It’s only dust and debris inside at the moment, but in about a month two empty store fronts in the Granville plaza will be the front for a new clothing store.

Label Shopper company president Peter Elitzer confirmed Monday the store will be opening in the Granville Plaza some time in early March.

“We’re very excited to be coming to Granville,” Elitzer said, “We love the size of the market; we actually prefer to be in smaller markets like that.”

Elitzer said the last time he left a message with the paper the contracts had not been signed but were almost complete.

Now with every ‘I’ dotted and every ‘T’ crossed on the lease agreement, the construction workers are rushing to make the new store a reality.

“That’s very good news for the village and the town,” Granville Village Mayor Jay Niles said. “(The store) will provide additional shopping opportunities for residents to shop for clothing. It’s good to have a new store in the shopping center.”

“This will also bring people into the town to shop and then they can consider other shops in the village,” Niles said. “That’s definitely good news for us.”

Niles met with representatives from Schuyler Companies shortly after being elected to solicit businesses for Granville.

“We’ll be holding a grand opening but we love the excitement that builds from word of mouth,” Elitzer said.

An offshoot of the Peter Harris Clothing stores, Label Shopper concentrates on overruns or cancelled orders, according to the company’s website, selling name brand merchandize at reduced prices.

Elitzer said one of his jobs is to go out and find these deals.

“The store is an off-price store where we buy from manufacturers and contractors that make clothing for them. We buy the overages and sell them for reduced prices at anywhere from 40-70 percent off,” Elitzer said.

The incoming merchandise can vary considerably, he said, but that’s one of the features of the stores customer’s seems to enjoy.

“It’s like a constant treasure hunt, the inventory varies every week,” Elitzer said.

Elitzer said about five to10 percent of the store’s inventory rolls over each week.

“We almost never get some of the same thing in twice,” he said. “This week it’s t-shirts, next week Capri pants. You never know.”

Elitzer said the economy was a concern for him, but one he found had an opposite effect on the store’s customers.

“We were worried when the economy started to turn, but it looks like people are looking for better values from their purchases. Our volume is actually up,” he said.  

Elitzer said when people begin to bargain hunt he thinks Label Shopper will draw their business.

“People are saying, ‘I need to go in and shop a couple more places’,” he said. “A lot of people are looking for much more value for their dollar.”

The stores stocks mostly clothing, “about 90 percent apparel,” along with a small shoes department and assorted items, he said. Elitzer said the curious could check out Labelshopper.com if they can’t wait until the grand opening.

“The website explains a lot about who we are but also a sampling of what we’ll have in the store,” he said. 

Elitzer said the store will be about 5,200 square feet when completed, a typical size for a store in the chain. According to the company’s website, the chain has stores concentrated in the Northeast and stores as far west as Kentucky.

“This is the perfect size for us really,” Elitzer said.

“With all of the things we have in stock it’s usually a little tight in the stores, but our customers seem to like it that way,” he said. “It’s like a little treasure hunt each week because the store is usually brimming with merchandise.”

Several workers could be seen last work clearing out the space formerly filled with a Laundromat as well as the store front immediately to its south. By this past Monday morning workers could be seen starting to put up sheetrock.

The wall between what had been two separate stores had been reduced to a pile of broken cinderblocks which were being removed through a newly-made hole in the back wall of the building. The space was quickly cleared.

Demolition workers clearing the site confirmed they were preparing the site for a construction crew to fabricate the interior of a store.