Page 10, The Herald, Wednesday, April 18, 1984

A little bit

Ministry calls “a little bit

ST. PIERRE (CP) —
Canadians don’t have to
cross the Atlantic to
stand on French

Harrod’

LONDON (Reuter) —
Harrods has supplied an
elephant for President
Reagan, dresses for
Diana, Princess of Wales,
and crockery for the
Sultan of Oman, But its
chairman, Aleck Crad-
dock, insists it's. not a
store just for the wealthy.

- Turnover last year, he
points out, exceeded $280
million — a British
record for a single atore
— “and you don't do that
just with top people.”

The huge London
department store, famed
es the supplier of
everything from
mousetraps to elephants,
has long been a favored
by royalty.

But, Craddock says:
“Most of our customers
are very ordinary people.
After all, you don’t have
to have a high income to
enjoy good things.”

And good things are
what Harrods is all about.

The business started by
Henry Charles Harrod in
1849 as a grocer's shop in
Knightsbridge today has
a worldwide reputation
for quality and service
that earns it.$56 million a
year in export sales,

For tourists in London,
itis a recognized stage on
the trai] around the
sights, like Buckingham
Palace and Madame
Tussaid's waxworks.

Some 30,100 people pass
through the doors -each

- presidential

territory: Just off

Canada's eastern coast of France in ‘North
are several amall islands _ America.”

the French Tourism

~ St Pierre-Miquelon,

just 25 kilometres south
of, Newfoundland's Burin
Peninsula, Is. what
remains of France’ 6

s not just forwealthy

day and 150,000 have
accounts at the store. The
Queen, her husband,
Prince Philip, her mother
and her eldest son all buy
Harrods wares and the
store has royal warrants
to prove it.

DIANA BUYS DRESS

When Diana, then Lady
Diana Spencer, wanted
an outfit for the day her
engagement to Prince
Charles was to be an-
nounced, she went to
Harrods.

When, in the 1970s, an
unknown benefactor
wanted to present
candidate
Ronald Reagan with an
elephant — the symbol of
his Republican party —
he went to Harrods.

The Sultan of Oman
went to Harrods when he
wanted a 1,00tpiece
dinner service, press
reports Bay.

And on a sombre note,
when Irish Republican
Army terrorists wanted a
target for a Christmas
ear bomb attack to shock
public opinion, they
picked | .

The blast last year
killed six people and
Injured 90.

“Most of the world
knows Harrods — that is
borne out in-the recent
terrible incident because +
the letters we have had
eame literally from all
over the world,” -Crad:
dock says.

What makes the place
special? Sheer size must
play a part —_ the
majestic, turn-of-the-
century bullding, ita vast
facade picked out in
white lights, houses 215
departments manned by
2,000 sales stafi.

The huge floorspace,
totalling nearly: two
hectares, allows' the food
department, for example,
to stock 130 types of
bread, 163 ‘brands of
whisky and $00 kinds of
cheese. -

SELLS QUALITY.

But in the age-of the
suburban superstore, size
alone’ cannot be the ex-

planation. For Craddock, .

now in his 30th year at
Harrods, the answer lies
in simple traditions of
selling quality mer-
chandise, giving good
service and keeping up

with the times.

There is also
uniqueness, he. says.
“There jis only one

Harrods in the world,
that's very important
because it makes it a
mecca.” In fact, there is
another Harrods
Buenos Aires, but the two
stores have had no links
for decades.

Plans in the past to

-open Harrods branches in

New York and Paris
have, to the chairman’s
relief, been dropped

“Initially it would make

money, but you would

lose - some

uniqueness, and - ms
way should we water
down what we do in
Knightsbridge,''.he says.

For the “same re
the Harrods name, in its
distinctive green and gold
livery, is increasingly
used in the store’s own
“promotions, but is never
sold for others to use
«under franchise,

There has — been
speculation that Lonrho,
the. industrial and
commercial © conglom-
erate, might sell its 30-
per-cent stake in the
House of Fraser, owners
of Harrods for an asking
price of $280 million, 50
per cent above its current
market value.

Shares in Fraser have
risen 10 per.cent on
rumors ¢hat.: Sears
Holdings, “the British
retail giant. that owns
Selfridge’s — London's
second largest depart-
ment store — might bid
for Loarho’s stake or for
the entire group.

