Shoppers Express Sympathy For Martha

Harrisburg, PA, June 6--If Martha Stewart was looking for some sympathy after being indicted on federal charges, she should have gone to the Kmart store along Carlisle Pike near Harrisburg or to Carpet Mart up the street, according to the Harrisburg Patriot-News. Customers at both stores, which sell Martha Stewart brand products, said Thursday that the decorating diva's difficulties won't stop them from buying her curtains or carpeting. "She's not convicted of anything. She's just at the stage where they've accused her. How would that affect her products? They didn't do anything, and she employs like 50,000 people," noted a Carpet Mart shopper who declined to give her name. The woman joked that she didn't want to provoke Stewart, who has something of a reputation for being high-handed, in a tasteful way, of course. After being charged on Wednesday with obstruction of justice, conspiracy, securities fraud and lying to investigators, Stewart resigned as chairwoman and chief executive officer of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., the company she created. She will stay on as chief creative officer and a board member. Kmart shopper Sharon Reams of Hampden Twp. said if Stewart has "done wrong, then I think she needs to pay for the crime. But as far as her products go, I think they're fine. I buy them." Stewart pleaded innocent to the criminal charges, and several of the local shoppers yesterday suggested that she hasn't done anything especially unusual on Wall Street. The indictment is "not going to affect me because I think the lady was looking out for her own interest, her own money [and] got caught," said Kmart shopper Melba Mosby of Lower Paxton Twp. "I believe plenty of people have done that and she's just a scapegoat." Another Kmart shopper who declined to give his name said, "I think they're just making an example of her. "Why didn't they put those Enron people in jail?" C.E. Thomas of Silver Spring Twp., who was shopping at Kmart with his wife, said Stewart's "trouble won't stop us [from buying her products] at all. I think she's getting a raw deal. "I think there's hundreds of other guys that have done worse and they just picked her out." Sharon Thieme of Upper Allen Twp. said the indictment won't make her any less likely to buy Stewart's household, garden and baby products at Kmart. "I don't care. If I like it, I'll buy it. It doesn't matter whose name is on it," Thieme said. Although Stewart has been under a cloud of suspicion for some time, a manager at the Hampden Twp. Kmart said he hasn't heard any comments critical of her, and sales of her line of products have been going "fairly well, considering the way the economy is." Carpet Mart has had a Martha Stewart showroom within the store for several months, manager Jack Parrish said. The line of carpeting and hardwood, laminate, linoleum and ceramic flooring Stewart designed for Shaw Industries hasn't been selling quite as well as anticipated at the store, but Parrish attributed that equally to Stewart's problems and the economy. Still, Parrish is optimistic that her line will catch on with customers because it's unique in the industry, and "if they like her goods and like the coloring, they're still going to buy it." Customers can pick from among 48 colors of carpeting and three styles of pile in the Martha Stewart line. They also can coordinate their carpeting and flooring to Martha Stewart's paint colors and wallpaper and countertop patterns. "We brought this in knowing the circumstances with Martha Stewart," Parrish said. "This was like the newest thing. . . . We understand when you put these type of products in it's not going to happen overnight." Stewart has introduced a new line of furniture manufactured by Bernhardt Co. that became available in some stores this spring, including Good's Furniture in New Holland and Interiors in Lancaster. "It's selling exceedingly well," said

Related Topics:Shaw Industries Group, Inc.

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