spongeTom squareTheft

Here's a mix of the somber and the silly, heavily weighted twards the latter...

Good Night, Tom
It's not every night you can sit at home and watch Peter Jennings on ABC as he watches Tom Brokaw on NBC. But this was not a night like all nights. Tom Brokaw's exit is significant, as the idea of anchor as a network flag-bearer is looking increasingly shaky.

Square Guy Too Cool to Pass Up
SpongeBob SquarePants wasn't doing anyone any harm. A six-foot blow-up version of the Nickelodeon cartoon character had been perched on the roof of a Burger King in St. Mary's County, Maryland for three days, his skinny legs dangling over the edge, his fists triumphantly in the air, smiling that goofy grin of his.

Then along came Steven Simon and his buddy Conrad "C.J." Mercure Jr., both 18, with no car and no clue what to do with themselves in the early hours of Nov. 19.

Mercure said he wondered aloud, "Hey, what if we were to steal that SpongeBob on top of the Burger King?" Seeking to do what others said couldn't be done, he and Simon set out to kidnap the giant cartoon sponge...

Simon Property Group Pulls Its Mall Ad
The Simon Property Group, the owner of shopping malls in North America, said yesterday that it would stop running a print advertisement for its Simon Malls division that pictured the Statue of Liberty next to these words: "Very inspiring. Now, where's the mall?"

one more freak on the sole train

Know this: Somewhere out there, perhaps in your neighborhood, lurks a sneakerhead.

The 175 pairs of sneakers Eric Hsieh owns have never been worn. They're tucked safely away in shoeboxes. Once in a while, if Hsieh really likes a certain kind, like the Nike Air Jordans, he'll buy a few extra pairs so he can actually wear one.

There are names for people like Hsieh: ''Sneakerhead'' and ''sneakerfreak'' are handy labels given to the modest but ever-growing community of avid sneaker collectors.

Read more @ Sneakerfreaks have sole -- and a craving for more

ken jennings: dork icon

I was going to tell you guys about the quiet end of "Jeopardy" contestant Ken Jennings's historic winning streak, but my friend Tim Anson beat me to it. You can read his version here.

RELATED: Who is Ken Jennings? (ABC News)

mickey, designer bling, paul & the wal

Manhattan Mickey
Mickey Mouse and his Disney colleagues have a new home in the Big Apple. And the Disney intention was to make the new store cry out with a New York state of mind. It has hipness, fashion and trendiness built into its very fabric. But it hasn't sacrificed its laser-like focus on its constituent market - young girls who adore Cinderella. And their parents, who grew up with the belief that "a dream is a wish your heart makes."

I visited this store, and as far as retail design and popularity go, thery have a hit on their hands.


Blurring the Line Between Bling and Forever
Fine jewelry has found purveyors among branded fashion names, whether Chanel or Bergdorf Goodman.


Paul Ostrove Dies in New York
Paul Stuart Ostrove, the former executive vp of the Madison Avenue clothing store that was named for him, died last week of lymphoma at his home in Roslyn, N.Y. He was 73.

I have yet to go here, but I get their catalog. It's awesome.


Wal-Mart to Cut Prices After Poor Sales
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the No. 1 U.S. retailer, on Tuesday signaled it will cut prices through Christmas after holding back deep discounts on the first weekend of the holiday shopping season.

You guys trained us to look for the lowest price and then you held back! For shame! 'Always,' my ass!

about time!

Just when many mannered folks had given up on having a civilized dinner, or library trip, without overhearing other people's conversations, a simple solution seems to be calling. Phone companies have eliminated more than a million traditional pay phones in the past eight years, many of them in phone booths, according to the Federal Communications Commission. Now, some restuarants, libraries and other businesses are slowing bringing back the phone booth, sans phone this time. Users bring their own mobile phone and can talk as loud as they want without bothering anybody else, or being asked to step outside.

