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WILKES-BARRE TWP. — Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores recently opened its newest Pennsylvania Sears Outlet Store at East End Centre, the company announced Monday.

“Customers can expect to find a wide variety of products at a tremendous value — ranging from entry-level priced to high-end home appliances, grills, lawn mowers, patio furniture, small kitchen appliances, home goods and more — all from exclusive brands that typically can only be found in Sears stores,” store manager Danny Saunders said in a news release.

Sears Outlet provides customers in-store and online access to new, one-of-a-kind, discontinued, reconditioned, overstocked, and cosmetically blemished products across a broad assortment of merchandise categories including home appliances, lawn and garden equipment, apparel, mattresses, sporting goods and tools.

The outlet store, which occupies the former Phar-Mor, also offers delivery and installation services.

Signs at the front of the store boast discounts of 20 to 70 percent. A wide variety of refrigerators at the back of the store had tags announcing 50-percent savings, while the ranges were marked down 40 percent.

Most of the approximately 30,000 square feet of floor space was covered with kitchen appliances, while other sections had mattresses and box springs, clothing, furniture and even lawn tractors.

“It’s nice. If it’s reconditioned and overstocked, you can get it for much more reasonable prices, and Sears is reasonable to begin with,” said Wilkes-Barre resident Jane Deschak, who had just browsed through the store early Monday evening.

“And this is nice, when you have a shopping center like this, you can go from one store to the next, stop in the outlet and walk right down to Gabe’s,” Deschak said.

Saunders said customer feedback has been positive since the store had a softy opening on Aug. 6.

“Every reaction so far is that they like what they see, they like the product we have and they like coming in and making purchases. We’ve got quite a selection,” he said.

Saunders also noted a corner of the store is reserved for “Crazy Deals” merchandise, such as a Handy Gourmet Turbo Cooker. The microwave cooker was selling on amazon.com for $23.01 on Monday; the price tag on the item at the outlet store has it listed at a retail price of $24.99 and marked down to $12.49.

“We get Crazy Deals in on almost every truckload,” Saunders said.

The Wilkes-Barre Township location marks the 10th opening of a new Sears Outlet Store this year and the 30th opening of a new store across all of Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores formats.

East End Centre owner Joe Amato announced in June that the outlet store would be opening, along with two more businesses — Furniture & Mattress Discounters of Harrisburg, which signed a lease to occupy 13,000 square feet, and Mike Amory, which opened a medical arts facility in the former Chi-Chi’s restaurant earlier this year.

The East End Centre was fading as many former tenants closed or relocated when Amato purchased the 40-acre property for $3 million in March 2014.

Gabe’s opened in July 2014, followed by Weight Watchers and Lendmark, a debt consolidation service, opened. Other tenants include Kiss Theater, Subway, Happy Nails Plus, Dollar Tree, Big Lots, Cosmo Prof, Serpico Pizza, Hoyi Chinese Restaurant and Red Lobster.

Customers enter and exit the new Sears Outlet store at East End Center in Wilkes-Barre Township on Monday.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_searsoutlet1.jpg.optimal.jpgCustomers enter and exit the new Sears Outlet store at East End Center in Wilkes-Barre Township on Monday.

By Steve Mocarsky

[email protected]

SEARS OUTLET

Address: 250 East End Centre, off Kidder Street, Wilkes-Barre Township.

Hours: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday; 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday.

Phone: 570-821-7581

Online: www.searsoutlet.com

Grand Opening: At a date to be announced in the near future, with children’s games and activities and special promotions.

Reach Steve Mocarsky at 570-991-6386 or on Twitter @TLSteveMocarsky.