Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 25, 1995 TAG: 9511270041
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It may have seemed like store clerks, waiters and movie ticket-takers were the only workers on the job Friday.
But about one-third of U.S. companies were planning to reopen the day after Thanksgiving, according to a survey by Hay-Huggins, a management consulting firm in Philadelphia.
For many manufacturers and assemblers, starting up production lines just for one day costs too much, said Daniel Raff, associate professor of management at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. And some workers have trouble keeping their minds on work when most of their friends and relatives are out having fun.
Most people who work in the service industry are not offered a choice about working on the day after Thanksgiving, which is traditionally one of the busiest shopping days of the year. More than half of service-sector businesses were scheduled to be open, the Hay-Huggins survey showed.
``Not everyone out and about is buying, but they are window-shopping to find the best bargains and to see what retailers are offering,'' said Pam Rucker, a spokeswoman for the National Retail Federation.
- Associated Press
Hooker Furniture buys old factory
MARTINSVILLE - Hooker Furniture Corp. said Friday it will buy a vacant 189,000-square-foot plant from Sara Lee Knit Products.
The Cloverleaf plant, just off U.S. 220, was closed by Sara Lee in November 1994. It initially will be used for warehousing finished furniture, said Larry Ryder, Hooker's chief financial officer.
``Our business is going well right now,'' Ryder said. ``One of the problems we have right now is finished goods storage.
``What furniture dealers require of manufacturers today is to provide product on demand ... which requires manufacturers to have larger inventories.''
Hooker's purchase of the plant will create eight to 12 new jobs to start, Ryder said, and its expected conversion of the plant into a manufacturing location would add ``a significant number of jobs.''
- Associated Press
Bankruptcies
Four bankruptcies with business affiliations have been filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Western Virginia at Roanoke. One of them is a personal bankruptcy that the court listed as a business because it has commercial connections and could be of interest to business creditors and consumers.
Your Formal Occasions Inc., a retail store in Salem, filed for liquidation, listing assets of $23,630 and liabilities of $44,667.
David Clark Cooper of Vansant filed for a wage-earner plan for repayment of debts, listing assets of $478,302 and liabilities of $266,069. Cooper does business as Big Oak Forest Products, Big Oak Logging Supply, Four C Trucking and Cooper Scrap Metal.
Terry Rice and Karen Rice of Roanoke filed for a wage-earner plan for repayment of debts with assets of $175,333 and liabilities of $96,952. Terry Rice is a partner in Professional Paint Services.
David Lynn Hughes Sr. and Carolyn Marie Hughes of Hardy filed for liquidation with assets of $48,600 and liabilities of $67,956. David Hughes is in the aluminum siding business.
- Staff report
Briefly ...
Universal Self Care Inc., a group of companies selling supplies and services to diabetics, said that beginning Dec. 1 its divisions will do business as Diabetics Self Care. The divisions, including Roanoke-based Thriftee Group, employ 325 people in 17 states. The other divisions, currently know as Patient Care Services and SugarFree Centers, are based in Van Nuys, Calif., and Livonia, Mich.
Contel Cellular, a cellular telephone service provider, is changing its name to GTE Mobilnet, reflecting a merger in which GTE Corp. purchased remaining shares in Contel that it did not already own. Also, the company said it has moved its Roanoke sales, service and installation operations to Towne Square Shopping Center.
Xaloy Inc., a Pulaski supplier of plastic machine barrels for molding and extrusion equipment, has been recommended to receive the ISO 9001 registration from National Quality Assurance, a registrar of standards developed by the International Organization for Standardization in Geneva.
by CNB