If you’re still looking for trick-or-treating plans for Halloween tonight, check out two Roanoke Valley malls.
From 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., there will be trick-or-treating at Tanglewood Mall stores. And at Valley View Mall, trick-or-treating is from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Both shopping centers are hosting other children’s activities, including games, costume contests and story telling.
Some local stores are clearing out of Towers Shopping Center in Roanoke.
At least three retailers on Tower’s top level are leaving. They include Candles & Gifts, beside Fresh Market, which now is holding a store-wide closing sale. It will close on Nov. 10.
Also, Life is Gantner, a costume and swimwear store, is moving, and its last day in business will be this Saturday, according to the store manager. She wouldn’t discuss where and why the store is relocating.
And I previously reported that Plan 9 Music is looking for a new location. Store associate, Brad Torrence, confirmed yesterday that the store will be moving to the Grandin Village beside the Grandin Theater in Roanoke. There’s a sign on the store’s door about the move. But Torrence did not know the exact date that the store will close at Towers.
In addition to the happenings on the upper level of Towers, Katie’s Ice Cream on the lower level closed earlier this month. The owner of Katie’s, Joe McNamara, said he wants to relocate the store elsewhere in the Roanoke Valley. But for now, Katie’s other location on Electric Road in Roanoke County, at the Promenade Park retail center, still is open and doing well, McNamara said.
Here's a bit of good news. I just learned that a Verizon Wireless store will take over the Candles & Gifts space, according to Rappaport Cos., the company that owns Towers.
I’m surprised that so many stores are leaving Towers at the same time. Many retailers predicted that Fresh Market would help draw more traffic to the center. Fresh Market, a specialty grocery store, opened at Towers in 2005.
What's your take on this? Why do you think these stores are leaving Towers?
Lovers of biscuits and sweet tea at Bojangles’ will be happy to know that two new locations for this fast food chain still are planned for the Roanoke Valley.
A Roanoke area franchisee for Bojangles’, Stan Seymour, still wants to open a Bojangles’ restaurant at Colonial and Brambleton avenues in Southwest Roanoke County. It’s been several years since he first announced this news.
But Seymour has run into some challenges developing the site. He has had to install an 8-foot pipe underground and get the land rezoned. Now, he expects June to be the opening month for the restaurant.
That’s not all. Seymour also plans to build a Bojangles’ on Peters Creek Road in Roanoke, not too far from the intersection of Airport Road. The land there already is being cleared, and Seymour said the fast food restaurant should be ready to open in January.
Once these two new locations are up and running, Seymour will own five total Bojangles’ in the Roanoke Valley, including ones in Daleville and Salem.
Here are more Black Friday sneak peaks.
B.Moss is getting into the action. There’s already a door buster coupon posted here for the store's Black Friday sale at Valley View Mall. The deal is for 50 percent off the regular price of any one item in the store from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Nov. 23.
Also, Sam’s Club recently announced that on Nov. 19, it will offer people a sneak peak of its Black Friday sales. Starting now and using your cell phone, text “Go” to “sams1” (72671) to be eligible for e-mail previews of the Nov. 23 sale items. The goods will include flat-screen televisions, electronics, jewelry and other merchandise.
Putting out Black Friday ads early is a major way that retailers are trying to compete for holiday business this year. They're trying to get onto shoppers' wish lists now, even before the season is underway.
In case it has slipped your mind, Halloween is on Wednesday, and it’s one of the largest holidays for spending of the year. The National Retail Federation reports that the average person will spend $64.82 this year on Halloween costumes and decorations, up from $59.06 last year.
And retailers are playing on the creepiness of the holiday in advertisements.
Check out a story in The New York Times about how stores’ marketing campaigns use scary scenes and ghoulish images to draw consumers. This is a contrast from the years immediately following Sept. 11 when campaigns were more light-hearted at this time of year.
Does scary marketing entice you to buy more or less?
Today's drenching rain is not great motivation to get out and about.
But if you do end up heading out to shop or run errands, you might want to make sure the desired stores have what you want. Here’s where a local Web site comes in handy.
More than a year ago, Valley View Mall redesigned its Web site, and one new feature allows you to enter the item that you’re looking for and the stores that sell it will pop up. This information is pretty detailed.
For example, if you search for coats, all of the stores that sell winter coats will appear with pictures and details about which ones are on sale.