Read more @ The phone booth returns

malls, the men who hate them and the winning loser

Usually I'd divide this into three posts, but it's interesting to place these articles together:

Wallflower Mall
aka love for the mid-market shopping center

It's difficult to know the complete history of an old mall, because who among us ever loves the place enough to write it all down? The mall lives or the mall dies or the mall lingers, and some malls seem to have a bigger destiny than others.

The Washington Post sent a reporter to the most under-rated, averege mall in Northern Virginia, Manassas Mall, to check out what things were like. Strangely enough, that place used to be my friend Angie's local mall and it used to house a Leggett department store, the same company my mom worked at for eight years, albeit at a different location.

Side notes: Contrary to what this guy says, I love malls enough to write down what happens. Now if I could just get that book started...Also, the article is partially wrong: the original anchors at Manassas were Montgomery Ward and W.T. Grant, not Sears and Grant as he suggested.


Better not mix man and mall
aka stereotypes and the columnists that milk them

You haven't seen true misery until you've looked into the face of some poor schlub forced to shop with his wife in a crowded mall. Stuffy stores, long lines, price tags and Christmas carols combine to suck the life right out of some boys.

True, but if malls provided something for averege men to do, or had stores that appealed to men, the problems would subside substantially. Instead, they chase after the same imaginary 35 year old middle income white women with kids while Rome falls and people spend their money out at Wal-Mart. Frustrating! Which leads me to...


The Bleeding Beast of Bentonville
aka die, Wal-Mart, die!

This is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year—for Wal-Mart. During the frenzied Christmas shopping season, the world's largest retailer's low prices and logistical might ought to crush the competition. Not this Yuletide. Last Saturday, Wal-Mart shocked the public and investors by announcing that because of a poor early Christmas, same-stores sales for November would rise by only 0.7 percent, instead of the 2 percent to 4 percent forecast.

Theories abound, but consumers make their decisions based on what they want and not what the investment community wants. The fact is this: Wal-Mart is still quite powerful and the dropoff in sales could be linked to unsureness about the economy, an overexpansion in certain geographic areas, a lack of product diversity from one Wal-Mart to another and the fact that they're not stocking very interesting merchandise right now. But that's just my opinion.

kmart and sears memories from chattanooga

Ah tyhe memories of Sears and kmart before they were dinosaurs! You've heard from me here in metro Roanoke, from Charlotte, and recently from the Quad Cities in the Midwest, now it's Chattanooga's turn courtesy of Harmon Jolley at The Chattanoogan:

Sears, Roebuck and Co.’s first retail outlet in Chattanooga opened in 1927 at the corner of Sixth and Broad streets. Initially, the store carried only sporting goods and automobile items such as its Allstate brand of car tires that had been introduced in 1926. However, after a 1928 expansion into adjoining buildings, Sears added a complete line of merchandise.

On Feb. 27, 1969, the first K-Mart in the Chattanooga area opened at 4121 Hixson Pike. The site was selected because of the rapid change of the Hixson/Red Bank area from rural to suburban. Highland Plaza had opened nearby just a few years earlier.

Read more at Remembering Sears And Kmart

Note: I sent him a response to his article. Here are some excerpts:

[Sears] was fondly remembered by Roanokers as “Sears-Town:” a combination Sears and Kroger grocery store with a P.H. Rose variety store and Peoples Drug store adjacent. It was the talk of the city when it opened in 1957, and it lasted basically intact for 28 years until the store at Valley View Mall opened. Many people, including myself, bought our first toys and clothes there while our parents shopped for furniture tools and appliances. The snack bar and candy counter with its hot nuts and popcorn were a hit with everyone.

Our first local Kmart predated the ones in your area by a few years, but the experience was similar. The old store on Melrose Avenue was built in 1964 and sported both a freestanding Kmart Auto Center and a Kmart Foods (which I don’t remember well as I was very young when that part of the store closed). Kmart eventually opened two more Roanoke stores and all featured those famous Blue Light Specials and a delicatessen with subs and popcorn my dad would buy for us every time we went. We also bought appliances for our home at that original store, which closed in 1983 and relocated to a former Woolco at Crossroads Mall.

