Retailers Want You to Shop
Have you thought of buying a new outfit, adding a little spark to your home, or treating yourself in some way? If so, store managers are hoping you don’t chicken out on that purchase. The stock market plunge this year is keeping them awake at night. They are afraid it will spook you and keep you out of stores just when they need you the most. After a demoralizing holiday shopping season, with even giants like Macy’s, Nordstrom and...
SCORE Stories: Painting the Town Red
A case of the corporate blues and being in the right place at the right time was all Tom Evans and Shawn Hickey needed to make a career change and join the millions of Americans who chance it every day and open a small business. Though neither had the innate entrepreneurial urge to break away from the somewhat predictable 9-to-5 corporate America lifestyle, both recognized an opportunity when it was squarely in front of them. Evans...
Retail 2016’s Hot Trends And Topics
The retail industry is in the final days of a year in which the athleisure trend continued to boom, the off-price category got even hotter and an ever-growing list of restaurants catered to our interest in healthy eating by announcing big changes to their food supply chains. So what are likely to be the hot topics in retail in 2016? We’ve rounded up some expert predictions. 1. Mobile payments will finally take off — with a little help...
Day Doesn’t Draw Shopping Throngs
New York — The annual ritual of Black Friday, as we know it, is over. Gone are the throngs of frenzied shoppers camping out for days ahead of the big sales bonanza on the day after Thanksgiving. And forget the fisticuffs over flat-screen TVs. Instead, stores around the country had sparse parking lots, calm, orderly lines, and modest traffic. Black Friday, which traditionally is the biggest shopping day of the year, almost looked like...
Power Lunch: Joan Ecker, Founder and CEO of F.H. Clothing Co. in Quechee
F.H. Clothing Co., known far and wide as Fat Hat Clothing Co., started in the late 1970s as a whim born of necessity. Joan Ecker built the business from scratch and still presides over the operation from its landmark barn at 1 Quechee Main St., just off Route 4 in Quechee. Over a lunch of salmon and apple cider, Ecker discusses her company’s history, its approach to selling clothes and why she doesn’t put a lot of stock in being...
