Philadelphia Inquirer: How he rescued Boscov's: Al Boscov's work and goodwill saved the stores that bear the family name.:
The odds were against the Reading company when it went bankrupt just weeks before last fall's stock market crash.There was, conventional wisdom said, no realistic way to rescue its thousands of regional employees, dozens of stores, or century-old legacy. No money. No banks willing to step into the economic meltdown with emergency loans. No hope.
But in crunching the numbers that spelled doom for the nation's largest family-owned department-store chain, the doubters underestimated the power of a pint-sized 79-year-old man.
Had their spreadsheets been able to tabulate big-time heart and brains, they would have predicted a different outcome. Because Al Boscov is no ordinary businessman.
"I can dance, I can sing," Boscov joked later in a Manhattan elevator, tap-dancing in a charcoal suit to an absurd ditty about saving the company. The vaudevillian flash ended as the doors opened. "That's what did it," he said, and hopped out.
It would, indeed, require an extraordinary businessman to pull off a Rocky-worthy win against an economy devouring itself: a savior who was beloved, not feared, but no-nonsense when needed; one with more friends than enemies; who preferred details and long hours over swagger and power lunches.
