Albert Boscov

Scares the hell out of you. Those are words seldom associated with Albert Boscov. Albie? Yes. Mr. B? That, too. Even force of nature , for how he saved his family's department store chain, and thousands of jobs, from near-death bankruptcy three years ago. But his being scared ? Nah. Yet as the 82-year-old merchant-warrior sat still for just a few moments in his Reading office the other day - paperwork on the floor, paperwork on the conference table, a shrinking birthday balloon barely floating above his desk - he used those very words to describe the tumble of emotions associated with Sunday's planned opening of a Boscov's at Monmouth Mall near Asbury Park, N.J. "It scares the hell out of you that it won't work," Boscov said, eyeing a 68-page draft of an advertising circular.

In a move that paves the way for a successor to its octogenarian chairman, the Boscov's department-store chain announced Wednesday that a member of the founding family, Jim Boscov, had been named vice chairman of the Reading company. The move came about a year and a half after Boscov, 61, rejoined the company following its emergence from a swift Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization orchestrated by chairman Albert Boscov, his 81-year-old uncle. It underscores the family's intention to stay in business, squelching any notion that the company might one day soon be sold to outsiders.

The Boscov family today closed on the deal to buy back its 39-store department store chain from bankruptcy for about $300 million. The investor group led by Albert Boscov, 79, and his brother-in-law Edwin Lakin of Reading, missed their Black Friday buyback deadline by a week because of financing delays. But the deal went through after Susquehanna Bank and other lenders agreed to provide short-term loans to cover about $50 million in state and other public aid expected to come in over the next two months, said J. Scott Victor of NatCity Investments, Inc., investment banker for the Boscov-Lakin group.

AT A TIME when consumers have become accustomed to mourning the demise of once-great retailers -Strawbridge, Wanamakers, Gimbels, Korvettes, Bonwit Teller, just to name a local few - and as faltering giant industries petition the government for bailouts, it's nice to see one company bucking that trend. Boscov's, the 39-store family-owned department-store chain, was in bankruptcy court this week, but the heartening twist is that it was there trying to save the store. Albert Boscov, son of the chain's founder, put a $300 million offer on the table to keep the chain from perishing.

Confident that its business is back on track, Boscov's department store chain says it plans to hire 240, mostly full-time, employees beginning next month and continuing throughout the year. This week's announcement comes several months after the Reading retailer emerged formally from Chapter 11 bankruptcy under a family-ownership team led by Albert Boscov. The hiring surge will help replenish some of the 1,300 jobs that were lost when the chain, with stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and three neighboring states, closed 10 locations after filing for bankruptcy in late 2008, said Ed Elko, senior vice president of human resources.

Facing the impending demolition of its home Levittown Shopping Center, anchor store Boscov's has announced that it will close its Tullytown branch within a few months. According to a letter to the State Bureau of Workforce Investment, the Boscov's store will close between March 18 and 31 - terminating 195 jobs and taking away shopping convenience from some loyal patrons. Boscov's chairman, Albert Boscov, said yesterday that those employees might be accommodated at Boscov's other local stores, at the Neshaminy and Franklin Mills Malls.

Ports of the World, the Philadelphia-based subsidiary of Boscov's Department Stores, yesterday said it would open its sixth and largest store in the vacant Stern's space in the Moorestown Mall. The new store, expected to open in November, represents an increasing Philadelphia-area presence of Boscov's, the Reading chain that dominates smaller markets in Central Pennsylvania and Delaware. "Ports is my way of sneaking into Philadelphia without anybody noticing," said Albert Boscov, chairman of the company.

Boscov's Department Stores said yesterday that it would open a store in the troubled Shore Mall in Pleasantville, Atlantic County, by the end of 1988. The newest Boscov's will be located in the 186,000-square-foot building that was vacated in September by Sears, Roebuck & Co. The Shore Mall, opened in 1968, has been hurt recently by competition from Hamilton Mall, which is located in nearby Mays Landing and is the newest and largest regional shopping center in South Jersey.

Pomeroy's, a chain of Pennsylvania department stores thought to be in danger of closing, has at least one set of potential buyers. The suitors, in a joint venture, are Boscov's Inc., a Reading retailer, and The Bon Ton, a department-store chain based in York. "We are interested in acquiring the stores as they become available. We are not the only bidder, so we don't know if we will get them," Albert Boscov, president of the 16-store chain that bears his name, said yesterday.

