YORK, Pa., Jul 29, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) ----The Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. today announced the introduction of its new proprietary credit card loyalty program, YOUR REWARDS. The program, which is being implemented mid-August, recognizes customers for their patronage and gives them more rewards with fewer restrictions.

YOUR REWARDS is a point-based program that offers the customer special benefits including advance notice of sales and events, exclusive cardholder savings, opportunities to receive double or triple points and more. The program provides four levels of participation to encourage incremental spend and migration from lower to higher levels of spend.

Bud Bergren, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, "I am very excited to introduce our new proprietary credit card program, YOUR REWARDS, the card that gives our customers more rewards with fewer restrictions. We now have a universal credit card program across all our nameplates - a key step in finalizing the integration of Bon-Ton and Carson's, and provides one clear and consistent program and message to our customers across all eight nameplates. The new program offers our customers new features based on their shopping behavior, as we strengthen our relationship with our customers. In addition, we believe this will drive profitable sales growth by increasing the use of our proprietary credit card. We will analyze and use the data we capture from our point of sale to communicate more effectively with our customers."

The Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. operates 281 stores, including twelve furniture galleries, in 23 states in the Northeast, Midwest and upper Great Plains under the Bon-Ton, Bergner's, Boston Store, Carson Pirie Scott, Elder-Beerman, Herberger's and Younkers nameplates and, under the Parisian nameplate, three stores in the Detroit, Michigan area. The stores offer a broad assortment of brand-name fashion apparel and accessories for women, men and children, as well as cosmetics and home furnishings. For further information, please visit the investor relations section of the Company's website at http://investors.bonton.com.

Statements made in this press release, other than statements of historical information, are forward-looking and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause results to differ materially from those set forth in these statements. Factors that could cause such differences include, but are not limited to, risks related to retail businesses generally; a significant and prolonged deterioration of general economic conditions which could negatively impact the Company, including the potential write-down of the current valuation of intangible assets and deferred taxes; consumer spending patterns and debt levels; additional competition from existing and new competitors; inflation; changes in the costs of fuel and other energy and transportation costs; weather conditions that could negatively impact sales; uncertainties associated with opening new stores or expanding or remodeling existing stores; the ability to attract and retain qualified management; the dependence upon vendor relationships; the ability to reduce SG&A expenses and the ability to obtain financing for working capital, capital expenditures and general corporate purposes. Additional factors that could cause the Company's actual results to differ from those contained in these forward-looking statements are discussed in greater detail under Item 1A of the Company's Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SOURCE: The Bon-Ton Stores, Inc.

The Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. Mary Kerr, 717-751-3071 Vice President Investor & Public Relations
   mkerr@bonton.com 

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