THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 13, 1996 TAG: 9603130629
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Business briefs
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
The Best catalog will be discontinued this fall, marking the demise of the catalog-showroom format the company pioneered 39 years ago. Richmond-based Best Products Co. Inc. has discontinued its annual fall catalog. The company said the catalog doesn't give the competitive advantage it did when the first one was mailed in 1957. The change comes on the heels of a very poor year for Best. Overall sales were down 1.7 percent last year, while sales at stores open at least a year fell 7.5 percent. Best also figures to post a net loss for the year. Company officials said the catalog locks Best into merchandise at certain prices months before most of it reaches consumers. (Associated Press) Study shows real incomes of Virginians stagnating
Virginia's rich got richer and the poor got poorer in recent years, according to a University of Virginia study. The median adjusted gross income for married couples in 1993 was $41,582 - only three-tenths of a percent higher than the previous year after adjustment for inflation, according to the study by the university's Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service. The 1993 figures are the most recent for which state tax figures are available. The study said married couples in Virginia have not exceeded their 1986 buying power, before the last national recession hit. (AP) NationsBank accused of misleading investors
NationsBank Corp. could lose its registration to sell securities in Texas because of state regulators' complaints that it misled customers about investments it promoted. The State Securities Board of Texas last week scheduled a July 15 hearing on whether NationsBank can keep its registration as a securities broker. It said NationsSecurities, the North Carolina-based bank's brokerage unit, promoted certain investments as ``safe, conservative, low-risk,'' when they actually involved risky derivatives, including collateralized mortgage obligations. South Carolina made similar charges against NationsBank last year regarding two term trusts. (Bloomberg Business News) Kmart Corp. will offer its own credit card
Kmart Corp. will offer its first private-label credit card in a 160-store test. If the test is a success, the program will be expanded nationwide in August. The variable interest rate will be 12.16 percent above the prime interest rate. As of Feb. 22, Kmart's annual percentage rate would have been 20.4 percent. The card will not be good for purchases made at other retail chains Kmart owns a stake in: Sports Authority and Builders Square. Target issues its own credit card, but industry-leading Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has no plans to start one. (Knight-Ridder/Tribune) by CNB