Elder-Beerman to Open a New Concept Store in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

Business Editors

DAYTON, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 21, 2000

The Elder-Beerman Stores Corp. (Nasdaq:EBSC) plans to open a 54,000 square foot department store in the Sheboygan, Wisconsin area.

Elder-Beerman will build the store in its concept store format in nearby Kohler, Wisconsin in the new Deerfield Trace Shopping Center adjacent to Interstate 43. The company anticipates opening the new store in the fall of 2001. It will be the state's fifth Elder-Beerman department store.

"The Sheboygan store will be our seventh concept store," said Frederick J. Mershad, chairman and chief executive officer. "We designed our concept stores to meet the changing needs of today's busy customer by offering a competitive balance of price, selection, service and convenience. Our customers have responded favorably to the concept store format."

This new concept store will carry brand name apparel, accessories and shoes for men, women, juniors, young men and children, quality cosmetics and fragrances, and home furnishings. The format of the store will enhance customer shopping through a 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 Sheboygan store include:

-- Centralized customer service centers - Highly visible service islands in
main aisles throughout the store. These service centers will be staffed
continuously to provide 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 a specialty
store within a store for the next generation customer.

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

The nation's ninth largest independent department store chain, The Elder-Beerman Stores Corp. has its headquarters in Dayton, Ohio and operates 63 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: the ability to open new stores on schedule; increasing price and product competition; fluctuations in consumer demand and confidence, especially during the Christmas shopping season; the availability and mix of inventory; fluctuations in costs and expenses; consumer response to the company's new merchandising strategies, advertising, marketing and promotional programs; the ability of the company to achieve its expense cutting initiatives as it implements its strategic plan; the timing and effectiveness of new store openings, particularly its new concept stores opened in the Fall season of 2000 (Howell, Michigan; West Bend, Wisconsin; and Jasper, Indiana); the growing impact of electronic commerce; weather conditions that affect consumer traffic in stores, especially during the Christmas season; the continued availability and terms of financing; the outcome of pending and future litigation; consumer debt levels; 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.