Ann &amp; Hope opening new discount store<

CUMBERLAND — Ann & Hope announced that it would open its new Ann & Hope
Outlet Center here five months after announcing it would close all of its discount
stores, from Warwick to Watertown, Mass. At the time of its earlier announcement,
the company also announced that it planned to open smaller discount stores, possibly
in Warwick and Cumberland. As announced, all of the large discount stores have
been closed and 1,500 employees let go. Sam Chase, executive vice president for
Ann & Hope, described the new store, located upstairs from the company’s original
store in a massive old brick and granite mill here, as a “mini-discount mall,”
the Providence Journal reported.