At 82, Albert Boscov gets stage fright over opening

Scares the hell out of you.

Those are words seldom associated with Albert Boscov.

Albie? Yes. Mr. B? That, too. Even force of nature, for how he saved his family's department store chain, and thousands of jobs, from near-death bankruptcy three years ago. But his being scared? Nah.

Yet as the 82-year-old merchant-warrior sat still for just a few moments in his Reading office the other day - paperwork on the floor, paperwork on the conference table, a shrinking birthday balloon barely floating above his desk - he used those very words to describe the tumble of emotions associated with Sunday's planned opening of a Boscov's at Monmouth Mall near Asbury Park, N.J.

"It scares the hell out of you that it won't work," Boscov said, eyeing a 68-page draft of an advertising circular.

His is not the sort of white-knuckled fear that drives a hapless leader toward shoddy decision-making. It is, according to his admirers, a sober-minded prudence that has helped him beat poor odds time and again.

The opening of the chain's 40th store, at one of the locations that went dark during its Chapter 11 reorganization, is the latest example of Boscov's zigging when others expect him to zag - or just plain give up.

"It's David against Goliath," said Kenny Orr, owner of Stone Mountain Handbags and a decades-long supplier. "He's swimming in the middle of - man, think about what's surrounding them: Macy's is the biggest in the department store venue; Kohl's is the biggest in what's called the midtier . . . Penneys wants to be considered a department store like Macy's, but they're not there yet."

The company's turnaround, another vendor said, became apparent soon after Boscov returned post-bankruptcy.

"I would say that shortly after Albert got there, you could see the whole organization get re-enthused with the fact that they could make it," said Tim Lyons, president of sales for Dallas-based Haggar Clothing Co., another of Boscov's many suppliers. He, too, has worked with the company for decades.

The Monmouth Mall grand opening is striking in that, with the economy continuing to sputter, retailers are struggling more than ever to compete for a dwindling amount of cash being spent.

And yet a year ago, Boscov's employees were given Christmas bonuses, and sales for the calendar year came in high enough to pave the way for the Monmouth expansion, company officials said. If all goes well, another new store could be added next year, Albert Boscov said.

The panache and personality of Boscov's is back, too, with a P.T. Barnum-like roster of grand-opening sweeteners at the Jersey store, including Shirley Jones (Partridge Family, anyone?) and an exhibit of preserved gowns once worn by Hollywood stars.

The company has rehired some employees it lost, believing the best way to fight competitors is with plenty of warm salespeople in the aisles, at the registers, and behind the trademark Boscov's homemade fudge counter.

With Sunday's opening, Boscov's will have 7,030 people on its payroll across 40 stores and in its headquarters. That is just shy of the 7,500 it had with 50 stores, said Ed Elko, senior vice president of human resources. The numbers had fallen to about 5,500 when bankruptcy forced layoffs and store closures, he said.

The privately owned company's renewed momentum dates to December 2008, when Boscov bought its bankrupt assets in a $300 million deal. He had built the century-old retailer into a regional power with his immigrant father, Solomon, then retired in 2006 with a large cash payout. He has been in charge since, engineering the chain's rescue with family money and public and private financing.

With a new chief financial officer in place and a vice chairman of the board from the Boscov family added to its leadership ranks, the old-fashioned firm has returned to the ring in fighting form.

"We're back," the front page of its Monmouth-bound advertising circular blares. "We're bigger. We're better. We're Boscov's."

The Monmouth Mall tale began, as many stories about Albert Boscov begin, with a phone call between old friends.

Manhattan real estate magnate Steven Roth, chairman of Vornado Realty Trust and part owner of the mall, rang Albert Boscov about six months ago with an invitation for Boscov's to return to the 279,000-square-foot anchor space it had abandoned.

"He had this large empty store at the end," Boscov said of the location. "He said a lot of people are wondering whether Boscov's would come back."

Decades ago, Roth and Boscov had jointly developed a mall in Reading, Boscov's hometown and longtime base of operations for what is, today, regarded as the nation's oldest family-run department store chain.

"He was smaller, I was smaller," Boscov said.

Roth had not yet become the heavy hitter he is today in the Manhattan and Mid-Atlantic commercial real estate market, and Boscov was placing just his second store at the mall they built together.

Boscov said Roth offered him an attractive deal that would fill Monmouth's need for an anchor - but with terms reasonable enough that Boscov's would be able to invest $6 million cash into renovations and fixtures while not being encumbered by debilitating rent payments at the outset.

Boscov's had once owned the property, but sold it to get out from under burdensome payments resulting from a refinancing of its mortgage.

Later, as a result of a "huge expense structure" that included high rent and real estate taxes, the store became one of 10 cut loose during the bankruptcy, said Toni Miller, the chief financial officer hired by Boscov's in June 2009 after a long career with Bass Pro Shops.

As Albert Boscov returned his chain's focus to customers, coworkers, and community - and by firing up his highly regarded merchant team with trips to luxury resorts as rewards for striking good bargains on merchandise with manufacturers - the company quickly returned to profitability, Miller said.

"There's a lot of willpower and determination, and a lot of people that stood behind Albert . . . employees that were willing to forgo raises for a couple of years," she said. The company made "hard decisions about cost reductions and significant savings in expenses, and downsizing to the point where you're operating more efficiently with fewer resources, but not hurting customer service."

Returning to Monmouth, however, had a lot to do with with Albert Boscov's abundance of goodwill with business associates, fostered over decades.

Vornado's Roth, said to be reluctant to engage the press, accepted an interview request for this story. After a few moments on the phone, it became clear why.

"You got to love this guy," Roth said. "He's in his 80s, right?"

Roth described his decision to invite Boscov back to Monmouth Mall as one grounded fundamentally in the belief that Boscov knows his trade - cold.

"I think Al Boscov is a great proven merchant, and he's an old warrior," he said. "We have been business associates and friends, my God, for over 30 years. And I admire him. He was in Monmouth Mall before, he was doing well, and we wanted him back."

The pair have remained friends all these years to the degree possible, he said, given that Roth's base of operations is Manhattan and North Jersey, and Boscov's is Berks County.

"You know how to ride a bicycle, if you don't ride a bicycle for 25 years, you still remember how to ride it the first time you get on it?" he explained. "That's my relationship with my friend Al."

Read more about Boscov's and its journey into and out of bankruptcy at www.philly.com/boscovEndText