You also can check which styles are currently available at the stores. If you enter your email address, the site supposedly will update you about an item’s availability in 10 minutes. You also can indicate whether you’d like the store to hold it for you until you can purchase it.
Check out Valley View’s site here.
And while we’re on the subject of online searching, I recently learned about www.stylepath.com. On this site, visitors can create a profile detailing their preferred styles for a variety of products. The Web site suggests items to buy that fit your taste in home décor, shoes, handbags, watches, jewelry, lighting and more.
If you visit any of these shopping sites, let me know what you think of them.
Tis the season for deals on online shopping. Some online retailers already are advertising free shipping promotions, a sign that they are trying to entice holiday shopping business even before November.
If you have gifts to buy at Crate & Barrel, L.L. Bean or Target, this is as good a time as ever to make that purchase online. L.L. Bean’s free shipping offer has no strings attached. You can order any items, with no minimum purchase, through Dec. 21 and receive free shipping.
Several other offers are slapped with conditions, such as Crate & Barrel’s minimum order of $100 to receive free shipping through Dec. 20. Target is running some free shipping offers on select merchandise throughout parts of the season. The latest one ends on Oct. 27.
Keep looking for these free or discounted shipping offers through the end of the year. A report released Wednesday by the National Retail Federation tells consumers to expect to see these kinds of promotions throughout the season. The most common promotions offer free shipping with conditions. But other online shopping incentives may include early-bird sales and “refer a friend” promotions, according to the NRF survey.
These kinds of offers drive online retailing during the holidays, but remember, it’s not free to the retailers, who have to weigh the financial impact. That’s the reason that many of these shipping deals have conditions attached.
What are your holiday online shopping patterns? If you’ve taken advantage of any free shipping offers lately or in the past, tell us about the promotion and what you purchased.
There have been rumors for awhile about a new Gold’s Gym coming to Roanoke, and now, the official word is out. Gold’s Gym will open a new location in February at Crossroads Mall, inside the former location of New Fitness, a health club that shut down last year.
This will be the second Gold’s in the Roanoke Valley. The other one opened in 2003 in Roanoke County on Electric Road.
One of several owners of the new Gold’s, Eddie Dail, said pre-membership sign-ups for this new facility will begin in about two weeks, inside the former Dollar Duz It store at Crossroads, which you can see in this picture.
But the entrance to the new gym will be in the back of Crossroads.
Aside from some of the regular health club features, the new Gold’s will have adult and children’s pools and a cardio theater. That’s a large movie screen, situated in front of bikes and other exercise machines.
Putting movies and exercise together is an unusual combination. I question whether watching movies really will put people in an exercising mood.
This month we’ve discussed holiday shopping. Now, let’s talk about holiday spending.
An educational Web site, LivingWithBadCredit.com, recently reported that based on a survey, 67 percent of consumers who opened a store credit card during the 2006 holiday season still have not yet paid off the debt.
Some people still are paying for Christmas from last year, and we're only about a month away from the start of this year's holiday season!
The Web site urges consumers to be wary of opening store credit cards because they have high interest rates. The initial savings typically are not worth what you might pay in the long run. The survey also reports that women are more likely to have three or more store credit cards.
Here are some tips to avoid ending up with long-lasting holiday debt, from LivingWithBadCredit.com:
1) Don’t take out too many lines of credit at one time. This raises a red flag, and it can lower your credit score. New credit accounts for 10 percent of your total score.
2) Don’t jump into offers that have no interest or payments for 6 to 12 months. These offers could negatively impact your credit score, because they appear as maxed out lines of credit.
3) Know your card’s billing cycle. Don’t make a large purchase if it falls near the end of your billing cycle. Give yourself an extra month before interest accrues.
Let me know your tips for regulating credit card purchases during the holidays.
A grocery industry publication featured the Roanoke Ukrop’s Super Market in its October issue.
Here’s the link to the article in Progressive Grocer.
Much of the information in this article already has been reported locally, but there are a few interesting facts.
One is that the Roanoke Ukrop’s ranks the highest across the grocery chain in sales of cheese through its gourmet area. Also, the grocer’s deli kitchen items, across the company, make up 20 percent of sales.
Ukrop's, based in Richmond, opened in June at Ivy Market, a retail area on Franklin Road.
