequent that place...despite it's quickly decaying condition. I find that I'm always able to get in and out in 10 minutes or less with exactly what I want at a lower price than I expected. Can't beat that. I hope Roses is around for many more years. -chall

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  64. I am from Tallahassee, FL. and I often take the 45 minute drive to the Thomasville, GA. store. I have friends from Marianna, FL and Cottondale, FL which is an hour away from Tallahassee who comes to visit me just to go to the store. This store has saved me much in gifts, clothing and household items. I am a Pastor who believe in giving each member of the church a fairly decent gift during the holidays and I have been able to find things that meet the need in giving for that special occasion. I could not possibly give over 150 people a gift if it was not for their prices and selections. I really like the store and it helps me to show others that they are thought of in some kind way. I say, "thanks for being there"

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  65. well there are still some roses stores in virgina still hanging on against FAILmart or as you guys put it The STUPID center, ha love that one, but back to what i was saying there's still a few in virginia the only two that are close to where i am are in farmville, & in ashland, & where my mom's familly still lives in rocky mount va well at least they were last oct.

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  66. As mentioned earlier, a Roses still exists in Weaverville, NC. The store opened in 1986/1987 and had a small lunch counter near the front that didn't last for too long. The store was repainted in the 90's from the "Earthtone" scheme to the current blue. They never got around to changing the brown carpet though, as it was around the same time that the company went bankrupt (or something of the sort). One of the assistant managers who started there in about '90 as a stock associate still works there. I worked there for three years while I was in high school and enjoyed it for the most part. They're still using checkout terminals with 1985 manufacture dates. Vintage technology still in action. They refuse to use the garden center area in the spring/summer for reason's unknown to me. Instead, they stack their soil and flowers outside the front of the store. That's ok though. I still love the place! Here's a couple of pictures of an brown Roses shopping cart from way back when. We discovered at an old outlet center in Cherokee, NC ...cp
    http://bp2.blogger.com/_3O_F5H8tKPU/SF60lqpMKGI/AAAAAAAAAIE/2FmQz591NDA/s1600-h/100_1347.JPG
    http://bp1.blogger.com/_3O_F5H8tKPU/SF60Fg-b_fI/AAAAAAAAAH8/EBip3ilScds/s1600-h/100_1346.JPG

    Roses Store #401
    165 Weaver Boulevard
    Weaverville, NC 28787
    (828) 645-4345

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  67. Roses in Chapel Hill, NC, Durham, NC, and Raleigh, NC.... So that's 3 hanging on....

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  68. There's a Rose's in Charlottesville, Virginia. It's not a sight to behold but it boasts some really good deals. I found a large soup pot, just what I had been looking for, for ten bucks. Like others here, I remember, growing up in the Shenandoah Valley of Virgnia, finding great prices on records and CDs back in the eighties and early 90s (when CDs came in those long cardboard boxes).

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  69. There is one in Somerset Ky it has some good deals on things...

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  70. I am from Blue Ridge, and didn't realize that Rose's was that endangered. Even if a Wal-Mart did come to Blue Ridge, I think that Rose's would still be doing good. A lot of the older people shop at Rose's. But because of county liquor laws, Wal-Mart will not come to Blue Ridge.

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  71. Here are some Rose's pics from within the past year. I do contract work for their Henderson, NC distribution center sometimes. I really enjoy the people there and wish Rose's well.

    Zebulon, NC:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/ncreedplayer/2431090973/

    Greensboro, NC:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/ncreedplayer/2683881482/

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/ncreedplayer/2683866802/

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/ncreedplayer/2683052455/

    Roxboro, NC:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/ncreedplayer/2868871951/

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/ncreedplayer/2869698778/

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/ncreedplayer/2868871733/

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  72. We had a Rose's in Front Royal, Va. It opened around 1985 and stayed open till 1993 or 1994. I worked there for a few years and I loved it. All the employees were like family. Our store was was always kept very clean and tidy. (Unlike the Rose's stores that I see today.) There's a Rose's in Cheseapeake, Va, that I go to every year around Christmas. Also, another one in Edenton, NC that I know of.

