CONTENTS

PRINT THIS STORY:

CHANGE TEXT SIZE:

BRIEFLY

Infants getting taste for high life

Babies never had it so good. Spending on baby furnishings and accessories in the United States has gone through the roof, reaching $4.23 billion in 1996, up from $3.3 billion in 1992, according to the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association, Moorestown, N.J. Upmarket baby products, recently listed in an article in the The Wall Street Journal on the subject, include $2,200 customized cribs; stuffed animals that emit womb sounds; hand-painted four-piece baby bed linen sets for $750; $340 strollers; $300 cotton batiste christening gown-and-bonnet sets; and handmade furniture made out of recycled wood and pressed fibers costing up to $3,500 a piece. Why are parents spending so much more on their toddlers? The answer is simple, according to Sunny Drewel, president of Linens and Lace, a Washington, Mo., catalog retailer quoted by the Journal: "Our customers like to show off."

Wal-Mart rapidly becomes a world mart

Wal-Mart's operations outside the United States are growing so fast, within five years they will account for 30% of the Bentonville, Ark., discounter's profits, the company told Women's Wear Daily at its recent vendor conference. Merrill Lynch predicts Wal-Mart International will see annual sales growth averaging 35% in the next five years, with earnings growing 45% per year, excluding any additional acquisitions. Sales of women's apparel and cosmetics are seeing double-digit growth in Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico. But Wal-Mart's traveling experiences have not been universally happy: It has shut down its two franchised stores in financially troubled Indonesia.

J.C. Penney pursues the peso -- again

J.C. Penney Co. is expanding in Mexico for the first time since the recovery of that country's economy. The Plano, Texas-based retailer plans next year to open a store in the mall at the World Trade Center in Mexico City, and another in Guadalajara. Penney debuted in Mexico in early 1995, just months after the December 1994 collapse of the peso, with the opening of two stores, in Monterrey and León. Penney, which launched an international division last year, also plans to open other stores at so-far undisclosed locations in Mexico and South America.

Nothing fast about the food in some strips

Where to find the best restaurants, apart from Paris, New York and Rome? Your local strip center, perhaps. Nowhere is this more true than in Atlanta, where several of the city's top restaurants can be found in strip centers, according to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal. Strip centers, with their abundant parking, appear to be a logical place for the restaurants in that city. Atlanta, which has grown rapidly in recent years, boasts many of these centers -- 1,100, according to the Journal; in contrast, it offers only a limited amount of the traditional historical kind of architecture such restaurants usually prefer. Local highly regarded restaurants in strips include Pano's & Paul's, Ciboulette and Soto. Strips have become popular with fine restaurants in other cities, too. Tony's serves northern Italian cuisine in a Houston strip center, and Bernadin's offers French-Asian fare in a Winston-Salem, N.C, center called Center Stage.

Ugly slur costs TV company a pretty penny

Journalists in Great Britain might care to double-check their facts before messing with some retailers: A British television company, Granada Television, has apologized to Marks & Spencer -- and parted with a lot of money -- over a documentary that implied the British retailer had used child labor in Morocco, and had sold foreign-made garments bearing "Made in the U.K." labels, according to a report in Britain's The Daily Telegraph. After a jury sided with the retailer, Granada agreed in a settlement to pay Marks & Spencer £650,000 ($1.08 million) in legal costs, and damages of £50,000 ($83,500). The lawyer representing Marks & Spencer, George Carman, told the court that the company is "very proud" of its reputation for quality, honesty and integrity.

Anti-theft device tests bring heartening news

Electronic anti-shoplifting systems pose no danger to those wearing cardiac pacemakers, according to studies paid for by Sensormatic Electronics Corp., a Baton Rouge, La., manufacturer of retail anti-theft devices. One study, conducted by French cardiologist Jacques Mugica, involved testing 178 pacemaker patients, and was published this year in the French medical journal, Stimucoeur. Dr. Mugica drew the same conclusion in another Sensormatic-funded study conducted late last year by Dr. Sigmund Botella, chief of the Cardiological Stimulation Department at Spain's University of Valencia Hospital Clinico. Dr. Botella also concluded that there was no evidence that walking through the anti-theft screening devices at store entrances had any serious impact on the pacemakers, Sensormatic reported.