17th Discount Fashion Warehouse Store Opens

The bra department at the new Discount Fashion Warehouse store on Henderson Road in Columbus, Ohio.

Discount Fashion Warehouse (DFWH), the Ohio off-price retailer of a wide variety of products ­— but with a special connection to fashion and lingerie — opened it 17th store on Friday, shortly after the debut of its 16th just last month.

The newest store is located at 4698 Great Northern Boulevard, in North Olmsted, a few miles west of Cleveland. The store is about 11,000 square feet, and offers a wide variety of apparel for women, men and kids, including shoes, accessories and jewelry. As with the other DFWH stores, especially the larger ones, home goods are a growing category.

“I like that center a lot,” said co-owner Mark Laufersweiler, explaining the company strategy to expand the DFWH footprint across Ohio and eventually other nearby states.

In January, DFWQH opened a 16,000 square foot store, one of the chain’s largest, at 1824 West Henderson Road in Columbus, in the same town where the company is headquartered.

That shop opened to record breaking sales according to Jeff Bradshaw, the company’s other co-owner.

“Henderson is in a great center, at a busy intersection, in a good part of Columbus,” emphasized Laufersweiler. “There has been a lot of traffic since opening day. The reception has been outstanding. And we are keeping the pedal down, staying on top of everything, everything full throttle.”

“Henderson exceeded expectations,” he continued. “January is a hard time to open a store, right after the holidays, but this has been a success.” He noted that “men’s business is up. In general, they are looking for deals, value, and we deliver that. Our business is driven by the name brand value inventory at the great price. That is what people want more than ever. They want a deal. To find the big brands.”

Another growing sector at DFWH is shoes. “Shoes are a real driver. We have great value in our shoes. We sell a lot of shoes, branded shoes at around $15. That’s a key thing that brings people in.” — NM