    Charlottesville, Va had 2 Rose's stores back in the day. Our District Office was one of them. I remember having to go to Henderson NC for seminars and staying at the Holiday Inn. We had so much fun. There was another hotel across the street from the Holiday Inn that we stayed in too but I can't remember the name of it. The Holiday Inn was "the place" to stay because of the bar they had. I remember it was called the "Recovery Room". Oh what memories!

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  73. I'm from Front Royal, Va. and we had a Rose's back in the mid 80's that lasted until 1994. Great Store! It seems like there was a Rose's everywhere back then. Harrisonburg, Va. had 2 stores, Charlottesville, Va. had 2 stores. I think Charlottesville and Harrisonburg still have 1 store left.

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  74. I grew up in Norfolk with Rose's stores. My brother's first job was at a Rose's. While taking my daughter to look at colleges, I found one in Fredericksburg, but the college has purchased the land/shopping center so now the Rose's will close down soon. I especially loved popping the balloons at the soda fountain to get a banana split!

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  75. I LOVE ROSES! We live in Andrews, NC but my husband and I make the drive to Blue Ridge, GA pretty often to shop at their Roses. Yesterday we went and found women's Levi jeans for $13, Lee jeans for $8 to $10 and my husband bought 4 pairs of men's Levi's for $10 each. We also found sleep pants for the entire family for $5 a pair as well as a fairly wide variety of name brand toys at great prices. There was also a great selection of HBA products on sale for $1.50 each. I have loved Roses for years and I hope it survives! I have often wondered how the remaining Roses stores have held on this long what with all the competition out there and got online to look it up. That's how I found this great blog! I was really surprised to read that several Roses stores have opened in the recent past. I would never have guessed that new stores would be opening up. We also have a Roses in Sylva, NC about 50 miles from us. The store there is a little smaller with a smaller selection but I find that it is better organized than the Blue Ridge location. I still prefer the Blue Ridge location, though. I truly hope that Roses will be able to find a way to hold its own against the Evil Empire or Wal-Mart. I remember shopping at Sky City as a little girl but Evil-Mart ruined that as well. Does anyone have any information on just how many Roses stores are still in operation? I found a website that said 98 and another one that said over 100.

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  76. Yeah it's pretty sad the way Roses has fallen to the shape it is in now. I worked for one of 3 stores that was in Asheville, NC back in the early 90's. All three stores ended up closing. The one in Weaverville is still open but probably not for long because a new super Wal-Mart is being built just down the road within looking distance. Roses was acquired by Variety Wholesalers a few years back and that was good and bad news for the company. Yeah, Roses still remained but the merchandise has downgraded to dollar store status and poor conditions dollar stores dwell in. They cut staff positions down big time. The I worked at back in the 90's had arounf 50 employees. Now I don't think a Roses stores has much more than 15-20 employees on average bringing customer service down to nothing. The last regular store was bulit around 1991 in Burnsville, NC, store #450. They did try to open Roses Express stores after this one but I am not sure they survived? They just could not compete with Wal-Mart.

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  77. There are over 100 Roses in the Southeast US and plans for more in the future from what I have heard.
    And they are just as popular now as they were in the past.
    Look at Variety Wholesalers Inc. com and you can see the locations.

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  78. I love Roses. I am orignally from Murphy, NC. but live now in Seaford, VA. I still vist the one in Blue Ridge, GA, when I visit "home" and frequent the stores here in VA. I grew up with 5&10 stores: Fambros and Lays in Murphy. Roses still has the 5&10 store feeling. Love it! For the limites floor space they have, they do a great job of balancing floor displays etc.

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  79. I live in Blue Ridge and when the kids come to visit, the first place they want to go is Rose's. I also shop there, although the selection of goods is smaller than Walmarts, and I go to the Walmart in Ellijay or Murphy, NC frequently to get things I can't get in Blue Ridge. Fannin county just passed an ordinance allowing beer and wine sales in restaurants, so I expect we will be seeing Walmart here soon. Rose's seems to have a loyal following and it might survive even if Walmart comes here.

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  80. Hi All,

    I just came across your site and wanted to comment on Roses Discount Store. We have one in Denton, Maryland. It opened in 1999 in an old Jamesway store location. Jamesway closed in 1995 and the building sat vacant between '95 and '99 when Roses opened. It is still open today.

