On Monday, officials will be breaking ground on a McDonald’s restaurant in Saltillo.
The location, just south of the BancorpSouth, is ideal. Close to 45 and 145 and in the epicenter of rapid development in the city.
Developers have been looking to bring McDonald’s to Saltillo for quite some time, and their efforts have paid off, it seems.
I’ll take a Big Mac and fries, please.
A national retailer could be coming to Tupelo – and no, sorry, it’s NOT Target, at least not yet – although this company isn’t new to the area.
We’ve found some news on who it is and where they’re looking … but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow’s Daily Journal to find out more.
Some of you might get excited by the news. Others, probably not so much. But it does mean that retailers still consider Tupelo a viable market.
Target … are ya listening????
Prices this week are either down a few cents or are hovering around last week’s prices. The good news is crude oil closed today at $88.71 per barrel, the lowest it’s been this month.
The cheapest gas is in New Albany ($2.82 for regular unleaded). Next up is Sherman at $2.85 for regular. Sam’s Club rounds out the top three, selling regular unleaded for $2.87 (member price). Compare these with last week’s prices.
I have to admit that I’m a bit disappointed with the prices at Kroger in Tupelo, which come in at $2.92 for regular (without any discounts).
Most expensive gas in in Amory for a whopping $3.09. It’s over the $3 mark in Starkville too ($3.02 for regular). Oxford has regular for $2.99.
Read Sunday’s Business & Money for more gas prices, CD rates and airfares.
Looks like Target is eyeing Mississippi, but it’s a bit too far south to do us any good in NeMiss. Still no word on what’s going on with our elusive Target.
From The Sun Herald:
The word the Coast has been waiting years to hear —plans for a Target — were announced at Tuesday night’s D’Iberville Planning Commission meeting. Developers asked for a sign variance and zero lot-line setbacks at D’Iberville Market Place shopping center near the intersection of interstates 10 and 110. Read more.
From Journal and wire reports:
Royal Philips Electronics NV is set to buy Genlyte Group Inc. for $2.7 billion, the world’s largest lighting maker said Monday.
Louisville, Ky.-based Genlyte makes primarily commercial and industrial light fixtures. Genlyte is the parent company of Day-Brite. Day-Brite, along with the Omega and Capri brands, has a manufacturing facility on South Green Street in Tupelo. The operation employs 700 people and is the largest fluorescent lighting manufacturing facility left in the U.S.
Theo van Deursen, head of Philips’ lighting division, said Philips does not plan significant cuts to Genlyte’s 6,700 employees, of whom 6,500 are in the United States.
Check tomorrow’s paper and Biz Buzz for more info.
This story is from Poynter, an organization that helps all of us folks at the Journal be better journalists. The story provides some interesting perspective into the hoax it likes to call Cyber Monday.
A few years ago, a marketing association gave the name “Cyber Monday” to the Monday after Thanksgiving. The story was that on that day, people rush back to work, get online and start ordering Christmas gifts. But it was just a PR campaign based on no evidence that such a thing happened. Now, e-retailers take Cyber Monday seriously, and it might just be creating a Monday-after effect. Read more.
It’s 9:40 a.m., SEVEN hours after tupelobizbuzz got up to get a sense of what’s going on for Black Friday. Here’s a chronicle of the day so far, with a few observations:
• 2:35 a.m. - The alarm goes off, and it’s off to the shower I go. At 3:05, I’m pulling out of the driveway, thinking, “I’m an idiot.” On the radio is “It’s the most wonderful time of the year.” Sure. Change the channel, and it’s playing “Bubbly” What the???? Waaaaay too early to be so chipper and bright!
• 3:38 a.m. – I’m not the only idiot. Scores of cars and people are lined up at Kohl’s and J.C. Penney, who both open at 4 a.m. I bypass Kohl’s and head for Penney’s. Seeing just a handful of people at the south entrance, I think I have it made.
• 3:40 a.m. – I’m sadly mistaken. There are plenty of customers trying to stay warm inside the lobby of the entrance. I talk to a customer who’s been up since 3 a.m.
• 3:50 a.m. – I convince a Penney’s employee to let me in so I can take photos of the mad rush. They’re getting ready to hand out those free snow globes. The store manager said she has about 125 employees working now til noon. That’s because about 75 percent of the day’s business will be done by then.
• 3:55 a.m. – The doors open early! The scores of people have multiplied like rabbits, and a couple hundred file through before it’s even 4 a.m.
• 4:03 a.m. – I drive past Circuit City, see tents, sleeping bags and another line snaking around the side of the building.
• 4:07 a.m. – It’s no different at Best Buy. And here are some familiar faces – Kayla Tidwell and Zach Belcher of Saltillo: I met them this same time last year, at Wal-Mart, as they waited for a PlayStation 3. This year, at Best Buy, they’re waiting to buy a laptop.
