Merchants

It's probably safe to say that no other lingerie display has ever whipped up so much concern in Towson.The display in the window of the Love Ones Lingerie shop at 402 1/2 York Road features a female mannequin dressed in leather scanties. She is holding a bullwhip that is looped around the neck of a male mannequin, who is similarly attired in a leather jockstrap and a harness.The shop's arrival in early December startled many shoppers.It also offended York Road merchants' sense of the town's family image.

Nothing leaves a person jaded like a good Goliath-beats-David story. Such was the case in Baltimore in the mid-1980s when electronics giantSony Corp.famously succeeded in running a Filipino restaurant out of business because the owner had the nerve to attach her name to it. Her name was Sony Florendo. Sony Corp. attorneys came to town and filed a $2.9 million lawsuit against Sony's restaurant on Park Avenue, claiming trademark infringement. It didn't seem to matter that Sony Corp.

The front page article "Mayor responds to violence" (July 6) was a clear indication of how poorly this city was prepared for the celebration of our independence anniversary. One of the most important facets of this big night was the ability of the merchants along the Inner Harbor to stay open later than usual to help their profitability. Those businesses were forced to shut down — some as early as 9 p.m. This is not the way for Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to gain favor in the business community.

Well, the decorations are up. The judges have judged. The votes have been tallied and these are the results of what promises to be the start of an annual holiday competition - the Hampden Village Merchants Association Storefront Decorating Contest. Congratulations go to Best Overall winner Hampden Junque, 1006 W. 36th St., and runner-up Paradiso, 1015 W. 36th St. But the real winners are all of us who get to walk around and see the results of the decorating efforts of about 25 participating businesses.

You might not have paid attention to the fierce yearlong battle between merchants and banks over debit cards, but you'll likely notice last week's outcome in your wallet. The dispute was over the debit card interchange fee — the payment merchants make to banks to process customer transactions. Last year's Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act law required that the Federal Reserve ensure that the fee was "reasonable. " Last week, the Fed announced it was cutting the fee — but not by nearly as much as merchants wanted.

The merchants on Howard Street will be able to breathe a sigh of relief come Sunday, when Mass Transit Administration buses begin rolling down that corridor again after more than a year of being diverted to other streets.The diversion, which took buses along Eutaw and Cathedral streets, was made because of construction of the light-rail system along Howard Street that began in June 1990.That portion of the light-rail system is complete, and MTA officials announced yesterday that bus service will be restored to Howard Street two months ahead of schedule.

Merchants Tire & Auto is relocating two Baltimore City tire distribution and repair centers to the Halethorpe section of Baltimore County, a move that will cost the city nearly three dozen jobs.The company's shift to the county marks the latest blow to the city in its effort to retain service-oriented and other businesses.In the past decade, more than 65,000 jobs have evaporated from the city.Jim Matthews, Merchants president, said the company considered various city properties as part of a yearlong search before leasing a 150,400-square-foot building at 4625 Hollins Ferry Road.

The 80-year-old Merchants Terminal Corp. is expanding with a $25 million development of a new perishable foods distribution warehouse in Chesapeake Commerce Center, the former site of the General Motors van assembly plant on Broening Highway in Southeast Baltimore. The refrigerated warehouse company said yesterday that it bought just over 13 acres in the new industrial park from Duke Realty Corp., which purchased the closed GM complex, located next to the Seagirt Marine Terminal, in early 2006.

Some nervous merchants are shutting their shops early at Baltimore's Harborplace pavilions as police search for a man believed to have held up four stores at gunpoint this month.As city police and private security guards scour the city's premier tourist and shopping attraction for the elusive suspect, store owners are trying to find a way to end the spree and not alarm customers."He has a lot of nerve," said Mike Durham, president of the merchants' association that represents the 200 stores in the Light and Pratt street pavilions and the Gallery.

Glen Burnie merchants learned last night at a meeting with county police officers, community leaders and politicians that their community is not alone in suffering vandalism and graffiti attacks.The recent wave of damage extends from the Baltimore line to Jumpers Hole Road in Pasadena, county police told them. Since November, about 100 business have been hit, police said.County police said they believe juveniles are responsible. In some incidents, BB guns and slingshots were used to shoot out windows.

