SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 6.1993—THE CAROLINA TIMES-15
Once Struggling Mall
finds Success Targeting
Black Shoppers
By Marc Rice
AP Business Writer
DECATUR. GA. (AP) — B.
naiton Bookseller is opening a
doie in South DeKalb Mall, and
lie shopping center in a pi^mi-
lently black Atlanta suburb is treat
ing it as a royal event.
^hile most mall shoppers take
fn, granted the presence of a book
store, South DeKalb has been
without one since B. Dalton pulled
out three years ago.
The 1990 departure had been a
lew point for the once-struggling
mall, but the return of the chain is
(mbiematic of the center’s sub
sequent success at reinventing itself
ss a magnet for black shoppers. ■
After years of decline as the sur
rounding community shifted from a
Btdominantly white to black popu
lation and vacant shops multiplied.
South DeKalb began three years
ago to reposition itself by targeting
black consumers.
'I don’t think anyone else has
ilone it to the extent they have,"
said Ken Smikle, publisher of
Chicago-based Target Market
News, an industry publication
covering minority business.
South DeKalb — owned by
Columbia, Md.-based Rouse Co.
and located about 10 miles east of
downtown Atlanta — is now a
thriving center featuring two large
department stores, sev^ national
chains and local merchants who of
fer an array of "Afrocentric" nrter-
chandise.
The mix, from standard depart-
inent store fare to carts selling Kent
cloth scarves and calligraphy of
quotations of black leaders, defies
the notion that suburban malls are
cookie cutter enterprises.
"I think we’ve done a better job
of listening to our customers," said
Robert Grahamslaw, South
DeKalb’s general manager.
The mall, whose market is 80
percent black, has tried to make it-
felf a part of the community. Its ef-
[ort to bring back B. Dalton in
volved help from churches and
ichools in gamering 4,800 signaj
hues on a petition.
A six-foot sign at the mail’s
entrance congratulates the coin-
inunity for pushing the New York-
based chain to reopen at South
DeKalb.
Jeff Berk, B. Dalton’s vice presi-
hnt for real estate, said the dcci-
Wns to leave and to return were
btsed on economics. He said the
mall has made a healthy recovery
and today offers "a great mix" of
national and local rctai'
South DeKalb also regularly
holds focus groups in which
customers are poU^ about mer
chandise gareferences.
"What they told us was simple,"
said South DeKalb marketing man
ager Wendell E. Kimbrough. "They
wanted the same products they
could purchase at any other shop
ping center, yet because this is ...
predominantly an Afro-American
community, they want to be sure
there are also diose products and
those services and that environment
that is cleariy Afirican American."
The Rich’s department store has a
section featuring African art.
Camelot Music is stocked with
abundant jazz and gospel music.
The B. D^ton book store, opening
in March, will feature large black
history and religion sections.
Until the mall operators pt the
nriessage, sales were slipping an
average of 5 percent a year.
Marketing studies showed that
black people in the area were un
happy with South DeKalb and
would drive 20 miles out of their
way to shop.
Sales have since rebounded. The
22-year-old mall cxixjcts a 15 per
cent sales increase for 1992, Kim
brough said.
‘We needed something like tliis,"
said Patrilla Arrington, who moved
her Family Affair Beauty Salon
into South DeKalb in December
and also has begun shopping at the
mall.
"We’ve been having to drive all
over (to shop). Now they have
more businesses and offer better
facilities," she said.
Jeffrey Humphreys, director of
economic forcca.siing at the Univer
sity of Georgia, 'aid South DeKalb
is a rarity for black shop|x;rs. "The
fu” range of rcuiil outlets tends to
be tss available in black areas," he
llimplircys noted, though, dial
sou; 1 DeKalb County boasts one of
the .oate’s most highly concentrated
atii! fllucnt black populations.
Slid, success de|x;nds on more
.,ihaa-favorable demographics or
slocking the right merchandise,
said Smikle, of Target Market
.Nesve
"It goes back to whether a
customer perceives you as stiying,
‘Plca.se come to my store,’" Smikle
said. "You’re coming from a situa
tion where you (black.s) are cither
not wanted or they’re not mtiking
any particular allusion to your
being there."
