Riverwalk businesses relocate after freighter crash

NEW ORLEANS -- The Christmas shopping season was snatched from about 100 Riverwalk merchants and restaurateurs a week ago when the grain ship Bright Field lost power and slammed into the riverfront shopping mall. The mall has been closed since, jeopardizing the future of many businesses at the height of the holiday season. It was unclear Friday how many of the 1,500 people who work at the Riverwalk are unemployed.

• A banner over the new location of Orleans Jewels says it all: "Shipwrecked -- Temporary Location." The jewelry store has set up shop temporarily at The Esplanade mall in Kenner. It is one of several Riverwalk shops that have moved to recoup some holiday business.

• Some merchants, such as Cafe du Monde and The Gap, were able to move employees, said Brian Lade, the mall's general manager. Others have business interruption insurance that will pay workers' salaries during the shutdown, he said.

  But like Orleans Jewels, some shop owners aren't waiting around to find out when the mall will reopen.

• Artworks of Louisiana last week set up temporarily at the Edgewater Mall in Biloxi, Miss., after owner Linda Roddy made arrangements to sell her framed posters and prints there.

• The Sharper Image also moved. It's now on the first level of the Canal Place Shopping Center, not far from the Riverwalk. It opened for business Saturday.

Riverwalk's management was expected to announce a possible opening date Monday.

Meanwhile, Bert Mothershead, manager of the Sharper Image, applauded the company's quick move to Canal Place.

• The Sharper Image at the Riverwalk does 20 percent of its annual business at Christmastime, he said.

• Even more important is January, which is bringing the Sugar Bowl and Super Bowl games to town, as well as the National Association of Television Producers and Executives convention.

• On Friday, 15 Sharper Image elves scurried around, placing the store's executive gifts and toys at the temporary digs.

• Although Sharper Image stores typically carry 450 different items, there will be just 100 items in the temporary shop. But customers can place catalog and phone orders just like at the Riverwalk location.

• New Orleans is the company's only location in Louisiana.

• Mothershead and his workers have made two trips to the Riverwalk store, filling a van with all the merchandise they could quickly retrieve. They had to bring items from the store because there isn't much left in the company's warehouse at this time of year, Mothershead said.

• San Francisco-based Sharper Image flew in a specialist from its corporate headquarters to program the cash register system, which was en route from the local delivery station Friday afternoon.

• "If we do any business it's more than we would have if we didn't relocate," Mothershead said.

Copyright 1996 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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