A large crowd of shoppers helped welcome Burlington to Ceres while the store kicked off its Friday grand opening with a $5,000 donation to Caswell Dual Language Academy.
The new store was created from the vacant spot once occupied by 99 Cents Only which fell into bankruptcy two years ago.
Greg Hurst, a Burlington district manager, said that a construction team worked about three months to convert the Hatch Road shell into a new store. He said the company plans to open 125 stores this year, approximately 20 in California.
“We’re concentrating quite a bit on California and Texas,” said Hurst.
Approximately 80 employees were hired to staff the store to cover its long hours of opening; the store is open 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to midnight on weekends.
Store manager Kathy Rubio of Ceres who was at dd’s discounts before moving to Burlington for almost two years now, said she’s excited to be in charge of the new store.
“I’m very excited. This has been my dream, honestly, since I’ve been in retail. I’ve always wanted to do a grand opening and have my own store. I helped other stores actually do their own grand opening. So it’s very exciting to finally get my opportunity.”
Rubio led city officials on a tour of the 20,000 square foot of floor space, showing the variety of products, including attire, shoes, toys, sporting goods, housewares, cosmetics, perfumes, light home furnishings, bedding and kitchenware.
“We have almost every major retail category but about 80 percent of our business is apparel,” Hurst said. “It’s off price retail which means that we sell our name brands for pennies on the dollar. What we get is what we get. So we tell people it’s a treasure event. That’s how we market it. So we tell people just buy it because tomorrow you may not have a chance. Everything that comes in on our trucks goes right out to the sales floor. We have nothing in the back. So everything in the building is ready for sale.”
A loss prevention officer helped greeted customers streaming through the doors at Friday’s grand opening but Hurst said the store plans to have one working all the time. Not only does it curb the problem of retail theft, he said it “makes people feel safe to shop which is which is pretty important.”
Readying the site also included resurfacing the parking lot in front of the Hatch Road store.
In June the Planning Commission approved a variance to allow Burlington to have building signage that exceeded the city’s size limit. The applicant said a larger sign was necessary due to the width of the building’s façade, setback from Hatch Road, and brand design characteristics.
of the Burlington trademarked branding, including the use of predominantly lowercase lettering and a required tagline.
Burlington Coat Factory began in 1972 when Monroe and Henrietta Milstein opened a single discount coat shop in Burlington, NJ. The founders focused on offering outerwear at prices far below traditional department stores, a model that gained traction quickly. Over the decades the company broadened its merchandise beyond coats to include women’s, men’s and children’s apparel, footwear, accessories, home décor, beauty items and more, reflecting a strategic shift from a niche outerwear outlet into a full-line off-price retailer.
Today, Burlington operates over 1,100 stores across 46 states and Puerto Rico, making it one of the largest off-price chains in the country alongside competitors like TJ Maxx and Ross Dress for Less.
