The war for appliance dollars is heating up.
National Appliance Warehouse is opening a new store on Friday at the Fairfax Shopping Center on Concord Pike, north Wilmington. The store will offer appliances, electronics and mattresses.
The website for the company states that the store is an independently owned and operated business with the buying power of $12 billion in annual sales.
The opening prompted full-page advertisements in the News Journal from National and a competitor.
The opening reflects the ability of Delaware to draw retail traffic from a wide area, due to the lack of a sales tax on items picked up at the store. Savings can run into the hundreds of dollars, since even a high-end washer and dryer combo can run $2,000 or more. Out-of-state customers are supposed to claim the purchase for tax purposes.
A number of appliance and electronics chains have come and gone in the Delaware market as large companies like Circuit City went out of business.
One departure came with the closing of the 6th Avenue Electronics store on Concord Pike at the former Circuit City site.
In the Christiana Mall area H.H. Gregg took over and refurbished a former Circuit City site. Gregg also has a store in north Wilmington.
Sears, which operates a warehouse store south of Newark, also plans to open an appliance showroom near Christiana Mall.