"There's no such thing as a mall anymore"

The boxy, 1980s Sherman Oaks Galleria captured in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" is as fossilized these days as the stone-washed jeans Spicoli wore in the classic teenage flick.

The walls and roof of the landmark birthplace of the so-called Valley girl have since been torn down to create a vibrant open-air promenade, one of the first of a new breed of shopping centers that has designers and operators rethinking the whole concept of shopping.

Read more at Meet you at the mall

melo 1.5 a sell-out in denver

The new Air Jordan Carmelo 1.5 sneakers went on sale Friday nationwide...Carmelo Anthony, a [Denver] Nuggets star, is the first basketball player besides hoops legend Michael Jordan to get a signature shoe in the Air Jordan line.

Forty-six people stood in line before the Denver Niketown's special 7 a.m. opening...

A Nike official said almost half the sneakers at the store had been sold by 4 p.m. and that it might sell all of them by the end of the weekend...

Read more at Fans give hoop-hoop hurray for Melo shoes

the best explanation of interstate numbering i've read thus far

For those who've wondered why the interstates are numbered like they are, here's an explanytion from writer Harmon Jolley in Tennessee:

Most of the routes of the Interstate Highway System were assigned two-digit codes ending in zero (east-west highways) and five (north-south). Roads that run diagonally were given the other numbers. The higher-numbered Interstate routes are in the east and north, to avoid confusion with the U.S. Highway numbering scheme. The connecting routes into cities were given a three-digit code beginning with “one.” Bypass routes around cities were given other three-digit numbers that usually include the route being bypassed (such as I-285 around Atlanta). Interstate 24 runs diagonally, so it was given a diagonal route number.

the prince street rule

This was funny. I didn't make this up; it appeared in the New Haven Advocate.

Dear Dexter: If I'm not remotely old-school, or even particularly a fan of hip-hop, can I wear old-school hip-hop style sneakers without looking like a berk? (A berk is English slang meaning a plonker, a wanker, or, as you say over here, a loser.)

Dear Britisher, The rules for appropriation of hip-hop culture by white people are certainly complex, but I can give you some guidelines to help. For instance, there's what I call the Prince Street Rule. It states that once a hip-hop clothing line opens a store on Prince Street in Manhattan's SoHo district, as Phat Farm did, white people can wear the clothes (Sean John, once it opens its store on Fifth Avenue in midtown, will qualify under the Prince Street Rule). A corollary to the Prince Street Rule is the Hamptons Proviso--also known as the Hilton Sisters Corollary--which states that once a rapper buys or rents a house in the Hamptons, or parties with one or both of the Hilton Sisters, white people are allowed to listen to and make knowing references to his music.

On the shoe issue, the answer, my cricket-watching, crumpet-eating friend, is easier. Most hip-hop shoes are, as you write, simply "old-school." Once upon a time, old Filas or Adidas were simply sneakers. They only became hip-hop in the context of matching tracksuits and big gold jewelry. Now they're hip-hop by virtue of their nostalgic reference to the days of spontaneous breakdancing battles.

They're retro, and white people, according to the Retro Exception, are allowed to wear all things retro. (The Retro Exception was codified in the '90s when it became apparent, after the death of Kurt Cobain, that white culture had exhausted itself and would have to rely on the styles, sounds and vernacular of past eras to keep up the façade of vigor.)

Finally, British people, like really rich people, can get away with pretty much anything in America because we're awed and intimidated by you.

melo-yellow

Nike will introduce a new Carmelo Anthony signature shoe on Friday, the Jordan Carmelo 1.5.

It's part of Nike's Brand Jordan line, named for basketball icon Michael Jordan.

Using the young Denver Nuggets star under the Jordan brand is a way for Nike to compete with a trend toward older styles of shoes now popular in the hip-hop culture and with urban youths.

Read more at Nike's newest shoe bears Melo's name

thanksgiving surprise

True to their word, The Roanoke Times published my shopping tips. Thought they didn't post it online, it did show up in the Thanksgiving edtion, which is undobtedly the highest circulation weekday paper of the year. I can't complain.

