NORFOLK

Soon after Susan Milhoan took over as chief executive of Retail Alliance, the trade group for the region’s merchants, she came up with the idea for a Retailer of the Year award to highlight local business successes.

Friday night, Retail Alliance presented the first of those awards to 10 purveyors that it deemed the best of 58 nominees. The Retailer of the Year Gala – another first for the alliance, which never had such an annual event – took place at the Half Moone Cruise and Celebration Center on the Norfolk waterfront.

Of the 10 Retailers of the Year designated for specific cities, the best-of-the-best Retailer of the Year award went to Rowena’s Inc., the specialty foods manufacturer and store on 22nd Street in Norfolk. Owner Rowena Fullinwider started the business almost 25 years ago and sells her sauces and curds, poundcakes and other sweets in various stores as well as her own gift shop.

“Retailers deserve to be celebrated,” said Milhoan, who took her post in June. “And the more we can celebrate retailers who do things exceptionally well, the more role models there are for retailers who hope to attain that stature.”

Retail Alliance chose each retailer based on its financial health, economic stability, employee growth, community involvement, marketing approach and creativity, Milhoan said. The nominees submitted financial data to an independent panel that disclosed none of that information to the alliance. The alliance judges then combined the panel’s scores with the scores they tabulated from nominees’ answers to a questionnaire.

Anyone could nominate any local retailers, even those that aren’t Retail Alliance members,

Milhoan said. All but two of the winners were members when nominated in January, Milhoan said, though those two have since joined the group.

Carolyn Shapiro, (757) 446-2270, carolyn.shapiro@pilotonline.com [1]