Chain

Independent grocer Valu Food is poised to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy by spring and later in the year plans to start remodeling stores and looking for new sites, the chain's president said yesterday.Louis Denrich, in comments to the 265-member Baltimore/Washington Grocery Manufacturers Representatives Inc., sought to reassure many of his suppliers of the chain's viability.The locally owned chain is the sixth-largest in the Baltimore region with 10 supermarkets. It filed for Chapter 11 protection in November, with an estimated $3.5 million owed to its 20 largest creditors.

Thirty black Baltimore middle school pupils and their chaperons on a class trip to Walt Disney World have filed suit in federal court against Denny's restaurants, claiming they were mistreated at one of the chain's Florida outlets because of race.A spokeswoman for the chain -- which has been operating under a consent decree not to discriminate since it reached a $46 million agreement with the federal government five years ago -- denied the allegations yesterday and said the company would vigorously contest the suit.

Giant Food Inc.'s new chief executive sees cost-cutting as one of the first steps in an overall strategy to preserve and increase market share in the fiercely competitive supermarket industry.In his first interview since taking the helm of the region's dominant chain Jan. 2, Richard A. Baird said Giant, which employs 27,000, needs to bring its higher costs in line with those of its unionized rivals.The company is also poised to take advantage of economies of scale under the umbrella of Royal Ahold NV, the Dutch food retailer that acquired Giant in October.

It hardly seems promising: heading an ailing national chain of home improvement stores that's losing money and customers, closing stores, struggling through bankruptcy and taking a beating from the competition.But the new executive officer who took charge of Hechinger Co. on Tuesday is likely to find the job a no-lose proposition regardless of what happens to the chain, turnaround specialists and consultants say.If Richard J. Lynch Jr. succeeds in resurrecting the chain from bankruptcy and shoring it up financially, he'll be hailed as a marketing genius.

I SUPPOSE YOU ARE wondering what I am doing for New Year's Eve, it being the millennium and all, and I must admit that my plans haven't taken shape just yet.Earlier this year, my husband and I received an invitation to spend $1,500 and a three-day millennium weekend at a resort on Maryland's Eastern Shore, where we would indulge in everything from full-body massage to black-tie dinners and ballroom dancing.Despite the hefty price tag it sounded idyllic to me, but my husband said he had already made other plans for the millennium.

Crown Books, the discount bookseller that declared bankruptcy a year ago, expects to emerge from Chapter 11 protection in time for the holiday selling season, with hopes of rolling out its first new-format stores by next fall.Crown said yesterday that it has spent the past year closing nearly half of its 174 stores, revamping its format, rebuilding inventory, improving distribution and cutting operating expenses by $25 million.The Landover-based company filed a reorganization plan Wednesday with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware and expects approval by October.

Valu Food is still on track to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy this year, though later than originally projected, the chain's president, Louis Denrich, said yesterday.In January, Denrich told a group of grocery suppliers that his struggling, 10-store chain expected to submit a reorganization plan to U.S. Bankruptcy Court by spring. The locally owned grocer, the sixth-largest in the Baltimore area, filed for Chapter 11 protection in November, with an estimated $3.5 million owed to its 20 largest creditors.

Hechinger Co., once the standard by which home-improvement chains were measured, will close its doors for good by the end of the year.Just three months after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, officials of the 88-year-old Largo-based chain said yesterday that its remaining 117 stores would be closed and its assets liquidated to pay off creditors.The company employed more than 12,000 people.Hechinger said it will dispose of its inventory through a going-out-of-business sale at its Hechinger, Home Quarters and Builders Square stores, which will begin immediately.

Hechinger Co., long one of the most prominent hardware sellers in the Baltimore area, says that it may file for bankruptcy. The chain has suffered heavy losses as its larger competitors have seized control of the home-improvement market.Hechinger spokesman Sean Flynn said Friday that bankruptcy was one option for the struggling company. "Certainly, it's under consideration, as are other possibilities," he said.His statement, which was made to the Washington Post, echoed a belief within the industry that the company is in dire trouble and needs quick, large-scale help.

The Cosmetic Center Inc. ended a once successful but more recently troubled run yesterday, announcing that it will close its remaining 124 stores and its Columbia headquarters by the end of the year.The discount cosmetics retailer, which started as a wholesaler in 1957 and grew to a 260-store chain at its peak, had been in bankruptcy since mid-April. It had announced plans to close 116 stores this year, 73 of which have been shuttered."Based on an increasingly competitive marketplace and the company's financial position ... the board of directors, with management support, thought this was the best alternative," said Wendi Kopsick, a company spokeswoman.