VIEW THE ARTICLE: I'd love for my direct links to work to my other website, but they don't. So please paste the following address into your browser address window:
http://stevenswain.tripod.com/shop_tips_1.jpg
Tripod sucks, by the way.

music of the moment, November 24, 2004

These songs have been on my mind lately, in no particular order. Selections will open with Windows Media Player.

Jon B.— Az U
The smoothest track from a remarkably good album. Who’d have guessed? Listen

Total – Trippin’
A forgotten gem, to be sure. Whatever happened to them? Listen

U2 – Vertigo
The guys from Dublin learned how to rock again! Listen

Chaka Khan – Spoon
This is one awesome song. Listen

Maysa – Soul Child
It’s an instant classic. Reminds me of Earth Wind & Fire. Listen

Skepticism Persists on Kmart-Sears Merger

CHICAGO (AP) - It didn't take long for skepticism to set in after Kmart Holding Corp. and Sears, Roebuck and Co. announced their $11 billion takeover - Kmart's stock has fallen nearly 16 percent amid growing doubts that the marriage of two laggard retailers can succeed.

But one statistic stands out as evidence why the deal may prove to be a masterstroke for Kmart chairman Edward Lampert, the 42-year-old hedge fund manager who engineered the merger: 48 percent of Americans who shop at Sears and other mall retailers never set foot in the stores of discount retailers like Kmart, Wal-Mart or Target.

That means merchandise with strong brand equity now sold exclusively at Kmart - including Joe Boxer and Jaclyn Smith clothing and the Martha Stewart line of linens and kitchenware - can easily be marketed to a whole new audience of potential customers in Sears stores, according to analyst Marshal Cohen of the market-research firm NPD Group

Similarly, sales of Sears' Craftsman tools and other branded goods may soar if the number of customers grows at remodeled Kmart stores where those products are introduced and at Kmarts that are converted to Sears' new off-mall format called Sears Grand, which also offers grocery and convenience items.

The number of these stores was scheduled to jump from three to 60 next year, and now should accelerate into the hundreds after the takeover, which is expected to close in March.

Marni Murphy, 33, of Bryn Mawr, Pa., would appear to be exactly the target customer for these changes.

``It might make it easier if they bring some of the things at Sears to Kmart and vice versa. Make it one-stop shopping,'' she said. ``You're running around - I have two kids - you just want to go to one place.''

But Amy Crooks, 31 of Newton, Iowa, was more puzzled about the combination.

``I was really surprised about the merger,'' she said. ``I didn't put the two together. I kind of think of them as dinosaurs. They have been around so long.''

Ultimately, the fate of the two struggling chains will depend on how successfully they expand their base of consumers, who have plenty of alternative choices on where to shop.

True, the combination is expected to generate $500 million a year in cost savings within three years. But to survive in the long term, the new giant called Sears Holdings Corp., with $55 billion in sales and 3,500 stores, will have to come up with a merchandising formula that will woo customers away from competitors like Target Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nation's largest retailer, which generated $256.3 billion in sales last year at more than 4,800 stores.

Burt Flickinger III, managing partner at Strategic Resource Group, a New York-based industry consulting group, estimates it will take three years for the new merchandising strategy to be executed.

But he said, ``They don't have three years,'' given the fierce competition.

Both retail brands are broken in different ways. Kmart has had a hard time keeping its shelves stocked with essential items, suffers from messy stores and is caught between cheap chic discounter Target and everyday low-price operator Wal-Mart. Sears' biggest problem is that it still struggles with a lack of a unified marketing and merchandising strategy for its appliances and apparel.

Britt Beemer, chairman of America's Research Group, based in Charleston, S.C., expects poor-performing brands and labels that cannibalize each other to be eliminated. At the same time, he expects the new company will keep both Lucy Pereda clothing, named after a Latina fashion designer and lifestyle expert that's exclusive to Sears, and Kmart's Thalia Sodi label, named after the Hispanic pop star, since they target the fast-growing Hispanic market.

