Live from SPECS: Retail Store of the Year Dinner

A fun give-away added to the excitement at the 25th Retail Store of the Year Design Competition Awards dinner at the Walt Disney World Dolphin Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Retailers and designers came together at the gala to celebrate their achievements.

All of the winning stores can be viewed on the Chain Store Age home page.

Access 360 Media, a sponsor of the dinner, contributed to the fun—and also demonstrated how new media communications are transforming marketing—by running a text-messaging giveway for a state-of-the art plasma HDTV. Everyone at the dinner was invited to take out their cell phones and send a text message to a special number provided by Access 360 Media.

After the final award was given out (to Barneys New York’s Dallas flagship, which took home the big award, Store of the Year), Lon Otremba, president of Access 360 Media, called one of the participating cell-phone holders. The number was chosen at random and whoever got the call, took home the plasma.

The lucky winner was Shan DiNapoli of Bloomingdale’s!

Left to right, Rick Migliorelli, Ann Taylor Stores; George Holz, Foot Locker; Tom McGee, Toys “R;” Nicholas Tricarico, Tricarico Architecture & Design PC and Yvette Ludwig, marketing, Tricarico, enjoyed themselves at the dinner.


Left to right: Dave Handera, Charming Shoppes; Denny Gerdeman, Chute Gerdeman; and Cathy Fleck, M&M’s World, were all award winners.




Bloomingdale’s Shan DiNapoli with Access 360 Media’s Lon Otremba. DiNapoli won a HDTV plasma in a text-marketing giveaway sponsored by Access 360 Media.

—By Marianne Wilson