Forman said he was still thinking about his concept. “I don`t know what this reminds you of,” he said as he crossed the ground of Moorestown Mall. “Individual garage sales or something like that.” He finds business with salespeople through lifelong contacts. “I`m still in rehab,” Forman said, adding that he cleaned one of his offices on Saturday. The radio commercial still rings FORR-MANN-MILLS, but Forman, who opened his store of 36 low-cost clothing stores in 1985, sold the company and pulled out. “Lord & Taylor must be turning in their graves,” said Forman, who was dressed in jeans, a light blue long-sleeved sweater and leather boots with holes. “It`s controlled chaos,” he said. “It`s like a truck. [Customers] are waiting for the goods. From 1989 to 2007, the company grew from a single store to a big-box chain serving communities in Philadelphia, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and now Michigan and New York. From a weekend dealership in a flea market to a large, fast-growing retailer in the low-cost apparel sector, our company has grown into a multi-site, multi-state company. Forman says it won`t compete with Forman Mills.
My name is on the building and most of my employees are still there. Yes, I don`t want to hurt them. We won`t look like Forman Mills at all. Forman started his business selling T-shirts at a flea market on a vacant lot on Frankford Avenue. “My biggest nightmare was going bankrupt and hearing my announcements,” said Richard “Rick” Forman, 56, founder and president of the Pennasuken-based company with 3,000 employees. “The other day I heard WIP and I heard the announcement. It`s weird to hear the ads and realize I`m not in the company. The company quickly grew to become one of the largest flea market establishments, and in 1981, Rick opened the first Forman Mills clothing store in an old alley on Frankford Avenue in Philadelphia. The store combined an outdoor flea market with an indoor showroom. With hard work, fair prices and quality products, the first Forman mills quickly became a great success.
Rick Forman is here to show you that there are second acts – on the cheap. In 1977, with an $80 loan from his father, Rick Forman began his retail career selling t-shirts, sweatshirts and sportswear at local flea markets on weekends. “We want outrageously low prices,” Forman said. “There`s always a big supplier that`s in trouble.” Forman has opened two locations, one in northeast Philadelphia, which opened in September, and its Moorestown location earlier this month. Forman closed a third location in a former model store on Roosevelt Boulevard, while focusing on the other two. It plans to open three to five new stores in the Philadelphia area in 2022. Forman also opened a Turn7 store on Philadelphia Mills in northeast Philadelphia. He said he took a seat in the former JC Penney factory store with 120,000 square feet. Forman has no other investors and finances Turn7 itself. He expects the company to be profitable in the first year and is headquartered in a corporate area. He now runs the business primarily from his corporate grounds and travels around in his Range Rover. Lord & Taylor bit in the dust at the end of 2020 when it was liquidated, as it could not survive retail trends and the pandemic.
The chic department store has operated for nearly 200 years, once selling products in dozens of stores across the country. The brand exists only as an online retailer. How much did Goode pay for Forman Mills? “I`m not going to divulge that,” Forman said. “In this regard, I am satisfied. I am not worried about finances. Goode partner David Oddi said in a statement that Goode plans to open Forman stores in new markets “and invest in the company`s infrastructure,” including “an improved point-of-sale system.” Forman also plans to reduce real estate costs with Turn7 by renting in stolen malls, many of which are suburbs, with free parking. Burlington Stores, based in Burlington, New Jersey, has experienced a tough pandemic as shoppers have been working remotely, barricading themselves at home and shopping online. The easing of fears related to the pandemic and the increase in in-store shopping have revived Burlington, which values Wall Street at $18 billion. The company, which is expanding, said it would accelerate store openings.
In October 2013, Burlington, which was acquired by Bain Capital in 2006, went public with an IPO of $17 per share. Shares are now hovering around $275. The bricks and mortar are not dead, he said. But “if the customer doesn`t engage with your concept, you`re dead,” Forman said. The former Lord & Taylor of Moorestown had a Ralph Lauren department on the second floor, where the brand was embossed on burnished wood. Forman now uses the Ralph Lauren Store-in-a-Store area, actually the entire second floor, as a storage and sorting area. On the first floor, Lord & Taylor`s high-end jewelry display cases are intact. But instead of diamond chains or gemstone rings in glass, Turn 7 employees stacked dimmed lamps, electronics, and air fryers on top. Mall owners haven`t always welcomed him because they like fancier stores, similar to Madison Avenue, Forman said. “Malls are arrogant,” he said. Sheri Lambert, a marketing professor at Temple University, said shoppers will increasingly turn to discount stores for bargains because of inflation. “We`re scared, but we don`t want to stop shopping,” she said, adding that “I hate the madness” of discount stores, “but I like a good price.” Forman said the sale was not forced.
He said he and the private business he started with an $80 loan from his father were in good health.