But whatever happens,
Craddock is confident

that Harrods will go on
being = exclusively
Harrods. of Knight-

shridge, and that, those
who ‘want: to ‘buy their
wares from the people
who supply the Queen will
continue. to travel to
London's West End to do
50, :

Today in Business

Canada’s . annual in-

_ flation rate fell for the

first time this year in
March, thanks to stable

oil..prices -and gasoline
price wars,
Statistics . Canada

reported Tuesaday the
country's inflation rate
last month fell to 4.7 per
-cent from 5.5 per cent in

sagging
Canadian: dollar may be
pushing prices up.

“] think we're probably
already seeing some’ of
it,” said Jack Ver-
meeren, senior economist
with the Royal Bank of
Canada, after Statistics
Canada’s release of the
figures.

“The exchange rate
dropped a little over one
per cent between
February and March but
how much of that is ac-
tually appearing in the
consumer price index is
pretty hard to determine.

“That's something we
have ta be concerned

‘ about and it’s one of the

arguments for nat letting
the dollar drop ap-
preciably.”

Old

HAMILTON (CP) —
For the man holding out
for an old-fashioned wife
who will do as she |s told,
the proprietor of a mail-
order-bride business half
a world away has the
answer. | ;

“Our women aren't
very particular,” says
the man known only a4
Ranganathan, head of

Worldwide Friendship
and Marriage Agencies of
Malaysia.

“As long as they can
have a man with a
reasonable living, they
don't demand much.”

Ranganathan wrote a
letter to the Hamilton
Spectator asking about
advertising in the
“esteemed” newspaper.

The ad he had wanted °

to run — and which The
Spectator did not accept
— reads: “Men and
women wishing towards

matrimony with nice
Asian partners: write
with details and

photographs," and lists a
post office in Ipoh, about

200 kilometres north of
Kuala Lumpur, the
Malaysian capital.

In a telephone = In-
terview with the
newspaper, Ranganathan
sald that despite the
wording of his ad, the

* The dollar is hovering
just above 78 cents
(U.S.), about three centg
_ short of where it Bat most
of last year. -
The theory is that when
the dollar drops against

‘its U.S. counterpart, it

feeds inflation because
imports become more
expensive, ;

SLUMP IN ORDERS |

Meanwhile, Statistics
Canada figures also show
there was a slump in
manufacturing orders
and _— shipments in
February,. :

But experts said the
declines, coming rif
healthy increases in
January, aren't
significant and some:
slowdown was expected.

Preliminary estimates
show that the seasonally
adjusted value of new
orders. received in
manufacturing in
February declined by 6.7
per cent to $17.748 billion
from the revised January
level.

The slide was steepest
in the durable goods
industries where the
decline was 12.3 per cent,
while in the non-durable

-fashioned

customers he is after are
men.
NOT OUTGOING

“Asian women are
quite faithful," he said
about the 16-to 40'year-
old women he lists who
come from places such as
Kuala Lampur = and
Singapore.

“A man will get .a
partner who is quite
homey. An Asian wife
does all the housework.”

Ranganathan offered
few details about mat-
chmaking costs saying
every case la different.
"But the girls do expect
you to pay for their
airfare,” which Is usually
a minimum of $2,108) for
the mandatory return
ticket.

“Youcan't expect them
to come around the world
for nothing.’

Sgt. John Corkum,
acting group leader of the
RCMP’s —immigratton
and passport section, said
the company is ‘“‘nothing
more than a lonely hearts
‘elub” but one “we'd be
interested in.".

He warned anyone
thinking of using the
service to make sure the
woman is not already
married and just “using
youto get into the
country. u ;

goods industries the
decline was 1.9 per cent.

Meanwhile, manufa-
cturers’ backlog of un-

. filled orders at the end of

February slipped 0.4. per
cent from the revised
January estimate of
$20.728 billion.
There was o 0.5-per-

' cent increase in the value

of inventory held by
manufacturers - and
manufacturers held $1.75
worth of inventory ‘for
every dollar of ship-
ments, .up ‘from $1.64
cents in January.

In other business news

: Tuesday:

— Quebecair’s first-

quarter loss for 1984. is |

expected to be about $2.7

million, or half of what it °

was for the same: period
last year, says the

president of the finan- .
clally troubled regional

carrier. Jacques Leger
said preliminary figures
indicate the airline
controlled by the Quebec
government is making a
comeback, nN

— Pacific Western
Airlines Corp. announced
mat net income before
gains on disposal of

property and equipment
for the first quarter of
1984 was $1,055,000,
compared with a loss of
$311,000 -4n the . same
period in 1988. ;
Expanding —_in-
ternational’ markets is
- erucial to the survival of
all Canadians, the
chairman of : the
Canadian Chamber of
Commerce ” told
businesamen in Tokyo.
Robert Wyman, ad-
dressing the Tokyo
chapter of the Canadian
chamber, said the hard
lessons of the recession
have. brought . the
necessity of foreign trade
home to every Canadian.
— Inco Ltd. of Taranto

quarterly loss although
the results were a sub-
stantial § improvement
from the same period a
year ago. The company,
he world’s largest nickel
“graducer, said {t lost §35.1
million (U.S,) or 41 cents
a. Bhare in the three
months ending March 31,
compared with~ §81.9
million or 97 centsa share

wives available.

