Jan. 31--Feeling like you just don't have enough choices to fill your hall closet now that Linens 'N Things has thrown in the towel?

Well, you may be in luck.

There's an advertisement posted on Yahoo's jobs site that says Anna's Linens is opening a new store in Fayetteville.

Allow me to offer a great big Off the Rack "thank you" to the reader who told me he had seen the ad, which I then quickly found online.

It says Anna's will celebrate a grand opening in March at the Cross Creek shopping center at Morganton and Skibo roads.

Anna's Linens is based in California and named for the founder's mother.

According to the company's Web site, the chain has more than 246 stores in 21 states and operates under the motto, "Sell steak cheap, not cheap steak."

That is, of course, a figure of speech.

Anna's actually sells bedding, mattress pads, shower curtains, towels, window curtains, drapes, cookware and housewares.

I should point out that despite the job advertisement, there's no confirmation that this is a done deal.

Here's what Brian Armstrong, broker associate for C&S Commercial Properties, had to say by e-mail when I told him about the Anna's ad. C&S runs the shopping center in question.

"I cannot comment on a specific tenant for which we have not signed a lease," he wrote. "We have been in negotiations with several retailers for that location and I can say we are about 90 percent of the way through lease negotiations with one tenant in particular. They are a retail type tenant."

I interviewed Anna's chief operating officer, Scott Gladstone, last year when I was writing for another publication.

Nice guy.

Alas, my phone calls and e-mails to him this week went unanswered.

I would wager he wishes that Off the Rack reader hadn't seen that ad quite yet.

But he did.

And the shopping news waits for no one.

Fashion forward

Last week, I checked on trends with some of the gift store owners who attended the recent gift market in Atlanta.

This week, it's time to check in with local boutique owners who hit the apparel market in Atlanta to shop for their stores on the heels of the gift shop crowd.

The apparel market is serious business.

So serious that Terra Yusko of Terra Michaels boutique in Westwood Shopping Center navigated the massive displays despite breaking a toe on the way there.

"Thank God I brought my UGGs," she said.

Well, a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do.

And if they want their customers to shop, they've got to do some quality shopping first.

Bright colors were everywhere in Atlanta, Yusko said.