Fifteen years ago in this column, you read about catalog showroom chain Best Products, crate-style furniture retailer This End Up and other stores that are distant memories.

In mid-1993, Circuit City was on top of its game. Automotive retailer CarMax was just sparkle in the eyes of Circuit City executives. Ukrop's was and remains the area's No. 1 grocer.

That's the nature of retailing -- 15 years can be a blink of the eye or ancient history.

So I'm proud that my column has lasted this long.

But now I'm putting down my pen and notebook. I'm still at the newspaper but will be fully immersed in my role as deputy business editor.

Each week since May 31, 1993 -- with one or two exceptions -- I have written in this space about the openings and closings of stores, the comings and goings of local businesses and the introductions and failures of products and concepts.

It has been a great run of columns -- roughly 780 of them.

Many times, the news was ahead of the curve, often to the chagrin of those businesses or stores that tried to keep the information quiet.

Sniffing out the news was tough at times, but it was fun.

In the past 15 years, I have received countless phone calls, letters and e-mails from readers thanking me for telling them about a new development, a new shop or a nugget of news about a local company or chain.

Because my photo has appeared here every week, readers have stopped me in the grocery store, at the mall, in church and even in New York City to tell me how much they enjoy reading the column or to pick my brain.

Store owners and company executives also have said how my column helped inform readers about their business.

Tabitha Geary is one of them. I have written about her memento-organizing and archiving business on Libbie Avenue a couple of times.

She e-mailed me last week to tell me The Tabitha Geary Co. was featured on Martha Stewart's Web site. Her unsolicited note said: "I truly believe everyone else takes notice of us because you did not hesitate to explain our business. I hope you realize what an impact you make on local businesses."

Those words from her, and the countless ones from others over the years, have been uplifting and rewarding.

Thomas A. Silvestri, the Richmond Times-Dispatch's publisher who was the newspaper's Business section editor in 1993, and Andrew Taylor, the News desk editor who was then the associate business editor, gave me the chance to write the column. They wanted what was then called Stores as a strong entry point to the Metro Business section.

Pam Feibish, the deputy Flair editor who was business editor from 1996 to this past January, encouraged me to push even further to get more heard-on-the-street chatter into the column when its name was changed to Biz Buzz in 1999.

In the past couple of weeks, I have gone down memory lane -- looking in the newspaper's archives at that first column in 1993 (it was about Circuit City's store on West Broad Street), my other columns and the photos that went with them.

They brought back fond memories.

Writing this farewell column has been hard. I've had writer's block.

But the words slowly started to flow after I stopped in Sally Bell's Kitchen recently. One of the shop owners remarked how she loved reading my column.

I told her I would no longer be writing it. She was shocked. Reality, at last, set in.

She wished me luck and commiserated about how tough change can be.

Then she offered some inspiring words: Every time you close the door on one thing, you open the door on a new opportunity.

So true.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity.

Taking over

Louis Llovio begins writing this column next Monday.

He has covered retail and advertising since January when he joined The Times-Dispatch. Llovio, 40, comes from the Baltimore area, where he was a reporter for business and other publications since 2003.

He can be reached at (804) 649-6348 or e-mail him at LLLovio@timesdispatch.com.
Contact Gregory J. Gilligan at (804) 649-6379 or ggilligan@timesdispatch.com.