Elder-Beerman Announces a New Department Store in West Bend, Wisconsin Opening Fall 2000.

Business Editors

DAYTON, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 23, 2000

The Elder-Beerman Stores Corp. (Nasdaq:EBSC) announced today a new department store to be opened in West Bend, Wisconsin. This store, scheduled to open in the fall of this year, is the Company's second new store announced in 2000. The Company's other new store announced for 2000 will be located in Howell, Michigan.

"We are delighted with the West Bend location and we are excited about expanding further into Wisconsin. The West Bend store fits well into our strategy to be the destination department store in underserved markets," said Frederick J. Mershad, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "Also, our store in West Bend will incorporate new concepts that were successfully introduced last fall in our new Warsaw, Indiana and Frankfort, Kentucky stores."

The West Bend, Wisconsin store will be located in the West Bend Corporate Center, developed and owned by Continental Properties Company, Inc., and will occupy approximately 62,000 square feet. The shopping center is located at the intersection of Highway 45 and Paradise Drive, approximately 30 miles from Milwaukee. This store, the fourth of Elder-Beerman's new concept stores, will carry Elder-Beerman's traditional merchandise mix of brand name apparel, accessories and shoes for men, women, juniors, young men and children, cosmetics and fragrances, plus a full assortment of home furnishings. The store's new concept design will enhance the customer shopping experience through a more convenient store layout and fixturing that will attractively offer more merchandise in less space.

The features from the Company's other concept stores that will be incorporated in the West Bend store include:

-- Centralized customer service centers - Highly visible centers conveniently
located in main aisles throughout the store, which will be staffed during all
store hours, providing efficient, convenient transactions and quality customer
service.

-- Self-select cosmetics - All of the fragrances and about 50 percent of the
treatment products will be available on open shelves and other open fixtures
for easy selection.

-- The Zone - A combined juniors' and young men's shop that creates an exciting
specialty store within a store for the generation Y customer.

"Elder-Beerman looks forward to treating our future customers in West Bend to a refreshing shopping experience by providing an attractive, exciting and up-to-date department store that delivers fashion, value and superb service," Mershad commented.

The nation's eighth largest independent department store chain, The Elder-Beerman Stores Corp. is headquartered in Dayton, Ohio and operates 62 stores in Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Kentucky, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Elder-Beerman also operates two furniture superstores.

This press release contains "forward-looking statements," including predictions of future operating performance, events or developments such as our future sales, profits, expenses, income and earnings per share. In addition, words such as "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "hopes," and "estimates," and variations of such words and similar expressions, are intended to identify forward-looking statements.

Because forward-looking statements are based on a number of beliefs, estimates and assumptions by management that could ultimately prove inaccurate, there is no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate. Many factors could materially affect our actual future operations and results, including the following: increasing price and product competition; fluctuations in consumer demand and confidence; the availability and mix of inventory; fluctuations in costs and expenses; the effectiveness of advertising, marketing and promotional programs; weather conditions that affect consumer traffic in stores; the continued availability and terms of financing; the outcome of pending and future litigation; consumer debt levels; and other general economic conditions that affect retail operations and sales, such as the rate of employment, inflation and interest rates and the condition of the capital markets.

Elder-Beerman undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.