Philadelphia Daily News from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 71

Tuesday, Dec. 9, 1986 PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS Page 71 3DDS0 $15 Cologne for Little Boys Ranks as the Tackiest Gift BUSINESS I 3 ere's my nomination for this present. season's tackiest Christmas It called "Gregorys and "junior yuppie," 3-year-old to 10-year-old boys. Luckily, you can't buy it in Philadelphia yet. I first heard about Gregorys when I got a press release from Gregorys International, a six-month-old Miami company that's selling the stuff.

At first I thought the announcement was a joke. But when I talked with the company's promotion director, Julie Vialon, I realized that she was serious. She said Gregorys is selling well. Vialon said the scent is "delicious and soft. It's very clean and refreshing." Technically, the cologne is a secret mixture of something called "vetiver, citrus and a delicate nuance of lavender." It smells so good, Vialon said, she sometimes uses it it's a brand-new cologne for the JACK ROBERTS herself.

She added that the product is supposed to promote "proper grooming habits," among the "design-conscious junior yuppie" set. Speaking from some experience with my own junior yuppies, proper grooming habits are worthy of promotion among 3-year-old boys, but I have my doubts about the ability of Gregorys to do the job. "After they brush their teeth and comb their hair, they can splash on a little bit of Gregorys behind their ears," Vialon said. I wonder if Staff Photography by Rick Bowmer Hamilton Street between 20th and 21st: merchants would like to be more specific, but they can't They Clave Unaddressed Problems the address they would have the appropriate odd or even number and street and use it for telephone listings and advertising," Davey said. Business owners say they can't just pick an address and use it for telephone directory listings because phone company officials have told them businesses can be listed at unofficial addresses only if the addresses selected have been properly registered with postal authorities.

Registering addresses with postal authorities is a time-consuming proposition, heavy with paperwork, the business owners say. "I've given up and our advertisements say '401 N. 21st St. (Hamilton said Louis Konell, owner of Adams Fabricare Cleaners. Owner Joan Park of Four Seasons Gifts and Flowers said that things are better now that her suppliers know her location.

But when the store opened a few months ago, she said, delivery trucks would arrive with merchandise, cruise 21st Street, and failing to find her shop, proceed to the nearby Four Seasons Hotel and attempt delivery at its gift store. "It's a problem when you don't have an address that reflects your location," said Maryann Leone, man By ROBIN ALLEY Daily News Staff Writer rVH ames: Domino's Pizza, Four I Seasons Gift Shop, Videotape Library IX, Adams Fabricare Cleaners, and more. Address: Limbo Phone number: Tough to get from directory assistance. "In Philadelphia, do you have a listing for Domino's Pizza on Hamilton Street?" "No." That's because all the small businesses along the 2000 block of Hamilton Street don't have addresses there. Instead, each carries the address "401 N.

21st Street," the address of the single building that houses them all and receives, sorts and delivers their mail. It fills the block between 20th and 21st, Hamilton and the railroad tracks, just south of Spring Garden Street. The city won't assign addresses to each business, according to Gene Da-vey, administrator of the Board of Revision of Taxes. The board has the I legal responsibility of assigning each single building in the city a single, permanent address. "Of course, each store can just pick ager of the Videotape Library IX on Hamilton Street.

"If you call the police or the security company and they respond to the address and don't find the business, it's confusing," Leone said. But now, she has decided the store will carry the address 2022 Hamilton St. and use it. "We're getting a sign made up now for our front window," Leone said, relieved that the address would make advertising simpler and make it easier for customers to find the store. Owners of the building, which houses the retailers, offices, light manufacturing, a self-storage facility and Channel 57, say they were unaware of the tenants' unaddressed plight.

