Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 22, 1993                   TAG: 9309220046
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

DON'T LOOK NOW, BUT THE HO-HO-HO-ING HAS BEGUN

Let's hope they were just testing a new artificial tree. Santa won't put in an appearance at the malls until November, but look around: The holidays are here.

All of the kiosks - those shops on carts that were new last Christmas at Valley View Mall - have been rented for the coming shopping season. At Tanglewood Mall, the temporary merchants who come for the holidays appear to be opening earlier than usual.

And the stick Santas and angels have begun to arrive at House Unique Galleria Inc. on Roanoke's City Market.

The figures are works of art from three Des Moines, Iowa, artists, who find the sticks and turn them into angels and jolly old fellows, allowing the shape of the stick to define the shape of the finished work.

The figures sell for $90 to $250; a stick nativity group that hasn't come in yet will go as high as $350.

The Neiman-Marcus 1993 Christmas Book was unveiled a week ago to about 300 Dallas-area shoppers.

Available this year from the ritzy department store for people with money are a water-skimming, airplane-shaped water craft for $150,000, a moving baby Tyrannosaurus for $63,000 and its companion Triceratops for $93,000. There's also a $3,300 Egyptian tent, a $42,500 pocket watch that plays Mozart and a $4,250 electric motor canoe.

The Christmas Book, boasting a worldwide circulation of 3 million, also has lower-priced items such as a silver-plated whistle key ring for $12, a leather mini shoulder bag for $30 and a "Bale of Cotton" that holds 10 men's handkerchiefs, $19.50.

\ At 5:15 p.m. Friday, Virginia Tech Horticulture Gardens will open its beds of annual plants to anyone who wants to take plants home for free. People are to bring trowels and boxes. Also on premises that day, starting at 4 p.m., three nurseries will be selling plants and giving part of their take to the Tech gardens.

If it rains hard, the sale will be at 9 a.m. Saturday; if the rain is light, cover your head and go.

\ Retailers have been running those "zero interest until 1994" sales, but prospective buyers should read the fine print before rushing out to buy. Not all items are eligible for the no-interest charge and minimum purchases are involved. At one company, if you haven't paid the balance in full by January, finance charges are assessed from the date of purchase at an annual rate of 20.5 percent.

\ Pier 1 Imports Inc., the specialty chain that is building a store at Valley View Mall in Roanoke, plans to open Pier 1 stores in two Sears stores in Mexico later this year and eventually to have Pier 1 shops in all 44 stores operated by Sears de Mexico, a publicly traded subsidiary of Sears, Roebuck & Co.

In January, when Pier 1 announced plans to expand internationally, it said it would look for local partners in countries where differences in language, laws and business practices might present problems for a new company.

\ Hardee's Food Systems Inc., headquartered in Rocky Mount, N.C., has teamed up for promotions with four college conferences: Southeastern, Atlantic Coast, Big Ten and Big Eight.

The agreements give Hardee's exclusive right to use the names, marks and logos of the conferences in promotions, advertising and merchandising. The conferences involve 25 states in the biggest part of Hardee's marketing area.