• 4:28 a.m. – I walk over to Ashley Furniture HomeStores. Who would have thought there would be a line at a furniture store? There are seven people in line for the 6 a.m. opening. Drawing them in is a sofa for under $80. Two people have slept on a mattress and are bundled under sleeping bags (neither provided by Ashley). More power to them.
• 4:38 a.m. – I head to Toys R Us and find a parking space. I talk to a couple of people near the end of the line, that by now has stretched to the front of Dress Barn. I go back to my car, which won’t crack. Won’t even turn over. Dead battery. Argh. Fortunately (or unfortunately) my wife has decided to join the Black Friday madness. She helps jump off my car, we head to Sears automotive.
• 4:56 a.m. – Sears auto center is already open. Sneaky customers trying to get in early through this entrance but have to wait.
• 5:05 a.m. – Yep, dead battery. DieHard platinum battery costs a mere $179, but comes with six-year warranty. AutoZone employee says it’s worth it, unlike the Neverstart battery from Wal-Mart that I got two years ago (which, by the way had a 2-year warranty). You get what you pay for sometimes.
• 5:07 a.m. – I get my Black Friday gift for $206.97, courtesy of Sears. Wife now in black mood.
• 5:35 – We decide to go back to Toys R Us and, um, help Santa finish getting presents for our son. No lines outside, but a steady stream going inside.
• 5:37 a.m. – Dear God, all the registers are going and the checkout lines stretch all the way to the back. What are we thinking?
• 5:46 a.m. – We manage to find almost everything we’re looking for and get in a line. I stand in line, my wife goes gets the rest. “You have to just get in there, say ‘excuse me’ and push yourself to where you need to go,” she says. It works. She finds the rest of it. Customer in front of us drove from Columbus at 3 a.m. Mad that her sister missed the exit and they were in line later than they wanted. My wife also helps her get a few things she wanted while we wait together.
• 6:12 a.m. – We reach the cashier and get checked out quickly
• 6:14 a.m. – We’re out the door and headed to the minivan.
• 6:25 a.m. – Let’s go to Cracker Barrel!!
• 7:15 a.m. – Wife goes to work, I go back into the mall.
• 7:22 a.m. – People are EVERYWHERE. I stop by a few more shops, talk to a few more people, take some pictures and get out of there. Reed’s mall store is packed, and Jack Reed Jr. can’t get that grin off his face. Who can blame him?
• 8:20 a.m. – Manage to escape the Mall Road without having to wait very long at all. In another hour or two, it will be a mess.
• After driving to Sherman to check the gas prices there ($2.90 for regular unleaded, by the way), I head back to Tupelo and the Daily Journal to write this blog.
Do I plan on getting back out to see what’s going on at area retailers? Not a chance. The next time I leave, I’m headed back to the house.
Have fun out there….
An except from today’s editorial in The Times-Picayune:
The debate commission claims our city is not ready for their event. But their decision to select the University of Mississippi in Oxford makes it clear that readiness and logistics had nothing to do with it.
New Orleanians do not begrudge the people of Oxford having been selected. But if big-event logistics was the yardstick, there’s hardly any comparison. The commission said it needed a minimum 3,000 hotel rooms for journalists and others attending the debate. Fact: New Orleans has 24,000 hotel rooms. Oxford, according to the Oxford Convention and Visitors Bureau, has 650.
And the New York Times had a story today about the selected locations, noting that New Orleans took offense that it wasn’t included.
But in the end, Oxford is the site of the first debate and all of NeMiss is going to feel the economic impact of the event. Tupelo will feel it especially, because the attendees who can’t be housed in Oxford will be shuttled to and from Tupelo and Memphis. Read more from today’s Journal about what the debate means economically for Oxford.
The City Council will hold a public hearing today about the proposed 130-foot sign for Love’s Travel Stops and Country stores.
Love’s is requesting a variance for the site at U.S. Highway 78 and McCullough Boulevard because the proposed sign would exceed ordinance limits by 520 percent in height and by 960 percent in surface. It was passed by the city’s Planning Committee but was recommended for disapproval by city professional staff.
Love’s officials have said the variance is crucial given that the intersection is more than 60 feet below the nearby highway bridge.
According to a story in today’s paper, Mayor Ed Neelly said if the sign variance is granted, it would start a flood of demands from competing companies. There’s a great quote from Neelly about how “people have bled and died” over the sign ordinance.
The meeting is at 6 p.m. at City Hall.
Looks like Hancock Fabrics’ newest exec is making use of his stock options.
According to a filing this morning with the SEC, Joseph Borbely, the senior vice president of store operations for the Baldwyn-based retailer, is now the proud owner of several thousand shares of Hancock’s common stock. Read the complete filing here.
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