Scares the hell out of you. Those are words seldom associated with Albert Boscov. Albie? Yes. Mr. B? That, too. Even force of nature , for how he saved his family's department store chain, and thousands of jobs, from near-death bankruptcy three years ago. But his being scared ? Nah. Yet as the 82-year-old merchant-warrior sat still for just a few moments in his Reading office the other day - paperwork on the floor, paperwork on the conference table, a shrinking birthday balloon barely floating above his desk - he used those very words to describe the tumble of emotions associated with Sunday's planned opening of a Boscov's at Monmouth Mall near Asbury Park, N.J. "It scares the hell out of you that it won't work," Boscov said, eyeing a 68-page draft of an advertising circular.

In a move that paves the way for a successor to its octogenarian chairman, the Boscov's department-store chain announced Wednesday that a member of the founding family, Jim Boscov, had been named vice chairman of the Reading company. The move came about a year and a half after Boscov, 61, rejoined the company following its emergence from a swift Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization orchestrated by chairman Albert Boscov, his 81-year-old uncle. It underscores the family's intention to stay in business, squelching any notion that the company might one day soon be sold to outsiders.

Confident that its business is back on track, Boscov's department store chain says it plans to hire 240, mostly full-time, employees beginning next month and continuing throughout the year. This week's announcement comes several months after the Reading retailer emerged formally from Chapter 11 bankruptcy under a family-ownership team led by Albert Boscov. The hiring surge will help replenish some of the 1,300 jobs that were lost when the chain, with stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and three neighboring states, closed 10 locations after filing for bankruptcy in late 2008, said Ed Elko, senior vice president of human resources.

A white Saturday before Christmas may be thrilling for children and poetic for crooners, but today's anticipated snowstorm was bringing on a straight-up case of the blues for holiday retailers. Mall owners and merchants across the region were groaning as forecasters predicted up to a foot of snow because, just like the day after Thanksgiving, today is one of the biggest shopping days of the year. And if you can't get out of your driveway, then chances are that neither can tens of thousands of other last-minute gift-buyers and store employees who would normally give retailers the surge of sales they expect as procrastinators try to polish off gift lists.

Think back, dear consumer, to your old life, and see how dramatically things have changed in a year: Must-have-it-now was your pre-meltdown mantra. Parsimony was for punks. And like many Americans, you acted as if you were competing to win the shopping version of Wing Bowl. Those $1,500 handbags you used to buy because your 401(k) made you feel rich? History. The shiny new car or SUV you just had to replace every three years? Buh-bye showroom. Hello, old neighborhood mechanic.

It's a part of the bailout story few hear: bankers actually taking tax dollars and putting them back onto the street. So a U.S. representative, a financial executive, and a retail rescue hero met yesterday at that most equalizing of American institutions - a New Jersey shopping mall - to praise bailout banking at its best. "We've heard an awful lot about the abuses of this program," Rep. Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.) said at a news conference in front of the Boscov's department store in the Deptford Mall.

It's a part of the bailout story few hear: bankers actually taking tax dollars and putting them back onto the street. So a U.S. representative, a financial executive, and a retail rescue hero met yesterday at that most equalizing of American institutions - a New Jersey shopping mall - to praise bailout banking at its best. "We've heard an awful lot about the abuses of this program," Rep. Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.) said at a news conference in front of the Boscov's department store in the Deptford Mall.

The Boscov family today closed on the deal to buy back its 39-store department store chain from bankruptcy for about $300 million. The investor group led by Albert Boscov, 79, and his brother-in-law Edwin Lakin of Reading, missed their Black Friday buyback deadline by a week because of financing delays. But the deal went through after Susquehanna Bank and other lenders agreed to provide short-term loans to cover about $50 million in state and other public aid expected to come in over the next two months, said J. Scott Victor of NatCity Investments, Inc., investment banker for the Boscov-Lakin group.

AT A TIME when consumers have become accustomed to mourning the demise of once-great retailers -Strawbridge, Wanamakers, Gimbels, Korvettes, Bonwit Teller, just to name a local few - and as faltering giant industries petition the government for bailouts, it's nice to see one company bucking that trend. Boscov's, the 39-store family-owned department-store chain, was in bankruptcy court this week, but the heartening twist is that it was there trying to save the store. Albert Boscov, son of the chain's founder, put a $300 million offer on the table to keep the chain from perishing.