The Suburban Age
After successfully opening smaller suburban locations, Miller & Rhoads set its sites on large stores in regional malls. However, its first attempt at a larger store in the suburban Richmond market was thwarted because of a clause in a lease on an existing location. Because of a section in their lease at Southside Plaza that prevented additional locations within five miles of that shopping center, Miller & Rhoads was unable to be an anchor at Cloverleaf Mall, Richmond’s first large regional mall, which was only four miles away.
In the mid-1970s, Miller & Rhoads opened three large stores in new shopping malls Regency Square and Chesterfield Mall in suburban Richmond and Newmarket North Mall in Hampton, with the latter relocating from a shopping center across the street. It also opened a number of specialty stores in Roanoke and Portsmouth, Virginia and Greensboro, Charlotte, Raleigh and Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Miller & Rhoads continued to expand to other cities in Virginia and North Carolina into the early 1980s, relocating its downtown Lynchburg and Charlottesville stores into shopping malls and opening large new locations at Lynnhaven Mall in Virginia Beach and Greenbrier Mall in Chesapeake.
Even as its stores grew more contemporary, the chain adhered to many old traditions. Miller & Rhoads stores almost always had engraved metal name plaques at their entrances, even on mall entrances. An early 1980s redesign of the store logo featured curvaceous script reminiscent of calligraphy.
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