Sunday, February 1, 2009
Cheap Eats
I see the Aldi's on the east side of town next to Dick's Sporting Goods has a sign up announcing they are open for business.
Labels: business, Carbondale
Friday, January 16, 2009
Jewel of India
I see the Git Sum Indian restaurant on S. Illinois has a new/old name now, since the sign out front now reads "Jewel of India". If memory serves, Jewel of India was the name of the Indian restaurant that operated inside the now closed Horizon/Holiday Inn on East Main. I remember being told at the time Git Sum opened it was run by people connected with the Horizon, this appears to confirm it.
Labels: business, downtown Carbondale, Git Sum, Horizon Inn
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Spotlight Bar and Grille
Looks Like the Coal City Diner will have a name change soon as the owner of the Spotlight Bar and Grille applied for and was granted a Class A2 liquor license last night for the same location. It's my understanding that an A2 license requires that at least 51% of the business receipts come from the sale of food.
Labels: business, Coal City Diner, downtown Carbondale
Monday, January 5, 2009
Dough Boy's Pizza Yet Again
Apparently the Dough Boy's Pizza over in Murphysboro, also a converted Domino's, closed for "Christmas break" as well. I could see some justification for the C'dale closing with all the students gone but doubt very much if enough SIUC students ordered from the Murphysboro location to justify the closure. Add in the talk of a lawsuit by Domino's and I'll be surpised to see either one open again.
Labels: business, Carbondale, Economics, murphysboro
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Wall and Grand Center
Two more business are going into the Wall and Grand strip center at the corner of, well, Wall and Grand. Unless I miss my guess, Family BBQ will probably be selling BBQ, while, according to the sign in the window, the Hot Spot will offer hamburgers, cheeseburgers and gyros, among other fast foods. If Hot Spot is good, the heavy student population in that area should make it a success. Not so sure about Family BBQ, since you've got Southern Que less than a quarter mile away in the Grand Avenue Mall.
Labels: business, Carbondale
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
New Salon Opening?
After what seems like months of fits and starts, I see there's a sign on top of the old Saluki II Bookstore at 509 S. Illinois. I think it reads R 2 Salon but the R is pretty stylized. I'm glad to see something going in there finally but, given the half a dozen or so salons and stylists already in town, I'm wondering if the market for them isn't saturated.
Labels: business, downtown Carbondale
Monday, December 22, 2008
Walgreens
Mayor Cole may have spoken too soon about Walgreen's putting a second location on the west side at the old Mugsy McGuire's location. However, Walgreen's has not confirmed a second Carbondale location yet and I've heard secondhand that the company is none too happy with the mayor for his premature announcement.
Something similar happened back in 2004 when the mayor announced the purchase of the American Tap before the completion of the negotiations. The city eventually purchased the Tap property, appraised at $39,000, for $150,000. BTW, the Tap property still sits empty, without even a "For Sale" sign on it.
Something similar happened back in 2004 when the mayor announced the purchase of the American Tap before the completion of the negotiations. The city eventually purchased the Tap property, appraised at $39,000, for $150,000. BTW, the Tap property still sits empty, without even a "For Sale" sign on it.
Labels: American Tap, business, Carbondale, city government, economy, Walgreen's
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Bad Sign
Literally. If you drive down Cedarview or East Main, you can see the back side of the Dough Boys Pizza sign is completely blank. Apparently, the company only paid to put up a sign facing west, so that traffic heading east on Walnut can read it. I guess they figure people on East Main aren't that intersted in finding the place. Yes, trying to cut costs is important, epecially in this economy, but when you have a 40 foot tall sign, visible from at least 5 blocks away, leaving it a blank white space just doesn't seem like a real good promotinal move to me.
Labels: business, Carbondale
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Groundbreaking Postposed
According to the email I just received from the Chamber of Commerce, the groundbreaking ceremony at noon tomorrow for the new Stadium Grille on East Main has been postponed to "scheduling conflicts". 'sides, it looked to me as if the bulldozers that had been there for the last couple of weeks had already done a pretty good job of breaking the ground.
Labels: business, downtown Carbondale
Saturday, December 13, 2008
0 for 2
Office Depot has announced the closing of the Carbondale store along with another 16 underperforming stores in Illinois. It lasted about as long as OfficeMax did at the same location. Nationwide Office Depot will close 112 of its stores and cut about 2200 jobs over the next three months. Naturally, the stock price of the company rose about 9% afte the news was announced.
Labels: business, Carbondale, economy
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Champaign vs. Carbondale
I'm up in Champaign for the weekend and went walking through the downtown area last night. Much livelier compared to downtown Carbondale but I was struck buy how much the local food places rely on student custom. 10 p.m. on Friday night, Thanksgiving weekend and a good 80% of the walk in fast Italian, Chinese, burger etc. joints were closed, compared to about 20% of those in Carbondale.
