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Replacements Ltd., which never seems to stop growing, is entering a new market: the mall.

And it’s possible the company’s move might be a test run for future retail expansion beyond its Knox Road complex.

The homegrown retailer announced last week plans to open a store Saturday on the first floor of Four Seasons Town Centre, near Belk. The store will remain open through January and carry discontinued patterns, along with holiday ornaments and collectibles.

Mall shoppers also can place holiday orders and search the company’s electronic database of more than 269,000 patterns.

Replacements has not announced specific plans for new retail stores and is describing its mall experiment as a "test."

Charm necklace for charity

Women’s apparel store Francesca’s Collections has started selling charm necklaces to benefit a network of breast cancer survivors and activists.

The national retailer, which opened its first N.C. store last year at the Shops at Friendly Center, will donate half the price of each necklace sold to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. The retailer plans to donate at least $100,000 from the effort, which is geared toward young women in sororities and other Greek organizations.

Each necklace is set on a 16-inch silver chain and features two charms: an enamel pink ribbon and a crystal heart. The base price is $18, but shoppers can add additional charms — a freshwater pearl or Greek letters — for $4 each.

Rosen buys 3 retail centers

A private real-estate firm based in New York recently snapped up three Triad retail centers at a combined price tag of about $9.7 million.

The Rosen Group bought two grocery store centers and a CVS store in a trio of transactions between late July and late August, according to property records. The supermarket centers — on Randleman Road in Greensboro and South Church Street in Burlington — were briefly occupied by Southern Family Markets, which hadn’t lasted a year in the Triad when it announced plans to pull out of the market in August 2006.

Rosen, which already owns a handful of Triad retail and office properties, also bought the CVS on Montlieu Avenue in High Point.

All properties were formerly owned by South Carolina -based Pridemore Development Co.

And another retail sale ...

You might not be able to tell from the signage, but Colonial Shoppes at Quaker Village has changed hands.

The Greensboro retail center, which hosts a slew of small tenants and, until recently, was anchored by the Fresh Market, sold to New York’s First Republic Group this summer. Longtime owner Colonial Properties Trust, which is focusing on multifamily residential and mixed-use real estate, turned over Quaker Village and 10 other shopping centers in the region for about $129 million.

First Republic did not return calls about its plans for the local center. The company has turned over management and leasing of Quaker Village to Jones Lang LaSalle, which has an office in Charlotte. Officials with Jones Lang LaSalle did not respond to repeated requests for an interview.

It’s unclear what the future might hold for Quaker Village. Aside from Fresh Market’s departure (the store reopened at the new Jefferson Village on New Garden Road ), the longtime retail center near Guilford College has been fairly stable.

More than 95 percent of the space there was spoken for in 2006, according to records from Colonial Properties.

Shoes in more sizes online

Here’s some good news for taller guys: Casual Male Retail Group has launched an online shoe store stocking those hard-to-find sizes.

And the national retailer, which has Casual Male XL stores in Greensboro and Winston-Salem and an outlet in Burlington, plans to expand its shoe offerings at the new site and the online storefronts for its Casual Male XL and Rochester Big & Tall chains.

The new site, Shoes XL, includes hundreds of shoes in sizes 12 to 17 and in a variety of widths. Brands range from Asics running shoes and Chuck Taylors to Bruno Magli and Cole Haan dress shoes.

View the collection, shop online or request a catalog at http://www.shoesxl.com.

Mattress Firm store opens

Mattress Firm has opened its new Greensboro store in the Wendover Place retail center.

The Houston-based mattress company bought Greensboro’s Mattress Man in early August and closed three of the local chain’s four stores. The fourth, at 1218-A Bridford Parkway, closed briefly for renovations.

The new store, across from Target, is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturdays and noon to 6 p.m. Sundays.

Do you have retail news for Michelle Jarboe? Call 373-7075 or send e-mail to mjarboe@news-record.com