Business

Mall bets on discount retailers to boost traffic

HomeGoods announced its grand opening next week and five Below and a beauty products shop are coming soon to the Blue Ridge Mall.

By Lightning Reports, Published: March 13, 2025

Blue Ridge Mall has signed on popular discount retailers to fill vacant storefronts and ramp up customer traffic.

The mall once anchored by a JCPenney, Kmart and Belk gets a boost when a HomeGoods store opens next week. Five Below, which sells “trendy, fun and affordable” items for children and teenagers, and beauty products specialist Ulta Beauty are also opening soon.

HomeGoods, a leading off-price home décor store in the U.S and worldwide, opens its new store on Thursday, March 20, with a grand opening from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

HomeGoods departments include furniture, rugs, lighting, decorative accessories, kitchen and dining, bedding, bath, pet accessories, storage, workspace, outdoor, gourmet, wellness and more. Regular hours are 9:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday. The retailer expects to fill approximately 65 full- and part-time positions.

A sister store of TJMaxx and Marshalls, HomeGoods provides an ever-changing selection of high-quality merchandise at excellent values. From top brands and designers to exciting finds from all over the world, HomeGoods offers an inspiring selection in countless styles for every room of the house.  

“Our amazing values, brand names, and vast assortment make HomeGoods an exciting destination for shoppers,” John Ricciuti, president of HomeGoods, said in a news release. “With a large variety of merchandise from around the world, customers will always find thrilling values in our treasure hunt shopping experience. We are happy to provide Hendersonville with a new HomeGoods.”

HomeGoods also announced Monday that it will contribute to the Hendersonville community by presenting a $10,000 donation to Safelight. The grant is part of Find Home Anywhere, the company’s long-term commitment to use its products, programs and partnerships to help people feel a sense of home — no matter where life takes them. Safelight is supporting this broader mission locally by helping to provide support for survivors of interpersonal violence, sexual assault and child abuse.

Local shoppers will have opportunities to support the Find Home Anywhere mission at a variety of times throughout the year when HomeGoods stores nationwide raise funds for Dana Farber Cancer Institute and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in support of programs that support a “home away from home” for patients throughout their treatment journeys.

HomeGoods, which operates more than 943 stores across the country, is a division of The TJX Companies Inc., a leading off-price retailer of apparel and home fashions in the U.S. and worldwide. As of Feb. 28, TJX operated more than 5,000 stores across nine countries, including TJ Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods, Homesense and Sierra in the U.S.; Winners, Homesense and Marshalls in Canada; TK Maxx and Homesense in Europe, and TK Maxx in Australia, plus six e-commerce sites.

SUBHED

Kids’ stuff and makeup

A specialty value retailer based in Philadelphia, five Below offers a range of accessories, much of it geared toward kids and the youth market, including novelty socks, sunglasses, jewelry, scarves, gloves, hair accessories, athletic tops and shorts and T-shirts; cosmetics, lamps, posters, novelty décor, accent furniture and related items, Yahoo Finance says. It also stocks accessories for cell phones, tablets, audio, and computers, as well as cases, chargers, headphones and related items; books, video games and DVDs. Formerly known as Cheap Holdings Inc., the company changed its name to five Below Inc. in August 2002.

Touting itself as the largest beauty retailer in the U.S., Ulta Beauty sells cosmetics, fragrance, skin care products, hair care products and salon services. The company reported last August that net sales at its stores grew over the first six months of the year by 2.2 percent, to $5.3 billion. During the first six months of 2024, Ulta opened 29 new locations and at the time operated 1,411 stores, including one in the Asheville Mall. Founded in 1990, Ulta Beauty Inc. is based in Bolingbrook, Illinois.

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