Retailers

The enormousness that is the new Revel Atlantic City can be boiled down to numbers: 14 restaurants, 1,900 guest rooms, in a mega-casino towering 47 stories over the city's South Inlet section. But Revel's restaurant complement can be boiled down to two Philadelphia men who operate as Vibrant Development Group: Chuck Bragitikos and Jason Spillerman. More than five years ago, they met with Kevin DeSanctis, Revel's chief executive. DeSanctis told them that it not only had to be big, it had to be distinctive.

Since 1980, American retailers have been carrying on a love affair with imported clothing makers and spurning the products of domestic apparel manufacturers. But over the past six months or so, the U.S. garment industry has enjoyed a renewed flirtation with retailers, partly in response to the dollar's falling value overseas and partly because of a new perception by consumers that clothing made in the U.S.A. is better. "There's definitely movement in the direction of domestic clothing makers," said Bob Swift, executive director of Crafted with Pride in the USA Council, the non-profit group that developed the "Made in the USA" campaign.

Wallace Oversby had a big decision to make - what kind of lingerie to buy his girlfriend for Valentine's Day. A teddy? A bustier? The 23-year-old Embassy Suites guest services clerk was torn. He said he wanted to get her something sexy but not too risque. "You don't want her to think you're some kind of a freak or anything," he explained, as he left Secrets on South, an intimate-apparel store. Thanks to customers like Oversby, who already had purchased a pair of $70 black Reebok athletic shoes for his sweetheart, many retailers yesterday breathed a collective sigh of relief.

To hear some retailers, it won't be the decorations going up, or the carolers singing that will inspire Philadelphians to begin their Christmas shopping. Rather, it's the inevitable end of this year's political campaigns, which have preoccupied customers for months, that may encourage them to get out and spend. "I don't think Bush is going to win, and I think that'll give a real boost to the economy," said Larry Glauser, co-owner of the Sports Favorites apparel store on Cottman Avenue in the Northeast.

Attention Yupscale shoppers: Sharper Image, the executive toy catalog business that also operates 30 retail stores, is racing into Ardmore for an October opening - maybe aboard a pair of its $99 "Frollerskates with Innershoes. " J. Bildner, a hybrid grocery caterer and gourmet operation based in Boston, is renovating a store on Rittenhouse Square, where it will sell things like Ethiopian Harar coffee and goat cheese, side by side with toothpaste and toilet paper. Honeybee, which sells brand-name and designer women's career clothes, is coming to 1711 Walnut St. by early October.

They were developers, Realtors and retailers and nearly all of them had one thing in common: But for nine or 10, almost none were registered to vote in Philadelphia. They weren't necessarily campaign contributors, either, and the event was not a fund-raiser. But that doesn't mean that either candidate for mayor could afford to be absent. Nope. If you're going to be mayor in Philadelphia, you need these guys on your team. "They represent important development interests in the city of Philadelphia," said Republican mayoral candidate Sam Katz yesterday after addressing several hundred members of the International Council of Shopping Centers, who were holding their annual regional meeting at the Convention Center.

A 30-year-old man walks into a sporting-goods store and, after wandering around for a few minutes, approaches the cash register to pay for some weights. A sharp-eyed store detective notices that something is amiss. Sure enough, the man has tucked some dart-playing paraphernalia worth $47.14 into his jacket pocket. This is how a fairly typical shoplifting case began last October in the town of El Toro, Calif., about halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego. What happened next strayed from the norm.

The nation's major merchants turned in solid sales performances in February, they reported yesterday. Industry analysts said the retailers were helped in large part by women's strong responses to new spring fashions. Jeffrey Feiner, a retail analyst at Merrill Lynch & Co., said the results "were slightly ahead of expectations and reflected the continued improvement that was evident during the Christmas and January selling seasons. " The retailers' sales in stores open for more than a year rose an average of 7 percent to 8 percent in February over the same month a year ago, while total sales were up about 16 percent on average, the analysts said.

Even as retailers have reported that shoppers this holiday season are expressing a new-found economic confidence, a wave of store-closing announcements swept through the industry this week. The latest came yesterday, when Jamesway Corp., the big discount retail chain based in Secaucus, N.J., said it will close 13 unprofitable stores, some in the Philadelphia area. The move was made even though Jamesway executive vice president Barry Rockland proclaimed this Christmas season to be the chain's strongest in three years.

This year's economic pressures mean Christmas shopping promises to be a war of nerves between consumers and retailers. And the way shoppers see it - at least those in the Gallery - the stores are going to blink first. Shoppers strolling through The Gallery yesterday were doing a lot of looking, but not much buying. Not yet. "I'm waiting for the sales," said Carrie Milikin of West Philadelphia. "I'm retired, and I have to wait for the real bargains. " Naomi Merrill of Camden already has been burned.