Lydia Goshgarlan of
the Hamilton and District
Multicultural Council
said the Malaysian
connection could be bad
news for both partners.

“The bride might
accept anything the first
year because she's: left
persecution behind,” but
that situation
change and “both hearts

get broken as the
husband learns his
perfect bride has a
brain.” =~

Ranganathan, 30 and

might.

in last year’s first
quarter. wt
single, started ihe .

business a few months |
ago after studying’ other”
agencies that deal in -

long-distance love,

He said he will be -§

putting together a net-
work of investigators in

Canada and the United
States to check out ap-
plicants.

Last year he travelled
to Los Angeles and
Vancouver to set up the
mail-order-bride

ness.
This year he plans to’
visit the East Coast.

reported its 11th-straigtit .

busi-

once-extensive empire in
North America.
Except for part of the

16th century and the first |

few years of the 1th,
when the British occupied
the islands, these 240
square kilometres have
been French since ‘1635.
. Last year, 13,000
visitors, most of them
Canadians, dodged
Renaults and Citroens,
racing along In typical
French fashion, and
walked the narrow
streets built by those who
came .from Britanny,
Normandy and = the
Basque country.

The short — tourist
season, from mid-May to
Labor Day, has just
begun to be tapped. .

“Tourism will never
take the place of fishing,
but we sell the fact that
this is
closer,"
Charles

France’ and
says Jean
Girardin,

‘director of the Tourism

Department,
The lifestyle of the 6,000

Te he ee Sine ff
y way
eeers tT) wot Te bore
wt oe
. be
‘
&
‘ ‘
1 b

INO :

mioitly -
fishermen --and = civil
servants. and ‘their

families, is more off-the-
rack than haute couture.
But ‘boutiques on the
islands carry the ‘best of
French - clothing, per-
furnes and wine.
Miquelon ~— ‘actually
two Islands, Grande
Miquelon «and - Petite
Miquelon — is,.at 215
square kilometres, more
than elght times larger
than ‘St. Pierre. But St.
Pierre is the main: at-
traction and a weekend is
all a visitor really needs

. to see the sights, visit the
-shops and enjoy the food.

_ Hotel Robert, on the
waterfront, features an
intimate restaurant
where people waiting to
be seated can see a
collection of mementoes
from St. Pierre's rum-
running days-during the
U.S. prohibition.

The kitchen of the hotel

* is presided over by chef

Andre; someone who’s

worth getting to know.
After inquiting about the
quality of bis pork chops
and pears one night and

being told they were

Great, he insisted ‘on
buying the diner a enifter
full of brandy. ’

Those tmaccustomed to
the French way of life
should be prepared for a
look of ‘astonishment
when asking for a 6 p.m.
supper reservation.

‘Doors here open at 8 p.m.

BUSINESSES CLOSE
One should also be
ready for a.14-hour lull
each day when
businesses close" for
lunch. As church bells
toll, announcing the
midday break,
youngsters run home

‘ clutching fresh bread and

pastry, some sneaking 4
lick of cream on the way.

lle de France, ,, the
biggest and one of the

- best hotels on the Islands,

has just undergone ex-
tensive renovations and
has comfortable, rooms at

merica

‘about $40 for single oc-
cupancy.

The hotel's bar is the
main - meeting — place.
Young couples ren-
dezvous, old men play
cards andothers crowd in
to watch soccer and
newscasts televised from
Paris. Local patrons are
always ready with free
information about island
lore. -

Instead of spending a
bundle on crossing the
Atlantic all the way to
mainland France, one:
can hop over from
Halifax on Air Maritimes
for $253 return airfare
and see a part of Europe
iransplanted' to -. this
continent centuries ago.

Also available is a ride
from Halifax by supply-
boat, which provides the
traveller with excellent
French cuisine during the
36-hour trip. It's half the
cost of flying, but
bookings have to be made
early through Atlantic
Sea Routes of Halifax.

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