WASHINGTON — Joppa, Md.-based Merry-Go-Round Enterprises filed a motion in Federal bankruptcy court Friday for approval of the compensation packages of two new executives.

The motion for the first time set the distributable value for the…

WASHINGTON — There’s one retail chain here that’s definitely not catering to the Hill crowd.

Up Against the Wall, a Washington-based junior chain with 12 full-price stores and one warehouse outlet in the mid-Atlantic region, carries all the…

WASHINGTON — Washington is widely assumed to be an unfashionable town. Like most conventional wisdom, this is only partly true.

Consider this:

Washington is home to one of only three Yves Saint Laurent boutiques in the country, one of…

WASHINGTON — Retailers in the South and Midwest are anticipating a stronger Christmas than those in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, and are building up fourth-quarter inventories to a greater degree.

That’s a key finding in the Federal…

WASHINGTON — Woodward & Lothrop Inc. is projecting a 2.6 percent compound annual growth rate for the next five years, according to a business plan presented to creditors last week.

The plan also projects a 6 percentage point drop in…

WASHINGTON — The American Apparel Manufacturers Association has endorsed a broad set of proposals for health care reform that rejects employer mandates and requires labor and management to cooperate in setting benefit levels.

“We think every…

NEW YORK — Marisa Christina Inc., which went public Wednesday at $13 a share, closed unchanged Thursday, its first day of trading on the over-the-counter market.

Christina, a manufacturer of better women’s apparel and children’s wear, raised…

WASHINGTON — Sirena Apparel Group Inc. has become the second swimwear manufacturer to dive into the IPO market this month.

The South El Monte, Calif., company, whose lines include the licensed Anne Klein label and its own Sirena collection,…

WASHINGTON — Cotton shortages and rising prices put a damper on import growth in April.

Textile and apparel imports rose 3.9 percent in April compared with April 1993, a growth rate of less than half the 8.8 percent seen in the first quarter,…

WASHINGTON — Does Mexico’s $50-per-day, per-person limit on the value of goods individual Mexicans can carry duty-free across the U.S. border run counter to the spirit of free trade?

That’s what U.S. retailers along the border are grousing…

ATLANTA

Adrian Grezeskiewicz, 25, a graduate student, buys only Clinique products for her skin-care routine. She is using Clinique’s Turnaround cream and feels her skin is improving with it.

“I like department stores…

WASHINGTON — Service is a major draw at Wilmington, Del.-based Happy Harry’s Discount Drug Stores, which staffs each location with a trained cosmetician.

“We think we offer a good in-between to department stores and mass merchants,” said Alan…

WASHINGTON — Beach Patrol Inc., a Carson, Calif., maker of women’s swimwear, intends to expand its manufacturing capacity, add a girls’ swimwear line and men’s lines and pay off its factor debts with expected proceeds of $9.9 million from a planned…

Mary Davin, an international trade specialist at the Department of Commerce, said, “I think fragrances are too expensive, which is why I’ve never in my life bought one. I always use just samples I pick up at department stores.”

Jija Davis, a…

WASHINGTON — With the Capitol dome as a backdrop, retail executives at the International Mass Retail Association conference said small businesses need more of a voice in the health care debate, which they say is becoming more and more…