Word: discounts
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Times are shaky in the fashion world. Business is flat, department stores an endangered species, customers bored. Amid the unending cycle of sales and the unmapped racks that cram discount outlets, the industry is looking hard for what it calls direction. Anything goes now -- minis, dirndls, see-throughs, slouches -- but none of it is going very far. So the time seems right for a young designer with a couple of bright ideas and a lot of insouciant charm. California-born Gordon Henderson, for instance...
Collecting does have its hazards. Newcomers can be burned by disreputable dealers circulating fakes. Often a piece that is selling at a slight discount is actually a restoration or, worse, a conversion doctored up with carving or different feet to pass for a more desirable design...
...community-service role is also being redefined. For latchkey kids, the Seattle Public Library runs an after-school program complete with tutors who help with homework. San Francisco, with its multilingual population, offers a computerized card catalog in Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and Vietnamese. Some libraries provide boxes of discount coupons for grocery shoppers and one-day passes to museums; a branch in Chicago even lends ladders and household tools...
Humblest Billionaires. Pickup-truck-driving Sam Walton, 69, built his Wal-Mart discount chain from 276 stores at the decade's start to 1,379 locations by the end. When the '87 crash temporarily erased $2 billion of his personal fortune, he quipped, "It's paper anyway. It was paper when we started, and it's paper afterward." Warren Buffett, 59, the cowlicked Oracle of Omaha, built a $7 billion fortune on Wall Street by investing the old-fashioned way: buying stock and holding it. Said Buffett: "The market, like the Lord, helps those who help themselves...
...investment. Calling the move "ham-handed," Alan Gottesman, an advertising analyst at the Paine Webber brokerage firm, noted that Maurice "managed to depress morale and performance in the consulting arm at the same time that he was letting potential buyers know they could pick up the firms at a discount." Fearing a messy auction, clients began to switch to other consulting agencies. So far, only three of the smaller agencies have been sold, for a total of $38 million...