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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, January 8, 2003

New retailers weather first holidays

By Joyce M. Rosenberg
Associated Press

NEW YORK — A small business's first year is bound to be difficult, with plenty of trial and error for even the most carefully planned venture. For independent retailers, a first holiday season can be particularly bumpy, even harrowing at times.

Five new merchants interviewed by The Associated Press said they were pleased with their results from the just-ended season — they all managed to weather the uncertain economic climate. But most had a few uneasy moments, the kind of birthing pains that new retail businesses have.

Near-disaster struck Eric and Bill Loiacano two weeks before they were to open their store in Gloucester, Mass., in November. The space they were renting wasn't ready.

So the brothers found a location across the street and hastily created a new version of The Fashion Fish, an off-price clothing store. The space wasn't built for a retailer, so the Loiacanos took each room and named it for a street in Gloucester. The result, Eric said, was "a fun experience."

Once that problem was dealt with, The Fashion Fish had a great season. The Loiacanos had bet correctly that the store would be popular with local residents because there are so few places in town to shop.

Michelle and Daniel Lehmann opened their home furnishings store, Clio, in Manhattan's trendy Soho neighborhood in July.

"It gave us time to understand everything, to understand inventory. So we were prepared for Christmas," Michelle said.

Online retailers have their own first holiday season frustrations.

Gourmet Food Mall went online in September, well in time for the holidays. But right after Thanksgiving, 95 percent of shoppers started abandoning their online shopping carts, which meant no sales.

"It was pretty scary," said Tom Martin, director of marketing for the New Orleans-based company whose Web address is www.gourmetfoodmall.com.

The problem, Martin said, was that one of the pages in the checkout process had words like "membership" and "club," which apparently turned many shoppers off. The page was quickly redone, and business picked up, putting Gourmet Food Mall in a strong position for the next big holiday, Valentine's Day, Martin said.