The owner of a dress shop is so fearful of crime along Greenmount Avenue in Waverly that she keeps the door locked even when her shop is open. The man who runs a discount store a block away feels it is safe enough to stroll the avenue with his three young children. A young clerk who just started behind the counter of a doughnut shop is happy to have found work amid the sour economy, but says, "It's scary in here. " The proprietor of the avenue's most expensive restaurant is threatening to leave.

Thomas Talbott Bond, founder of the T. Talbott Bond Co., a Baltimore-Washington photocopier dealership, died Friday from complications of dementia and a broken hip at Keswick Multicare Center. The longtime Ruxton resident was 85. The son of Henry M. Bond, who had been president of the Bond Brothers Paint Co., and Lala Belle Bond, a homemaker, Mr. Bond was born in Baltimore and raised on Roland Avenue. Mr. Bond was a descendant of and named for Thomas Talbott Bond, one of the defenders of Fort McHenry during the British invasion of 1814.

Toothpaste and spiritual comfort share space in the double-wide storefront in Dundalk. Magazines and snacks fill crannies and shelves, racks hold donated sweatshirts and winter jackets and somehow, wedged toward the back, is a quiet corner to make a phone call or connect via Skype with family members half a world away. When you are at sea for months at a time, delivering cargo to ports around the globe, the tiny Stella Maris International Seafarers Center can seem like a palace stuffed with the good things of life.

Youths and teenagers as young as 12 are causing consternation in Hampden - throwing rocks at cars, vandalizing property, cursing loudly, skipping school, popping car tires with pocket knives and smoking marijuana behind a public school, according to residents, merchants, police and city officials. More than 30 residents and business owners filled a small meeting room at Breathe Books on The Avenue on Monday, Oct. 3 to discuss the problem and what can be done about it. Those attending the meeting included Mary Pat Clarke, a Baltimore City councilwoman who represents the area; Doug Gibson, a Northern District police officer and community liaison; and Rob Durocher, managing attorney for the city's Property-Based Crime Solutions program.

Is Ellicott City's Main Street about to turn into Route 40? Depends on whom you ask, but some merchants in the quaint and quirky, fun and funky little enclave the Chamber of Commerce likes to call Historic Ellicott City have worried aloud that the arrival of a Subway sandwich shop in their midst spells trouble. You can understand the concern. Main Street's stock in trade is small, independently owned antique shops, art stores, bistros and such in old stone buildings left over from a former mill town.

The front page article "Mayor responds to violence" (July 6) was a clear indication of how poorly this city was prepared for the celebration of our independence anniversary. One of the most important facets of this big night was the ability of the merchants along the Inner Harbor to stay open later than usual to help their profitability. Those businesses were forced to shut down — some as early as 9 p.m. This is not the way for Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to gain favor in the business community.

In its first customer satisfaction survey, the Wilde Lake Village Center Merchants' Association is seeking customers' opinions to find ways to bolster the shopping center.The survey, to be distributed beginning this week in the center's stores, will ask such questions as: Do you feel safe at the village center? Is the parking area well-lighted? What do you like about the center?The effort comes with merchants' revenues shrinking and 20 percent of the center's storefronts vacant, vacancies that will grow after the planned closure of a NationsBank branch at the end of October.

The bulldozers, jackhammers and construction crews haven't arrived yet, but already merchants are moving out of shops on Annapolis' historic Main Street rather than face the disruptions that reconstruction of the thoroughfare will cause."

Many public and business leaders on Maryland's Eastern Shore have expressed concern recently about the negative effects of the Maryland Transportation Authority's proposed Bay Bridge toll increases. Any increases, they argue, will be detrimental to state tourism, especially east of the Chesapeake Bay. However, this position fails to consider that the MdTA revenue discussions have produced a timely opportunity to boost intrastate tourism and commerce. This desirable end can be achieved through the creation of a significant toll discount for E-ZPass account holders.