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McMahan’s Furniture & Appliances in Roseburg is closing, but it’s unclear when its doors will close for good.
Citing a slumping economy and several strategies that have failed to kickstart sales, McMahan’s Furniture’s headquarters in Los Angeles says it is closing all of its 15 stores in California and Oregon.
Employees at Roseburg’s 2455 W. Harvard Ave. location declined to comment.
McMahan’s other Oregon stores are located in Albany, Coos Bay, Klamath Falls and Medford.
In its 89 years of business — dating it before the Great Depression — McMahan’s said in an issued statement that it has always been able to rebound from downturns before, but this one dating to 2006 “has been considerably longer and deeper than anything previously experienced.”
Information: 672-6166.
TAPAS IN NAPA
TAPAS, the Tempranillo Advocates Producers and Amigos Society, a group of Douglas County, Oregon and California winegrowers and winemakers, held “the most extensive tasting of domestically produced Iberian varietal wines ever offered in America” Aug. 8 and 9 at COPIA: The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts, in Napa, Calif.
President Earl Jones, owner of Abacela Winery in Winston, said the first-ever TAPAS event was a success.
“Oregon is leading the pack with this,” he said of the 78-member organization, which was founded in 2006 by him and seven other members to advocate winegrowers and winemakers of Tempranillo and other Spanish varietal grapes.
TAPAS first held a media day, which resulted in an article published in the Chicago Tribune, and then a consumers’ day that attracted hundreds of visitors.
Jones said many TAPAS visitors were unaware that Spain during colonial years had suppressed the cultivation of Spanish grapes in America so competition with the “mother country” would be prevented.
“We are the first ones to really bring the Spanish grapes of the Iberian Peninsula” to America, he said, adding that TAPAS’ ambition is to create a stir in wine drinkers who will compare domestic brands to traditional ones from overseas.
Douglas County was represented by Abacela, Reustle Prayer Rock and Delfino Vineyard, whose grapes are made into wine by Lange Estate Winery in Dundee. Jones said he expects the event to become annual but held in different locations each year.
Information: www.tapasociety.org.
‘MAVERICK’ FRAMES
The Sarah Palin look, a rimless pair of glasses held together by a bridge and temple bars, is on sale at Valley Opticians — as soon as back orders arrive.
Valley Opticians owner Todd Barnett says he’s Roseburg’s exclusive carrier of Japanese manufacturer Kazuo Kawasaki’s model 704 glasses, the exact brand and model worn by vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, GOP presidential candidate John McCain’s running mate.
Barnett, however, was a fan of the relatively new rimless frames before he even knew who Palin was, and thought they’d neatly complement his inventory. His order arrived a couple of days before McCain picked Palin for his ticket.
“It was just funny that I had them — it was kind of freaky,” he said.
Barnett, the 20-year-owner of the optical store that’s been around since 1972, has been advertising the model as the “Sarah Palin frames” on Valley Opticians’ sign in the Garden Valley Shopping Center.
“I’m actually getting a fairly good response,” he said.
And so has the manufacturer. On the day of the vice presidential debate, Barnett said Kazuo Kawasaki had sold 18,000 pairs of the frames a week ago. “They’ve been overwhelmed.”
With bifocal or progressive lens, the glasses “are fairly spendy,” Barnett said, about $700.
But much like “The Rachel” phenomenon of the late 1990s, when women across the country requested by surname the hairstyle famously worn by Jennifer Aniston on the syndicated TV sitcom “Friends,” Kazuo Kawasaki’s model 704 glasses have apparently become patronymic. A husband accompanying his wife in Valley Opticians recently while she was shopping for new glasses asked her “to look just like Sarah Palin.”
Barnett hopes McCain and Palin land in the White House, or “everybody will want a refund.”
Information: 672-5400.
• You can reach reporter Adam Pearson at 957-4213 or by e-mail at apearson@nrtoday.com.
Citing a slumping economy and several strategies that have failed to kickstart sales, McMahan’s Furniture’s headquarters in Los Angeles says it is closing all of its 15 stores in California and Oregon.
Employees at Roseburg’s 2455 W. Harvard Ave. location declined to comment.
McMahan’s other Oregon stores are located in Albany, Coos Bay, Klamath Falls and Medford.
In its 89 years of business — dating it before the Great Depression — McMahan’s said in an issued statement that it has always been able to rebound from downturns before, but this one dating to 2006 “has been considerably longer and deeper than anything previously experienced.”
Information: 672-6166.
TAPAS IN NAPA
TAPAS, the Tempranillo Advocates Producers and Amigos Society, a group of Douglas County, Oregon and California winegrowers and winemakers, held “the most extensive tasting of domestically produced Iberian varietal wines ever offered in America” Aug. 8 and 9 at COPIA: The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts, in Napa, Calif.
President Earl Jones, owner of Abacela Winery in Winston, said the first-ever TAPAS event was a success.
“Oregon is leading the pack with this,” he said of the 78-member organization, which was founded in 2006 by him and seven other members to advocate winegrowers and winemakers of Tempranillo and other Spanish varietal grapes.
TAPAS first held a media day, which resulted in an article published in the Chicago Tribune, and then a consumers’ day that attracted hundreds of visitors.
Jones said many TAPAS visitors were unaware that Spain during colonial years had suppressed the cultivation of Spanish grapes in America so competition with the “mother country” would be prevented.
“We are the first ones to really bring the Spanish grapes of the Iberian Peninsula” to America, he said, adding that TAPAS’ ambition is to create a stir in wine drinkers who will compare domestic brands to traditional ones from overseas.
Douglas County was represented by Abacela, Reustle Prayer Rock and Delfino Vineyard, whose grapes are made into wine by Lange Estate Winery in Dundee. Jones said he expects the event to become annual but held in different locations each year.
Information: www.tapasociety.org.
‘MAVERICK’ FRAMES
The Sarah Palin look, a rimless pair of glasses held together by a bridge and temple bars, is on sale at Valley Opticians — as soon as back orders arrive.
Valley Opticians owner Todd Barnett says he’s Roseburg’s exclusive carrier of Japanese manufacturer Kazuo Kawasaki’s model 704 glasses, the exact brand and model worn by vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, GOP presidential candidate John McCain’s running mate.
Barnett, however, was a fan of the relatively new rimless frames before he even knew who Palin was, and thought they’d neatly complement his inventory. His order arrived a couple of days before McCain picked Palin for his ticket.
“It was just funny that I had them — it was kind of freaky,” he said.
Barnett, the 20-year-owner of the optical store that’s been around since 1972, has been advertising the model as the “Sarah Palin frames” on Valley Opticians’ sign in the Garden Valley Shopping Center.
“I’m actually getting a fairly good response,” he said.
And so has the manufacturer. On the day of the vice presidential debate, Barnett said Kazuo Kawasaki had sold 18,000 pairs of the frames a week ago. “They’ve been overwhelmed.”
With bifocal or progressive lens, the glasses “are fairly spendy,” Barnett said, about $700.
But much like “The Rachel” phenomenon of the late 1990s, when women across the country requested by surname the hairstyle famously worn by Jennifer Aniston on the syndicated TV sitcom “Friends,” Kazuo Kawasaki’s model 704 glasses have apparently become patronymic. A husband accompanying his wife in Valley Opticians recently while she was shopping for new glasses asked her “to look just like Sarah Palin.”
Barnett hopes McCain and Palin land in the White House, or “everybody will want a refund.”
Information: 672-5400.
• You can reach reporter Adam Pearson at 957-4213 or by e-mail at apearson@nrtoday.com.
