Shopko buys retail chain Pamida

Mike Sidders, Shopko's vice president of e-commerce.

Regional retail chain Shopko Stores Operating Co. has acquired Pamida, a Omaha, NE-based department store retailer that operates 193 stores in 17 Central, Midwestern and Mountain states, Shopko says. Shopko did not say how much it paid for Pamida.

Shopko, No. 550 in Internet Retailer’s Second 500 Guide, plans to divert web traffic from Pamida.com—which does not have e-commerce capabilities—to Shopko.com, says vice president of e-commerce Mike Sidders. “Everything will be moving to the Shopko brand, so we do not foresee a separate e-commerce operation for Pamida,” he says.

The combined company will be based in Green Bay, WI, and led by Shopko president and CEO Paul Jones.  Pamida CEO John Harlow will help with the transition. Shopko says it will invest around $80 million over the next year to convert most of the Pamida locations to the Shopko Hometown store concept, 15,000- to 35,000-square-foot stores that combine pharmacies with department stores.

Mike Sidders will speak at the Internet Retailer Web Design & Usability Conference 2012 in Orlando, FL, in February in a session entitled "Design 101: 10 best practices to pick from the pack.”