"As an attorney I know that if you don't make arrangements prior to time the center is built, separate number addresses aren't assigned to different businesses in the same building," said Peter Shaw, partner with Alan Casnoff in the conversion of the former plumbing supply distributorship into a mixed-use development. "But the stores can choose addresses and use them for their mailing address and in advertising." Vialon has ever tried to get a 3-year-old to brush his teeth or comb his hair? By the time any self-respecting 3-year-old boy would dab a bit of Gregorys behind his ear, he would already have poured it all over his head, or at least have swallowed a good swig to see how it tasted. "No kid would swallow any of this stuff unless he was an idiot," Vialon objected. "But if they did," she added, "it's non-toxic. Maybe they would get a little drunk." Maybe that's part of its allure.

Yuppies don't get roaring drunk. They get a little drunk. So why not make it part of the family routine? Company founder Randy Perini said he came upon the idea for Gregorys when he tried to find a proper gift for his style-conscious 3-year-old nephew, Gregory Thomas. "Sure, there are the watered-down kiddie colognes out there, but nothing of the caliber I'd want my nephew to wear," Perini said. Nephew Gregory appears in the ads for his namesake cologne "appropriately attired in a tux or his Miami Vice-styled Italian suit, relaxing against his miniature, gas-powered Mercedes Benz 500SL," according to the press release.

The cologne is being sold at Bullocks in Los Angeles, I. Magnin in San Francisco and Northern California and Burdines of Florida. Vialon said the company hopes to persuade Bloomingdale's and Saks' to carry the product in the East. Meanwhile, if this is just the gift you need for your style-conscious junior yuppie, Vialon said you can order it by mail. The fragrance buyer at I.

Magnin's in San Francisco said she was expecting the first shipment to arrive any day. It will be sold at the men's fragrance counter and in the children's department. "We thought there might be a void in this category," she added. "It might make a nice Christmas gift." Vialon said a 0.85-ounce, European-styled bottle of the stuff sells for S15.50. At that price, you could buy gallons of Johnson Johnson's No More Tears baby shampoo which smells just fine.

My final word on Christmas promotions: Last week I received an announcement of World Book's annual "Company with a Heart" program. The Chicago-based encyclopedia firm distributes 7,500 sets of encyclopedias to non-profit community groups and needy families. This year Philadelphia qualified for 45 sets based on the number of encyclopedias sold in the region during the past year. But don't try calling World Book to get a free set for a needy family. They were all spoken for by the end of September, according to World Book's regional office in Broomall.

All the families that received the encyclopedias probably will put them to good use. But I'm getting sick of these corporate promotions, like World Book's, that degrade holiday gift-giving by turning them into a public relations gimmick. If World Book were really interested in promoting literacy, it would have given the books to libraries, which make their product available to thousands of needy kids. But World Book would never do that. After all, libraries are one of their biggest customers.

Jack Roberts' column on business appears Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Yaf ft Sells Ms Share of the Phillies Young said Taft, which purchased WTAF in 1969, is selling all its independent television stations because of the high cost of buying programming for those units. The company is keeping its network-affiliated stations. Taft purchased its interest in the Phillies in 1981 and the station began broadcasting the team's games in 1983. Young said the sale will not become final until it receives approval from the owners of the other 25 baseball teams in the American and National leagues.

The owners are now in Florida attending the winter baseball meetings. FREDERICK H. LOWE jDaily News Staff Writer Taft Broadcasting Co. announced yesterday it had reached an agreement to sell its 47.3 percent interest in the Philadelphia Phillies to the baseball team's other owners for $24.1 million. A Phillies spokesman could not be reached to learn which of the team's owners purchased shares from Taft, Cincinnati-based communications and entertainment company.

Jenny Young, a Taft spokeswoman, 'said the firm decided to sell its interest in the Phillies because the company also has reached an agreement to sell WTAF, Channel 29, the televi sion station that broadcasts the team's games.to TVX Broadcasting, a West Virginia company. "It was a logical association. If we owned the station that broadcast Phillies games, then we felt we should also own part of the team. Now that we are selling the station, we feel we should sell our interest in the team," Young said. Charles S.

Mecham Taft's chairman, said it was a necessary business decision that he regretted. "While the decision to sell our' Phillies' partnership interest makes obvious financial sense, it also ends one of the happiest business associations we have ever had," Mecham said. Jci.