Flag Born In Anger,
Panelists Say
By Dick Pettys
Associated Press Writer
ATLANTA (AP) — A reporter
»ho watched the 1956 Georgia
Legislature hang the Confederate
tonic emblem on Georgia’s flag
Old a panel moderated by Gov.
Zell Miller on Thursday [Jan. 28] it
ns an action "bom in defiance and
ingcr." And a legislator who was
icrving on that day 37 years ago-
, "If you were there, you didn’t
tolieve it was going on. ... The flag
ns just more window dressing to
, ‘We’re going to save the Lost
Cause.’" The testimony — from
former Atlanta Constitution
icporicr Bruce Galphin and former
We Rep. James Mackay — came
IS Miller tested a new approach in
liis bid to persuade this year’s
Georgia Legislature to change the
flag.
He organized the panel discus
sion, served as its mioderator, and
■rranged for it to be broadcast via
Satellite from a Capitol hearing
loom to television stations around
lie stale.
Miller contends that opposition to
e flag change, i»w considered to
be strong, will diminish if present
kale legislators learn the facts be
hind the 1956 action.
Only about a dozen lawmakers
were on hand, but the room was
Giled with reporters, legislative
aides and the curious.
As moderator. Miller kept the dis-
eossion moving, gave the opposi-
lion a seat on the otherwise hand
picked panel and did his best to
prevent legislators, invited to ques
tion the panel, from delivering ora
tions. He was moderately success
ful at that.
LA.URBAN LEAGUE
AurnnoTivE
TRAIMN6 CENTER
ESTABtJSHirO IN
TOYOTA A^TC^ SAtfH
PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE — Facility renovations are
currently underway at the future site of the L..A. Urban league
Automotive Training Center, a Job training partnership between the
L.A. Urban League and Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.'. , Inc. Reviewing
plans for the Automotive Training Center (ATC) are from left: Bob
Best, Toyota group vice president and ATC board member; John
Mack L.A. Urban League president; and architect Earl Gales of
Jenkins, Gales & Martinez.
Board Named, Site Purchased For Toyota-
Urban League Ante ve Training Center
LOS ANGELES, CALIF. — The
acqul.sllion of the site for the Los
Angeles Urban Ixague Automotive
Training Center — a joint
between the Los Ange.e- Li-.,
League and Toyota Motor S.ile-
U.S.A. — was announced rcccntlv
at the center’s first board meeting
In November, Toyota, in nar' ..
.ship with the Urban i.eitgi -, an
nounced llie establishment ol a
non-profit vocational Automotive
Training Center which will recruit,
train and place Los Angcles-arca
resiilents in cntry-lcvcl automotive
repair jobs.
The program represents a com
mitment of S3 million from Toyota.
Tlic training facility will be lo-
I'a 'll at 3833 Crenshaw Boulevard
SBA
Miller allowed Lee Collins, mem
ber of a group called Georgia Com-
miuee to Save the State Flag, to
participate on the panel after the
group held a morning news confer
ence at the Capitol.
Collins, also a member of the
Sons of Confederate Veterans, in
sisted the 1956 change was made in
anticipation of the Civil War
centennial just four years away and
minimized racism’s influence on
the switch. He said there was less
racism then man now.
Collins ran afoul of Sen. Charles
Walker, D-Augusta, when Walker
asked him: "As a black senator who
is very proud of the state of
Georgia, can you tell me why 1
should salute and honor the ... flag
of Georgia?" Collins replied, "I
don’t expect everybody to have the
same connection to Southern
heritage as Southerners do." Asked
if he was suggesting black
Georgians are not Southerners, he
said, "No, not at all. I don’t know
what his origin is." Walker replied,
"1 am an African American bom in
Georgia. I am the great-grandson of
fomier slaves." Galphin said the
Legislature that changed the flag
was all-white, all-male and pre
dominantly rural, and at the same
session passed a law making it a
fe' my for teachers to leach in an
ii..ugrated school.
Emory University historian Dan
Carter said the Legislature was
"dominated by an atmosphere of
absolute hysteria," evidenced by
then-Gov. Marvin Griffin’s State ol
the State address in which he
declared, "We must never sur
render" to integration.
Saiki said that no small business
that was eligible under die old rules
will be made ineligible by Uic new
standards.
