Jenny Kincaid Boone covers retail and real estate.

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Jenny Kincaid Boone

Retail Roundup columns

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Dorothy Osborne is tired of eating the cost of damaged dresses and dealing with prom shoppers' drama.

As early as December, teenage girls and their friends visit her Roanoke County store, cameras in hand, and tug $350 prom dresses onto their bodies, with no intention of buying them, at least not right away.

They often rip zippers and tear fabric when they try to squeeze into dresses that are too small for their figures. Osborne ends up trashing or donating piles of these prom dresses, which take up 75 percent of the floor space in her small women's boutique, Panache, about five months of the year.

The store has sold prom gowns for 10 years, but this year will be its last.

Osborne is having a going-out-of business sale for prom wear at her shop at the Forum shopping center. She's giving 10 percent to 20 percent discounts on some 2,000 gowns for now, with hopes of emptying the racks next month.

"I want to clean this store up," said Osborne, owner of Panache for 36 years. "No more dealing with kids."

Additionally, she said, it's more challenging to sell high-priced prom gowns. Osborne's prom sales are down, compared with previous years.

Parents don't want to buy $500 prom dresses anymore, she said. Likely because of the past year's poor economy, parents are more choosy about price, opting for dresses that cost less than $300. Osborne's prom dresses average $350.

Selling prom attire is also time consuming. Girls may come into Panache several times to try on different styles before making their final choice, Osborne said. Worse yet, some turn around and find the same style on the Internet for a lower price.

Moving forward, Osborne is returning to selling only adult women's dressy and casual clothing, specifically suits. She already sells this kind of apparel, but for much of the prom season, many of her adult women shoppers can't land a dressing room.

"A lot of my adult ladies don't like to come here," when the prom crowd is here, Osborne said.

She'll continue to sell short cocktail dresses suitable for homecoming or other parties.

Osborne also will close her store for one week in June to paint, remodel and reorganize.

Furniture store to grow

The Virginia Furniture Market is expanding.

The well-known furniture retailer, founded in 1997, is making plans to build a 200,000-square-foot store fronting U.S. 220 in Rocky Mount. The additional location, which will offer a similar selection to the current Franklin County store, is poised to anchor the Virginia Marketplace, a 54-acre development near the intersection with Wirtz Road.

Conner-Bowman Funeral Home & Crematory will open at the development this month, and other kinds of retail and restaurants have been approved for the site, said Joel Shepherd, owner of Virginia Furniture Market, who is developing the Virginia Marketplace under a separate company.

He's been talking with some retailers, including a grocery store, about coming to the new development, but he would not state specific businesses because the details are not final.

As for his new furniture store, which will land a mile away from the current Virginia Furniture Market store on U.S. 220 in Rocky Mount, Shepherd said he'll sell the same variety of furnishings, from sofas to dining room sets and bed frames.

The new store gives his company the opportunity to be an even larger "regional destination," he said.

Additionally, Virginia Furniture Market opened a temporary store this weekend on Orange Avenue in Roanoke, inside a former Kroger store. It's called Virginia Furniture Market To Go, and it sells overstock tables, chairs, sofas and a variety of other furnishings.

This pop-up store will open each Friday, Saturday and Sunday through mid-April.

Shop graces Market Street

An eclectic downtown Roanoke gift shop doubled its space and relocated around the corner from its former hub on Church Avenue.

Native Grace moved from 108 Church Ave. S.E. to a storefront on Market Street earlier this month. Owner Donna Bollinger, who opened Native Grace in 2008, said she needed more room to host events and groups, such as writers gatherings and book clubs.

Her shop has landed at 308 Market St., the former home of Dandelion Feet, a shoe store.

Bollinger's shop sells gifts and global handicrafts.

Bollinger also sells fair trade coffee and tea. This month, she plans to begin opening the shop at 7 a.m. to serve these brewed beverages.

News from the Storefront blog at blogs.roanoke.com/rtblogs/storefront/:

Henry's Memphis BBQ has a new restaurant in Christiansburg, inside a Shell convenience store at 2375 Roanoke Road.

Thai Continental Cuisine is open at 108 Market St. in Roanoke.

Starbucks is testing its largest drink yet, a 31-ounce trenta size for iced coffee and iced tea.