    The building features no garden center, as some other locations do, and the only thing that appears to have been done when Roses opened in 99 was have some new white paint applied to the walls. The whole sales floor is tile, no carpet whatsoever, and there is nothing really exciting about the building at all. And, sadly, the store is in fair to poor condition. Some of the deals are good, however.

    We used to have some Roses stores in Delaware, too. One was in the now-defunct Blue Hen Mall. That one featured a sit-in restaurant close to the middle-back of the store. It has been closed for many years (circa 1995 - 1996, I believe). The other was in, I believe, Seaford, Del. That one featured an external garden center, if I recall correctly. However, since I have not been in that area for so long, I have no idea if it is even still open.

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  81. OMG! I can't believe there is a site for blogging about Roses! I love it! hee hee Had no idea there was more than one "Roses"!

    We have a Roses in a strip mall here in Somerset, KY. Yeah, the place is a little junky-looking, but it's got the best deals! My granddaughter loves all the toys I have gotten for her from there.

    I used to work for "Wally's World" and have to tell you - I much prefer Roses. I'm one of those older women "Wally" didn't want working for him anymore. They want young stupid kids who don't know the legalities of employment (such as overtime).

    Anyway, I'm thrilled that we have a Roses and hope it stays open a very long time.

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  82. I work for Walmart and they do not hire stupid kids.They hire you if your willing to your job right like any other company.I say Roses hires stupid and lazy people because the stores look like CRAP!!

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  83. For what its worth, there is a Roses here in Jacksonville, NC and I have no idea how it stays open with 2 Walmarts in town but it does. Personally I hate the store. It looks like crap, it sells crap, the employees look and treat you like crap. I'd just as soon go to Walmart. But kudos to yall who love Roses.

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  84. M T from Thomasville GAMarch 22, 2009 at 8:27 PM

    I'm a former Roses employee and I have to say that the store I worked for in the late 80's is not what the chain is now. It's a shame, really.

    However, it could have all been prevented. Our store was rife with internal theft, so much so that even the loss prevention guys were in on it. That's not counting the customers who were stealing and the problems the vendors, like Sega and Nintendo, were having with the company and the MANDATORY WORK SHIFTS ON THANKSGIVING DAY. Thanksgiving of 1989, we had a sizable chunk of our staff either quit or get fired because of the Thanksgiving shift.

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  85. There's a Rose's in Griffin GA, only 6 miles from my house near the historic district---love it because I can go there find nice stuff and get home in a round trip w/out sitting in traffic in N.Griffin. I bought a pair of black patterned tights for $3 to wear to work (fashion trend last fall ie current style:)! Anyway, could have sold them 10 times over that day for $20pair. Everybody asked where did you get those? I said "Roses". Got funny reactions.
    I've now become a regular shopper and find some neat stuff. The garden dept is fair, but recently purchased bare root roses (at Roses lol) 3/$10, they are doing well and the best part some of them are vintage types that were cultivated in the 1930's, can't find them at megastores. They are growing well, in addition to the 5 crepe myrtle trees purchased there last year. I've got my neighbor and several coworkers shopping there now. So glad that I can help support a local business by word of mouth. Oh, and they finally fixed the fitting room, it was disgusting, but if your being cheap sometimes you just suck it up. Not so bad now. I always get tickled when a get compliments on clothing itmes I bought there for under $10!

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  86. There is a Roses in Mt. Olive, NC and Zebulon, NC. The one in Mt. Olive thrived up until Walmart moved down the street. I'm not sure how long it will last. Walmart bragged about how they used local (NC) suppliers when they first opened in Goldsboro, NC. Since Sam Walton has died, his greedy heirs are using cheap labor from China and Mexico. When you ride by the Goldsboro, NC Walmarts (2), you would think the county fair had come to town. The traffic is unbearable. I do like Target, and they have built up a good clientele even with Walmart being in the same town. Target donates a percentage of its daily sales back to the community it serves. Most of it goes to the school system. I know Walmart has run the little guy out of town, but somebody must be shopping there or that wouldn't happen.

