Cranberry Mall, where more than 25 percent of the stores sit vacant, is losing another tenant -- CVS Pharmacy will close its store there within 30 days, mall and company officials said yesterday.

"Our lease expires at the end of the month, and [the mall was] going to raise the rent," said CVS spokesman Todd Andrews. "We looked at the amount of business we were doing there and decided it didn't make sense to stay."

Andrews said a CVS store at 400 Englar Road will remain open, as will stores at other Carroll County locations.

The mall has been for sale for nearly a year. It recently lost one of its anchors when Caldor closed, and 23 of its 87 storefronts are vacant, said Robyn Clark, the mall's general manager.

She said she could not discuss terms of CVS' lease but she believed the store's closing was in line with its general move away from enclosed malls.

Andrews said, "CVS is involved in a major initiative to move stores nationwide out of malls and into stand-alone stores, and that probably came into play. Generally, we close a mall store and move into a new freestanding store in the same town, but in this particular case that is not happening."

CVS, which has 4,100 stores nationwide and plans to open 440 more this year, is not alone in its new direction.

"Everyone's doing it, they're building freestanding stores with drive-throughs," said Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates Inc., a national retail consulting firm in New York. "That is not consistent with malls. Malls are a horror show, that's why sales are down."

Davidowitz said consumers want to be able to use a drive-through window or park in front of a store, making freestanding stores and strip malls more popular.

"When people do take the time to go to a mall," he said, "they tend to go to top-flight malls that have the best anchors, the best ambience, the best entertainment and the best restaurants."

Clark said traffic in the mall has been steady and no other stores have announced closings.

"A lot of leases were renewed in 1997," she said, "and in retail it's usually a five-year lease, although there are some exceptions."

She said she doesn't think the closing of CVS will affect mall traffic.

"I don't think it brought any more or any less people than any other store," she said. "I don't think people come here especially for that."

CVS supervisor Susan Wagner has worked at the Cranberry location since 1987, the year it opened. She said the store has gotten busier over time and was profitable last year. She and two other employees will transfer to the Englar Road store, while the other four will be laid off.

"I'm just sad because I've been here the longest," she said. "I'll miss it."

Pub Date: 3/11/99