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                                                                    Exhibit 31.1

                                 CERTIFICATIONS

         I, Byron L. Bergren, President and Chief Executive Officer, certify
that:

         1. I have reviewed this quarterly report on Form 10-Q of The
Elder-Beerman Stores Corp. (the "registrant");

         2. Based on my knowledge, this quarterly report does not contain any
untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary
to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which such
statements were made, not misleading with respect to the period covered by this
quarterly report;

         3. Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial
information included in this quarterly report, fairly present in all material
respects the financial condition, results of operations and cash flows of the
registrant as of, and for, the periods presented in this quarterly report;

         4. The registrant's other certifying officer and I are responsible for
establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in
Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) for the registrant and we have:

                  a)       designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or
                           caused such disclosure controls and procedures to be
                           designed under our supervision, to ensure that
                           material information relating to the registrant,
                           including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made
                           known to us by others within those entities,
                           particularly during the period in which this
                           quarterly report is being prepared;

                  b)       evaluated the effectiveness of the registrant's
                           disclosure controls and procedures and presented in
                           this report our conclusions about the effectiveness
                           of the disclosure controls and procedures, as of the
                           end of the period covered by this report based on
                           such evaluation; and

                  c)       disclosed in this report any change in the
                           registrant's internal control over financial
                           reporting that occurred during the registrant's most
                           recent fiscal quarter that has materially affected,
                           or is reasonably likely to materially affect, the
                           registrant's internal control over financial
                           reporting;

         5. The registrant's other certifying officer and I have disclosed,
based on our most recent evaluation of internal control over financial
reporting, to the registrant's auditors and the audit committee of registrant's
board of directors:

                  a)       all significant deficiencies and material weaknesses
                           in the design or operation of internal control over
                           financial reporting which are reasonably likely to
                           adversely affect the registrant's ability to record,
                           process, summarize and report financial information;
                           and

                  b)       any fraud, whether or not material, that involves
                           management or other employees who have a significant
                           role in the registrant's internal control over
                           financial reporting.

Date:  September 15, 2003                            /s/ Byron L. Bergren
                                           -------------------------------------
                                                     Byron L. Bergren
                                           President and Chief Executive Officer