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  87. I worked at the store in Thomasville, GA and then moved to work at the North Myrtle Beach location. Anyone driving to Ocean City Maryland will pass up to 3 Roses stores that are still operating. At their peak, there were over 300 locations, now there are about 100. Once the chain was purchased back in the 1990's the magic was lost. Many fond memories though; attending a 50th birthday party for Lucius Harvin in Henderson, the Customer Service Committee, unloading truckloads of azeleas in spring and driving the Roses float in the Thomasville, GA Roses parade to name a few.

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  88. I just recently visited the Rose's that is still open in Aiken, South Carolina. It was a far cry from what I remember as a kid.

    Does anyone know of a former location in Lawrenceville, Georgia? I know my grandmother took me to Roses often, and I think it used to be where Phoenix High School sits now in Lawrenceville.

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  89. I have visited the Rose's in Plymouth, NC and Zebulon, NC. The stores are an embarrassment...it thrives in Plymouth because there is no Walmart or K-Mart...only a small Belk & Peebles. Their electronics dept is funny...littered with tubed TVs, boom boxes and the like.

    The store in Plymouth is horrible, dirty, disorganized, unkempt. I think Roses management should clean up all of their stores...it doesn't cost any more to keep a neat, clean and organized store.

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  90. There are actually 2 Roses Stores in Macon, GA - both still open.

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  91. years ago there was Roses in my hometown of Columbus, GA and I seem to recall in the late 1980's there being one in Valley, Alabama although I might have imagined that but am fairly certain there was one...

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  92. Well in this economy, I always say the only two types of businesses that are really doing good are th gas stations and the discount stores. With that said, it seems Roses is doing a little better now than it was the mid 90s as they seems to be opening a few new stores such as the one in my hometown (Rocky Mount, NC) and that says a lot cause Rocky Mount has had 3 previous Rose's at various locations throughout the city over the years but has essentially been without a store since the mid 90s during the major round of closings.

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  93. I really miss Roses. At one point we had 3 Roses stores here in Spartanburg, SC, but the last one closed around 1994 or 1995. I also liked the Roses store that was at the mall in Shelby, NC. I have been to the Roses in Forest City most recently and it saddens me to see what the store is like compared to its peak. They no longer have an extensive music section like Wal-Mart, K-Mart or Target. While I buy music on iTunes, I still purchase cds quite often and wish that Roses was still a true discount store rather than what it has become, although just to see the store survive, I'll stop in whenever I am in an area that still has one.

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  94. There is a new Roses coming to Brooklyn Park, Maryland on Ritchie Hwy. just south of Baltimore. They will be taking over the old Ollie's store next to the Advance Auto Parts store.

    It should be open in the next month or so... Sept/Oct 2009

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  95. The Cleveland Mall in Cleveland, TN had a Roses in it. It's sign was blue though. It also had a eatery in it with the best milkshakes ever. And they were only 89 cents! I never missed out getting a shake and a club sandwich when we went to the mall.

    It also helped that right next door was Aladin's Castle arcade :)

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  96. the walmart in weaverville has been open for 1 year and 1 month now, and Roses has stayed strong!!!

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  97. I remember when Rose's had both the Morristown and Newport,TN locations. The Morristown store obviously lasted longer than Newport due to the bankruptcy filing. I barely remember when Rose's in Morristown had their lunch box in their first location, but closed down when they moved into the former JC Penney building. I also remember the kiddie rides they had such as the mini-carosel and the horse wagon ride. Sadly, the plaza site is now home to Home Depot. I'm also going to agree that Wal-Mart has gotten too big and is not the same organization that Sam Walton once started. In fact, they don't "Buy American" anymore, since everything is made in China.

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  98. The Sylva Ingles originally had a blue sign, not the pink sign that is there before. I remember it being blue and being replaced with the pink sign in the late 1990s. Rose's in Sylva is still open, and is next to the new Sylva Post Office, built in 2008 and opened in 2009. The Bowling Alley a few doors down where there used to be a Bi-Lo Supermarket is closed indefinitely, though, the Steakhouse that used to be on the opposite end of the plaza burned in 1998, and the Goody's at the end of the shopping center closed when the chain went defunct in 2009. First Citizens Bank wants to temporarily move to the old Goody's, but Jackson Plaza's future remains uncertain, as it is slowly becoming a kind of ghost mall.