The alternate standard will allow
a company to qualify a' a small
businc.ss if its net worth i- L - lisui
S6 million and it has I.;;,!
average annual after-tax net ,
of less than S2 million over the ptisi
two years.
The vast majority of the
estimated 47,000 small businesses
that will become eligible for 7;aj
general business loan guarantees as
a result of tliis change arc in the
retail and service iridustrics.
"This alternate size standard that
applies to every firm, regardless of
wiial kind of business it is, should
greatly simplify eligibility
determinations for loan applicants
and help speed up the application
process," Saiki said.
The second part of the overhaul
in size standard regulations covers
the indusu-y-by-industry standards.
Because the original Small
Business Act classifies a business
as small if it is "independently
owned and operated and not
dominant in its field," SB.r is
obliged to establish size standtirds
in each different field.
Under these industry-by-industry
standards, each business is
classified according to type under a
code listed in the U.S. Office of
Management and Budget’s
Standard Indusuial Classification
(SIC) system, and a size standard is
assigned to each code.
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(Continued From Page 13)
BA’s proposed rule replaces the
curiciil 30 cia.sslficalions with nine
fixed sluiulards, four based on
average annual pre-tax gross
receipts and five based on number
of employees. Each SIC industry is
assigned a standard — cilher
reccipts-based or cinploycc-hascd
— according to which measure best
distinguishes small businesses in
that sector from large businesses.
The employee-based standards
i.mgc from 100 employees for
xxiiolcsalc trade businesses to 1,500
enij'loyccs for air transportation
companies and railroads. Reccipts-
based standards range from S5
million for retail bakeries and
hardware stores to S24 million for
pipeline companies.
Tile inflation adjustment was
based on U.S. Department of
Commerce data that shows 43.1
percent inflation since the last time
SBA’s size slandtirds were adjusted
in 1984. The standards were
previously adjusted for inflation in
1975.
A good book is the best
of friends, the same today
and forever.
—Martin Farquhar Tupper
in lire Crenshaw District of Los
Angeles. The 25,000-square-foot
properly, formerly an auto dealer
ship, features a 17,000-square-foot
building.
The minority-owned architecture
firm of Jenkins, Gales & Martinez,
Inc., of Los Angeles has beer
retained to do the design work ic
refurbish the existing building. Tht
training center is scheduled to opei
in late spring 1993.
"The Automotive Training Ccniei
will help create Paining and job op
portunities for Los Ang'elC'-arca
minority residents and bus.nesses,
and expand Urban Leayi' B greatly
needed ■ services," sa; ; John W,
Mack, president of tlic i-os Angeles
Urban League.
Management of the Paining cen
ter and its staff will be carried out
by Waller Zuschlag, general man
ager. Victor LcBlue, former man
ager of the Los Angeles Urban
League Data Processing Training
Center, was recently appointed as-
sismnt general manager.
"Toyota’s decision to csmblish
the automotive Paining program
resulted after discussions with RLA
(Rebuild L.A.) and extensive plan
ning with the Los Angeles Urban
League," said Douglas M. West,
Toyota Motor Sales vice president
and general counsel-product Inw
The Automotive Training Gciuor;
will be turned o/cr to the Urban-
Ixague during r. three-year period. •
At that time, tt.c Urban League will
assume lull financial and adminis-
Pativc responsibility.
The Center’s seven-member
Board of Directors includes:
* The Honorable Benjamin
Aranda, judge of the Municipal .
Court, South Bay Judicial DisPicl :
* Bob Best, Toyota group vice. :
prcsidcni, finance and adminispa-:
tion
* Sandra Carter, Los Angeles Ur-; ■
ban League vice president of pro- ;
grams
’* Richard Gallio, Toyota vice-
president, parts, service and U.S. .
products
* Joy Hawkins-Smith, preside '
of Joy Hawkins & As.s.'dales, am,
Los Angeles Urban League-board
member
*' George D. Kicffcr, partner,-
Manall, Phelps, Rothenberg & Phil
lips, and Los Angeles Urban-
League board mcinber
* Douglas M. West, Toyota vice
prcsidcni and general counsel-
product law.
Anyone requesting more informa
tion on the Automotive Training
Center can write to: Aulo.nVol.ivc
Training Center, P.O. Box' 2991,
Torrance, CA 9()-s09
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