It might seem like a bad time to expand a retail business, with consumers cutting back drastically on spending and sales plummeting at many stores. But there are still some businesses thriving and looking to open up new stores. Five such companies told a group of brokers and other retail and commercial real estate professionals they were looking for sites to expand their business in Maryland, Washington and Virginia during a session sponsored by the International Council of Shopping Centers on Thursday night.

Loretta Lynn will be leaving the building soon. The old album cover featuring her big hair and greatest hits is coming down from the display window at Record and Tape Traders in Catonsville, which is scheduled to close its doors for good today. The company that owns the six-store chain said the Catonsville location has been unable to make a go of it after moving last summer from its longtime site down the street to a smaller location. The news came as a disappointment to patrons accustomed to the picture window's motif of vinyl discs, concert photos and an old phonograph.

$49.99 for Nintendo Wii. Rated Mature *** (3 STARS) An Olympic-sized pool cannot contain the amount of blood spilled in MadWorld, a game that earns the right to be called the most violent ever made. It throws gratuitous violence into a meat grinder, telling players that murder with a chain saw is fine and dandy, and for an amateur to become a talented executioner, you'll have to lash out creatively, prolonging your victim's death through multiple phases of pain. MadWorld runs the gamut in violence, taking an encyclopedic approach to its variety in kills.

Two weeks ago this afternoon, an inch and a half of snow fell in Western Maryland. It should have been no big deal. Snow has been falling in that location, near Myersville in Frederick County, since long before there was a Maryland. What was different this time was that some of that snow fell on Interstate 70. Sometime after the snow began falling, there occurred a chain-reaction crash involving 47 vehicles, including six tractor-trailers. Two women died in the pileup. At least a dozen people were seriously injured.

Giant Food, as part of a strategy to refresh its image as it tries to better compete with other grocers, is officially unveiling a new logo today. The region's largest grocery chain is replacing the current logo - the name Giant encased in a large letter G - with a more colorful symbol, which is "designed to represent many things to different consumers (bowl of fruit, plant, flowers, ingredients, breads, etc.)," said Ashley Cheng, a spokeswoman for the chain. The chain hasn't updated its logo since 1963.

WILBER HARDEE, 89 Founder of fast-food chain Wilber Hardee, a farm boy turned grill cook who went on to open the first Hardee's hamburger stand in 1960, starting a chain that now has nearly 2,000 restaurants in the United States and overseas, died last week at his home in Greenville, N.C., of a heart attack. It was on an empty lot in Greenville, near East Carolina College (now a university), that Hardee opened his first hamburger stand Sept. 3, 1960. There was no dining room, no drive-up window.

Former Baltimore Ravens offensive tackle Orlando Brown will open Maryland's first Fatburger hamburger joint in August at a franchise location in Columbia. The new restaurant, in the Columbia Gateway shopping center, will be one of five that Brown plans to open in Maryland. His franchise expects to open five additional Fatburgers around Washington, with a first location planned near Howard University, executives with the Santa Monica, Calif.-based chain said. A planned College Park location, originally to be the first Maryland location, has been delayed.

On sunny spring days, I feel the urge to wheel my bicycle out of winter storage and go riding. Recently I wondered, however, if my old bike was in shape for a new season. The answer, it turned out, was probably not. It had not had a tuneup recently. According to the big wheels of the biking world, giving your bike an annual once-over before you take it out on the road -- making sure its drivetrain, brakes, and steering systems are running smoothly -- increases the chances that you will enjoy the ride.

Lena Robinson started patronizing Karibu Books in Security Square Mall as soon as it opened in 2006. And so when the Maryland-based, African-American book chain announced suddenly it would be going out of business and closing its Woodlawn store yesterday, Robinson made it a point to stop by. "I'm going to support them, even on their last day," Robinson, a 28-year-old Catonsville hair stylist said, as she scooped up a few discount novels and a CD. ...

Giant Food's price-cutting strategy is slowly helping to attract shoppers faced with a growing array of grocery choices, and the program would be expanded by the end of the year, the chain's parent company said yesterday. But the results haven't shown up yet in net income or same-store sales, partly because product prices have been cut and because Giant has not yet embarked on a planned remodeling or replacement of 100 stores, said executives of Royal Ahold NV, Giant's Dutch owner. Giant, the dominant chain in the Baltimore-Washington region, is ahead of schedule in reducing prices across three-quarters of its merchandise and getting positive feedback from customers based on information tracked by customer loyalty cards.