Jen Green looks out at the 80-some millennials chatting it up with local designers at the art gallery studio: christensen in Rittenhouse Square. Clad in this spring's must-have brights, the guests look swank. The rhubarb cocktails are flowing. And Green couldn't be more pleased. The April soiree, featuring Germantown-based women's-wear label NIC*FISH and calligrapher/jewelry designer Danny Fox, marks the one-year anniversary of HyLo Boutiques — short for hyper-local — Green's consulting company and design collective that uses a unique-to-our-time business model to promote fashions conceived of and manufactured in Philadelphia.

Maybe some college business-school graduates end up in an office (or at least a cubicle), working weekdays, quitting at 5 p.m. But it's nothing like that in retail, where a grad on the management track can have big responsibilities quickly. "This is some people's first job," said Nicole Monzo, 26, human-resources manager for the Target store in Oaks, Montgomery County, where she handles hiring, scheduling, and disciplining for the store's 100-plus associates. "It's not a sit-at-a-desk job. You are working weekends.

Bensalem-based Charming Shoppes, Inc. has reached an agreement to be acquired by Ascena Retail Group, Inc. for $890 million, according to a joint statement on the company's website. Charming Shoppes is the parent company of Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug and Catherines Plus Sizes and operates 1,800 retail stores nationwide. It also operates Figi's, a direct marketing business. Ascena owns the Dressbarn, Maurices and Justice brands, which have 2,500 stores in the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada?

DEAR ABBY: I'm a 43-year-old veteran of the grocery industry. I am also an associate of one of the premier supermarkets in the country, and I disagree with your response to "Chicago Clipper"! Coupons are a necessary evil and are graciously accepted, but they create work for retailers. It takes countless hours of sorting, logging, filling out forms, mailing and receiving to be reimbursed for the face value of the coupon. This is hardly a benefit to the grocer. The abuse and fraud associated with coupons adds up into millions of dollars.

Ask those who have worked with Emily Gottschalk to describe the Cherry Hill entrepreneur, and the compliments gush forth. Market savvy. Upbeat. Focused for success. Trustworthy. But last week, the identifier that seemed to thrill Gottschalk the most was 011891. It was the SKU, or stock keeping unit, on a DVD Gottschalk plucked from a display Wednesday at the Walmart in Somerdale, Camden County. In bar-code language, that SKU stands for TGG Direct, the home-entertainment distribution company Gottschalk founded in 2006 to compete in an industry dominated by such behemoths as Disney, Warner, and Universal Studios and less-familiar independent companies such as Echo Bridge and Mill Creek Entertainment.

TRENTON - Two major players in the gift-card market announced plans Thursday to pull out of New Jersey rather than comply with a law that lets the state claim the value of unredeemed cards after just two years. Blackhawk Network and InComm made separate announcements that they would quit doing business in New Jersey in June unless the law is reversed. The companies - third-party providers of gift cards to malls, groceries, and convenience stores - told the Associated Press it was too hard to comply with the changes in New Jersey's unclaimed-property law. The law requires gift-card sellers to obtain zip codes from buyers so the state can claim the value of unused cards.

Intelligent talk radio Like Amy S. Rosenberg, many of my friends and I are great fans of Marty Moss-Coane ("25 years of tireless talk," Tuesday). As the author emphasized, I have always marveled at how Moss-Coane can switch topics in the course of a two-hour Radio Times show and discuss each with such intelligence and ease. At the conclusion of each show, I always feel that I have learned something. I also agree that Moss-Coane does her homework, and it cannot be emphasized enough that no matter her feelings on the subject or a guest, each is treated with insight and respect.

Tired of being outsold by online retailers, earthbound merchants have convinced legislatures in five states to force Web-based sellers to collect and remit sales taxes. Twenty others are working on similar laws. Now, it's time for New Jersey to join the trend and stop forgoing hundreds of millions of dollars in Web-derived tax revenue that it can use to meet its budget while protecting local businesses. Online retailers have an unfair advantage over florists, appliance stores, clothiers, music and gift shops, and other local businesses.

The Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem - which in January eclipsed Parx as the state's leader in table-games revenue, according to just-released figures - opened much of its new shopping mall Thursday to eager shoppers. The high-end outlet mall, the first inside a Pennsylvania casino, opened a half-dozen stores Nov. 1, followed by staggered openings of other stores, including Guess and Coach, over the last four months. Twenty-four of 31 stores are now open. A Wednesday night grand opening for the Shoppes at Sands included a fashion show featuring models in clothes sold in the stores there.