Almost Opening Day
r
Specially compiled by The Jerusalem Post
The countdown to Aug.1 has begun for Laurel Park Place's
Parisian store manager Elliot Marcus.
—$1 EQUALS 3.0320 NIS (shekels) - Close Price 6129194 —
1 Bank Raises Interest Rates
STEVE STEIN STAFF WRITER
The Bank of Israel has raised
interest rates by half a per-
centage point to help cool down
inflation, which has heated up
beyond the government's 8 per-
cent goal for the year.
The move brought the inter-
est rate on the central bank's
daily loans to commercial
banks to 12 percent. Bank of Is-
rael Governor Jacob Frenkel
justified the rise by citing the
recent jump in consumer prices
which has pushed inflation to
1 Parisian store in sales, moving
ahead of Riverchase Galleria in
Birmingham," Mr. Marcus said.
"Eastwood currently is the No. 2
store, and this one has 25,000
more square feet.
The entrance to
Parisian at
Laurel Park
Place.
M
achinery was humming.
Workers were scurry-
ing. Boxes were being
unpacked. The fire
alarm was being tested. And test-
ed. And tested.
That was last week. By next
month, shoppers will be doing the
scurrying in the new Parisian de-
partment store at Laurel Park
Place in Livonia. The doors to the
150,000-square-foot, two-level
shopping center anchor are ex-
pected to swing open to the pub-
lic on Aug. 1.
Elliot Marcus, who left his na-
tive Birmingham, Ala., to be the
manager of Birmingham-based
Parisian's 31st upscale specialty
store, found the guided tour he
gave last week to a reporter to be
educational for him, too.
"Hey, I didn't know they've in-
stalled this already," he said in
his Southern drawl, looking at
a display rack. "That's great."
It's been an eventful year for
Mr. Marcus, who will turn 50 on
July 11. In addition to dealing
with the culture shock of moving
from Alabama to Michigan and
supervising the opening of the
new store, he was married to the
former Anita Scheinert.
"We met June 23 of last year
on the dance floor of a country-
western place in Birmingham
and we were married March 13,"
Mr. Marcus said. "Our honey-
moon was at the Opryland Hotel
in Nashville that night, and we
arrived here on March 14."
Mr. Marcus hasn't had many
opportunities to explore his new
surroundings, which include a
Jewish community of 96,000 com-
pared to the 6,000-strong Jewish
community he belonged to in
Birmingham.
The Farmington Hills resi-
dent's days and evenings have
been filled with a whirlwind of
activities at the new store, in-
cluding the hiring of nearly 300
employees.
To help him with that task,
which is nearly complete, Mr.
Marcus brought Joe Schmidt
with him to Livonia. Mr. Schmidt
was personnel director at
Parisian's Eastwood Mall store
in Birmingham, which Mr. Mar-
cus managed the past eight
years.
"It's been very exciting to
watch this new store grow from
what was once a pile of mud,"
said Mr. Marcus, a University of
Alabama graduate who is in his
16th year with service-oriented
Parisian, all in management po-
sitions.
'With the size of our store (sec-
ond-biggest in the chain) and the
kind of people we've hired, we
have the potential to be the No.
ISRAEL DIGEST
didn't de-
mand retail experi-
ence from the
candidates for em-
ployment in our
store, though I'd
guess 60 to 70 per-
Elliot Marcus: cent of those we've
Working to get
hired have that
ready.
background. We
were more interested in
people who could smile and
were friendly and had a
high energy level."
Parisian specializes in
updated traditional mer-
chandise for the family, in-
cluding apparel,
accessories, cosmetics and
footwear. It does not carry
home or electronics prod-
ucts. Shoe capacity at the
Livonia store is 12,000
pairs for children, 15,000
pairs for men and 106,000
pairs for women.
The store has a feeling of
openness that extends to
the fitting rooms. Within
the men's and women's fit-
ting areas are a coffee bar,
a bathroom and facilities for
handicapped shoppers.
