http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/maria-panaritis RSS Feed for Inq Col Maria Panaritis en-us Sun, 23 Dec 2012 11:08:33 GMT http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/maria-panaritis/20121223_It_TRAFFIC_IS_LIGHT.html T'was the Sunday before the Sunday before Christmas, and all through the stores, so few consumer-creatures were stirring . . . well, I barely waited for a food-court burrito, hardly broke a sweat for parking, and saw virtually none of the long checkout lines retailers expect and need during the holidays. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/maria-panaritis/20121206_It_Mystery_of_the_new_Apple_store_at_Plaza_at_King_of_Prussia.html The towering black wall has been impossible to miss. Rising from shiny, white floor tiles at the East Coast's largest shopping mall, it has projected a cloak of mystery all the more stark for being a short walk from Louis Vuitton, Hermes, and Neiman Marcus - stores forbidding for their prices, if not their facades. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/maria-panaritis/20121204_It_Are_the_stars_aligning_for_a_Center_City_retail_boom_.html It is easy to be a cynic when it comes to the lack of big-name retailing in downtown Philadelphia. For the many years of hype that gentrification would and should turn Center City into a mini-Manhattan of shopping, time and again the market has proved boosters wrong, with major players repeatedly skipping bets in the core of the nation's fifth-largest city. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/maria-panaritis/20121120_It_Hostess_standoff_follows_familiar_script.html When bankrupt Hostess Brands Inc. declared it would end its bakery business and potentially incinerate thousands of jobs with a liquidation move, I had the sense I had seen this movie already. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/maria-panaritis/20121114_Conshohocken_entrepreneurs_make_a_splash_in_deliveries_for_online_shopping.html It is a problem so obvious you wonder why it hasn't already been solved: how to deliver online orders in a way that cuts the odds of missing a delivery or having a package stolen after drop-off to an apartment lobby, stoop, or an unsecured porch. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/maria-panaritis/20121028_It_Data_confirm_Generation_X_is_the_most_fearful_of_retirement.html Rich Morin did a virtual double take, and so should you. Because what he and a colleague at Pew Research Center discovered about wealth and retirement is what I've been sounding alarms over for three years, a lone wolf in a media and political pack that blissfully ignores this scary reality. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/maria-panaritis/20121023_It_Center_City_shopping_is_starting_to_recover_from_the_economic_slump.html So this is what investors mean by patience: Three years after a smoldering economy reduced Philadelphia's premiere shopping district to an avenue of stalwart retailers sharing space with suddenly vacant storefronts, the rebound is on. And it's hot. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/maria-panaritis/20121018_It_Romney_s_comment_on_hiring_women_touches_raw_nerve.html As a business reporter and columnist, I was shocked - shocked - to hear during the presidential debate that former Massachusetts governor and private-equity bigwig Mitt Romney had to solicit "binders full of women" job candidates just so his state cabinet would not resemble an episode of the misogynistic TV series Mad Men. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/maria-panaritis/20121007_It_New_store_here_shows_Penneys__go-for-broke_makeover.html It was fitting that J.C. Penney Co.'s newest store, a redesigned and blinged out behemoth at Willow Grove Park, officially opened Friday of all days, the one-year anniversary of the death of Apple Inc. founder Steve Jobs. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/maria-panaritis/20120910_It_It_s_Personal__Collateral_damage_in_the_Waterloo_Gardens_bankruptcy.html Two family-owned nurseries that have been around for generations in the Philadelphia suburbs are wishing the summer hadn't brought unexpected financial heat in the form of the Waterloo Gardens bankruptcy.