Labels: business, downtown Carbondale, siuc
Friday, November 28, 2008
Friday Morning Sales
Had a friend who went over to Target this morning but gave up when she saw the line stretched around the entire building. When I left town around 9, Kohl's lot was still filled but there was a noticeable amount of space around Best Buy, Wal-mat and University Mall. Nationwide, sales appear strong but no certainty they will continue.
Labels: business, Carbondale, holidays
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Shelnut Apratments
Noticed the Egyptian One Hour Photo Lab, in the 400 block of West Main, finished its remodeling and has reopened as the J. Hugh Shelnut Apartments. Not sure how they will compete with the raft of new development going up over on South Washington and on the southside of town. Compare to the other complexes that have one up in the past year, the Shelnut is small, only about a dozen units, and one story. Parking may be a bit of a probem also, as I don't see any direct access off of West Main.
Labels: business, Carbondale, development
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Steve & Barry's Closing
Low end clothing retailer Steve & Barry's is set to close all of its stores this week. No word on when the Carbondale store will close or what will happen to it but the Cape Girardeau store is set to close Thursday. I really found this quote from the liquidator rather silly:
JG Resources chief executive officer Jim Grimwade believes Steve & Barry's closure will have a positive effect on the economy.
"Reselling these fixtures and equipment to other retailers and business owners who are expanding or remodeling gives me a positive outlook," Grimwade said. "Of course, we are truly sorry about these store closings, but we know that selling this equipment to other business owners at a fraction of the cost of new will help fuel the local economy's growth. It could also help retailers create new jobs by cutting costs from their bottom line."
Yep, we're shutting down a major retail outlet but stores in the area can get fixtures cheap. Sounds like a great trade-off to me.
Labels: business, Carbondale, Steve and Barry's
Friday, November 14, 2008
Packlite Gone
During my wanderings around downtown yesterday, I noticed that Packlite Outdoor Equipment has vacated its retail outlet location in the Campus Shopping Center, in the space that housed the Rosetta Stone Bookstore. I noticed they were there during the C'dale Pig Out but don't get into that area as much as I used to so don't really know when the store shut down.
I also noticed Ragwear is still shut down, though racks of clothing still fill their old space and I see their webstite still places one store at the West Freeman location.
I also noticed Ragwear is still shut down, though racks of clothing still fill their old space and I see their webstite still places one store at the West Freeman location.
Labels: business, downtown Carbondale
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Kaleidescope Closing
Front page story in the Carbondale Times but little mention in the Southern or the DE. After 40+ years located across from what is now the Civic Center on S. Illinois, Kaleidoscope owner Caroloyn Tschomakoff has decided to close the store. I've heard talk off and on for the past couple of years that Tschomakoff wanted to sell the store but apparently the right buyer never materialized. There are big "Going Out of Business" signs in the windows and a clearance sale started Tuesday that will continue until everything is gone.
Labels: business, downtown Carbondale
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
New Jobs
Carbondale has landed 180 new jobs in the customer service field with employer National Electronics Warranty, providing customer support to customers of Direct TV. Hiring starts in January with the jobs starting at $9.75 an hour (no benefits I bet). As far as pay, it's pretty good if you're a single adult and will support a couple with no children reasonably well. It's certainly above poverty wages for the county and about $2 more than the minimum wage. However, according to this, an adult with one child willhave difficulty making ends meet on this and a small family will need both parents to work.
BTW, I think that's Mayor Cole's head poking up from behind Mitch Carroll.
BTW, I think that's Mayor Cole's head poking up from behind Mitch Carroll.
Labels: business, Carbondale
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Domino's Gone
Or at least re-named. The Domino's sign has been covered over with a new one indicting the business is now called Dough Boy's Pizza. I've heard the owners of the local Domino's franchise refer to themselves as the Dough Boys in the past. I assume the franchise contract came up for renegotiation and Domino's wanted more than the Dough Boys felt the name was worth. Either than or Domino's pulled the franchise when it expired and will shop it around to someone else. It will be interesting to see if Dough Boy's has or can develop a good enough reputation quickly to compete with the likes of Quatro's and Italian Village.
Labels: business, Carbondale
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Hollywood Video for Rent
Apparently the cunning plan behind the raising the rent on Hollywood Video did not come to fruition as I see a large For Rent sign standing outside the building alongside West 13. Maybe it's just me, but it was rather silly to get rid of your current tenant without having a new one ready to come in.
Labels: business, Carbondale
Friday, October 10, 2008
Associated Lumber
I just noticed Associated Lumber has moved out of their long time location on Washington Street next to Spires Wholesale. Someone has pulled down the lumber storage buildings in the rear and the the retail space itself is getting remodeled. I see from the city permit notice posted on the front door this started at the end of August.
Labels: business, downtown Carbondale
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