Parisian's corporate mot-
to is, "You're Somebody Special."
Customer services include no-in-
terest credit, what's billed as a
liberal return policy, alterations
for men and women and free
fashion consulting.
Parisian Inc., founded in Birm-
ingham in 1887, is headed by
President and CEO Donald Hess
and owned by the Hess and
Abroms families of Birmingham.
Mr. Hess' father, Emil Hess, is
chairman of the board and
Harold Abroms is vice chairman.
Carl Hess, Mr. Hess' grandfather,
bought the business in 1920.
Donald Hess is on the execu-
tive committee of the Birming-
ham Jewish Federation and he
is chairman of the United Jew-
ish Appeal's Southeast Region.
In addition to Alabama and
Michigan, Parisian has stores in
Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Ohio,
South Carolina and Tennessee.
It employs approximately 6,200
company-wide and its sales in
1992 totaled $450 million. ❑
an annual rate of 14 percent.
The bank said its policy to
fight inflation will be made
more effective if it is supported
by a fiscal policy that encour-
ages lower government spend-
ing and smaller budget deficits.
Mr. Frenkel criticized the re-
cent costly public sector wage
settlements and encouraged
the government to moderate
price rises of goods under its
control and implement its hous-
ing reform program.
Peace Won't Open Markets
The peace process will not open economic relations develop af-
Arab manufacturer and export ter such agreements are signed.
markets for Israel in the near "The peace process has eco-
future, Prime Minister Yitzhak nomic implications, but I do not
Rabin said at the Manufactur- think peace will open Arab
ers Association's annual con- markets. The importance of
ference. peace lies in the opening of the
Mr. Rabin said Israel's peace world to us; there is a relation-
agreement with Egypt is an ex- ship between politics and eco-
ample of the slow pace at which nomics," Mr. Rabin said.
Special Status For Palestinians?
The United States is consider-
ing granting a special trade sta-
tus to the Palestinian auto-
nomous areas to encourage their
economic development, Israel
Industry and Trade Minister
Micha Harish said.
During recent talks with
U.S. Commerce Secretary Ron
Brown and U.S. Trade Repre-
sentative Mickey Kantor, Mr.
Harish was told that the Amer-
icans want to give the Pales-1
tinian self-rule areas General
System of Preferences (GSP)
trade status, which provides de-
veloping nations preferential
trade terms, including lower
tariffs for their exports.
Mr. Harish said the Israeli
government agrees in principle
to the move because it is anoth-
er way to promote economic
growth in the autonomous areas.
Phone Home, Cellcom
Cellcom has received its license
for running Israel's second cel-
lular phone service. At a cere-
mony in Prime Minister
- Yitzhak Rabin's office, the li-
cense was handed to Celicom
officials by Communications
Minister Shulamit Aloni.
A ministry tender commit-
tee last month chose Cellcom,
which combines the Safra
Brothers, BellSouth and Dis-
count Investments. During the
next three years, the consor-
tium will invest $300 million in
the project, which, according to
BellSouth vice president Rober-
to Peon, will be among the most
advanced in the world.
Cellcom will offer digital cel-
lular phone service starting Dec.
27 in the Tel Aviv area. The en-
tire country will be covered by
280 transmitters in 15 months.
Service With A Whopper
Rikamor, the Burger King fran-
Derech chain was founded by
the Arison group, in partner- cr)
ship with'Egged. The owners —
b ranches in Orchan Derech plan to invest $50 million in the co
Road Stop service stations at a construction of 20 stations i
total investment of $5 million. which will operate at major
Rikamor agreed to open junctions. The first Orchan
B urger King branches outside Derech station is scheduled to
the large cities solely in Orchan open in 16 months.
D erech stations. The Orchan
c hisee in Israel, has signed an
a greement to establish 20
•■
•■•••
• -
-4.6100.061.1.180.6
5,