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  99. Hey Doug McKinney, the "redhead" that made the post about the old morristown and newport stores is actually a man. Anyway, everytime I go by the old site now occupied by Home Depot and NFC, I still think it looks different without Rose's. At least I took pictures of the store and the Morristown Plaza altogether before they tore the stores down. I also have an old article with JC Penney's in that location as well and Rose's in its former location. Too bad, if they would've saved Rose's and put Home Depot either on the other end of the plaza, and NFC in the former Rose's building, I think that would've livened up the plaza and business at Rose's. Too bad, nobody listens to us folks on the low end of the totem pole. Oh, I was gonna ask, why did you take those videos of Rose's off of youtube?

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  100. The store photo you labeled as Mars Hill, NC store is not in Mars Hill. It is located in Weaverville, about 8 miles South of Mars Hill.

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  101. The Sylva Rose's was much better before Walmart came to town in 1997, according to my mom. It is located in Jackson Plaza, which has a now-closed Bowling Alley and Goody's in the other large storefronts. The Goody's will be home to a bank until 2013, when it will be moved back to Downtown. Next to the Rose's is the town Post Office, completed around 2008.

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  102. It's funny to hear so many people talk about there towns having so much competition from other stores. I am from North Augusta, SC and we have Rose's, Walmart, Kmart, Big Lots, Belk, Hamrick's, and numerous dollor stores. All of these are in a very close area and seem to feed each other rather then take customers away.

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  103. In the small town where I live there are two Roses' near me. One is out in Edenton, NC and was a survivor of the 1994 Roses' closings. Not so much was the Elizabeth City location, which is in their third run.

    First was in Southgate Mall in a building that had housed a W.T. Grant before they went under; left in the 1994 closings (the local JCPenney moved next door). The 2nd attempt was in the late 1990s came with a Roses Express ironically located in the vacated JCPenney which was around less than two years. The current location opened around 2006/07 and is in a building that was originally a Mammoth Mart, Kings Dept. Store, Farm Fresh (Hampton Roads grocery chain) and most recently a Winn-Dixie before their 2005 bankruptcy.

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  104. I always liked Roses, that is until they filed Chapter 11 in 1993 and screwed me out of $200k for goods ordered and delivered at the time.

    Now, not so much.

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  105. My family frequented the Roses in Ozark AL when I was a kid. Since our family was spread out all over the state, we would always get Christmas cards with cash in them for Christmas presents. My brothers and I would wind up with 25 or 30 dollars each and my Dad would take us to Roses a couple days after Christmas to spend our money. Wow.. Just had that goose-pimpley feeling. Great times and great memories. I don't remember much about the store other than the toy section. they had an awesome assortment of plastic models (at least to a 10 year old!)

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  106. We have a Roses in Hickory, NC. Still hanging on.

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  107. Rose's used to have a store in downtown Lenoir, NC that had two floors. Went there many times as a kid; bought a few model kits there myself. There wasn't much that store didn't carry. I think they moved out in the early Eighties. The Hickory and Morganton locations are still alive and kicking.

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  108. I believe they are making a comeback. One very popular one in Belmont,nc. They sell bread there that is $4 @ Bilo. The place always has at least 20 or more cars parked out front. There is another new one on freedom drive in Charlotte. People are searching for discounts now more than ever and if they keep it up they will just get bigger.

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  109. Hiya Just read your story The Store Roses we have one in Southwest Atlanta Ga. But its not call Roses its Call Maxway I think Roses owns Maxway .

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  110. In response to Michael's comment dated May 13, 2009, yes, there was once a Roses store in Lawrenceville, and you are correct that it was at the same site where Phoenix High School is located today. I know this firsthand, because circa 1985 I used to live north of this location on a street called Haymarket Lane, and I was able to walk through the woods to Roses. Also, this article confirms that Phoenix now occupies the former Roses site:

    "The first conversion was in Lawrenceville at the vacant Lawrenceville West Shopping Center. Where once a Roses Department Store, Winn-Dixie supermarket and Revco Pharmacy and other facilities operated, the School Board picked up this property for $2.7 million, and in 1996 rebuilt it as Phoenix High School, an alternative school. "

    http://archives.gwinnettforum.com/2008issues/08.1118.htm

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