Tim Calkins, a former marketing manager at Kraft and now a clinical professor of marketing at the Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, sees problems ahead for Lands' End, a brand Sears bought in 2002 in the hopes it would become the marquee clothing offering at its 870 mall stores. Analysts say the price of Lands End products make it a bad fit for Kmart.

``Lands End doesn't make a lot of sense for either Sears or Kmart,'' Calkins said, noting the brand has a reputation of exceptional customer service, friendly and helpful. ``You don't get that at either Sears or Kmart.''

Consumers haven't gone out of their way to buy Lands' Ends at Sears stores. Sold through catalogs before and after its purchase by Sears, mall shoppers accustomed to buying Lands' End seem unwilling to change.

That could mean big changes for Lands' End and several other tough calls for Lampert and Sears CEO Alan Lacy if the combined company is to achieve Lampert's goal of a 10 percent operating profit margin, a level generated by such retailers as Gap Inc.

Another question is how Lampert and his team will react to Whirlpool Corp.'s plan to raise its wholesale prices effective Jan. 2 because of higher costs of steel and other raw materials.

Whirlpool, a Sears supplier since 1916, got more than $2 billion, or 18 percent of its revenue last year, from its sales to Sears of clothes washers, dryers and major kitchen appliances under the Kenmore brand. Kmart does not carry Whirlpool products.

``I think the retailers understand the increases in prices in raw materials that all manufacturers are facing and I think these retailers realize that modest 5 to 10 percent increases won't have a significant impact on sales,'' said Whirlpool spokesman Stephen Duthie.

Shares of Sears and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. also have pulled back since the announcement of the takeover. But not all analysts are downbeat about their prospects.

``For Martha Stewart, it's got to be the best thing that ever happened to them,'' said George Whalin, president and founding partner of Retail Management Consultants, a San Marcos, Calif.-based firm that offers services for retailers and consumer-products manufacturers. ``It just gives them dramatically more distribution and far more store fronts and a much more credible retailer. When you put a brand like that at Sears, you give it instant credibility.''

what's hot: american apparel

Fast outgrowing its status as an under-the-radar phenomenon, American Apparel is seen as a new model for the marketing of hip.

Read more at Building a Brand by Not Being a Brand

Rather to leave anchor desk in March

NEW YORK (AP) -- Dan Rather, embattled anchor of the "CBS Evening News," announced Tuesday that he will step down in March, on the 24th anniversary of taking over the job from Walter Cronkite.

Read more at Rather to leave anchor desk in March

bling & booty

In the pages of King, a bimonthly men's magazine for the rims, bling and sneakers set, one thing is prized more than a taut waistline and a pretty face, shapely legs or a perky bosom: a large behind.

"That's what our readers have come to expect from us," says Datwon Thomas, King's editor since it began publishing three years ago. "They want to see the thick girls, the girls with . . ." Thomas, a 29-year-old married father of two, searches for a description that would work in the pages of a family newspaper, ". . . with, you know, a big backside."

Read more at Black magazines redefine pinup

keeping it a little too real

David Stern's NBA may have panicked a few years ago just as the Dream Team generation was leaving the game, and the great sports czar's biggest failing is now being exposed. In its haste to keep a firm grip on its fading Dream Team popularity, Stern's marketing team decided to present pro basketball as an extension of the hip-hop culture - even if most of his marketing suits and ties didn't know the difference between Snoop Dogg and Deputy Dog.

...But while selling their sport's edginess, they were playing with a loaded gun. They embraced hip-hop and hip-hop is now embarrassing them, because they had no idea what they were messing with.

They thought they were getting Will Smith and LL Cool J. But now they're discovering the dark side of hip-hop also has infiltrated their game, with its "bling-bling" ostentatiousness, its unrepentant "I-gotta-get-paid" ruthlessness, its unregulated culture of posses and Muppies (men of unspecified purpose) and that constant underlying thread of violence, too.

Read more at The NBA is hip-hopping its way out of the mainstream

we [heart] mike

[Athletic] shoes have become a rapidly-growing niche among sports-related collectible items, with people paying hundreds or even thousands of dollars for certain models...

Read more at Jordan shoes keep going up in value