| Some of you may remember that Alexandra went to The Children's Place and
were wondering why I didn't pipe up. The reason is that I don't have any
hard facts to report, but my gut feeling is that the closing was not due to
mismanagement. Here's how it happened to us (edited from a letter I sent
to a friend):
Friday morning, as we walked into The Children's Place, Alex and I were
exclaiming simultaneously to each other about our respective activities the
night before; the front door must have been held open for us, either that
or I subconsciously dismissed the notice as yet another exasperated "Please
take your snowsuits home" reminder. It proved to carry significantly more
impact, however--paraphrased, "At 5:30 tonight (June 29) The Children's
Place will close its doors and will not reopen."
What we were told, in a letter from Gene Ruth, the director, was that the
Nice Little Bank (he didn't name it), in Rhode Island, with which TCP had
done business for 10 years, was acquired by (what I'm calling) a Big Bad
Bank, in Boston, which proceeded (3 months ago) to call in all debts from
small businesses in New England. Unclear whether TCP had been in default
of any loan Ts&Cs, but I have no reason to suspect so. While Gene
negotiated for time with the Big Bad Bank, he put the operation up for
sale, as a hedge to ensure its continuation. He found a buyer; the buyer
was approved by any and all banks; Gene notified the landlord. The
landlord is Big Bad <name deleted>, who said We Don't Wanna Assign the
Lease; We Think We Might Want the Space Someday for some As-Yet-Unnamed-
Projects.
Gene negotiated with the bank for one more week, lost (on Thursday night),
and posted the notice on Friday.
I found out about the notice midmorning, called around (<name deleted>:
preschool only. <name deleted>: child answered phone, said the Director
was in the shower) and as luck would have it, got a 2:00 appointment at the
kindergarten "branch" of the would-be TCP buyer (<name deleted>).
I feel that Gene made heroic efforts to save the Center, and while it was
certainly a shock to face a same-day closing, I can't say that _I_ would
have found it any easier to deal with wishy-washy warnings ahead of time,
because my reaction would be "is it or isn't it closing? Talk to me when
you have something to SAY!"
Leslie
|
| re: .4
Thanks for being responsible and not going beyond the bounds of personal
knowledge and for clearly denoting your opinion as opinion. However, we still
are skirting the fringes of company and notes policy in this note.
In responding to this note, please keep in mind that Company policy strongly
discourages notes about individual businesses (including specific daycare or
other service providers), particularly notes that are based on hearsay or
grapevine information.
In light of that please, do the following with regard to this note:
- If you have heard anything unofficial and unsubstantiated, please respond
to the interested parties by Email or phone, if you respond at all.
- Please respond here only with information that can be substantiated and
attributed to a source. Specify the source. If brevity permits, state the
information verbatim. If brevity does not permit, just specify the source
(e.g. page 17 of the June edition of Parent's Magazine.) so that interested
parties can find the material themselves.
BTW an interesting little notes collision occurred that I guess shows how some
misunderstandings can get started over very innocent events. As co-mod I was
in the process of moving a note just as another noter was responding to it.
That caused the response to appear as a response to the "Mumps" note, which
made it look as if the daycare center was being closed for mumps.
Clay Satow
Parenting co-mod
|