My story on the Seeley clothing store move ran today on Page A5 – right next to an ad for Seeley.
It was a coincidence, but I thought people might wonder if it was on purpose, and I worried that people might think that Seeley taking out ads somehow had an influence on me writing the story. It didn’t – I wrote it because it’s newsworthy on the local business beat that one of Rapid City’s oldest stores is moving out of one of our most prominent shopping malls.
But it raised the issue for me, so I thought it might be helpful to share a look into the way the newsroom and advertising department do and don’t work together.

Read the rest of this entry »

We didn’t have one last week… hopefully a lot has popped up since then!

By Barbara Soderlin

Seeley, the Baken Park clothing store, was swamped today with shoppers looking to save money on suits, sweaters, pants and shirts. The store is having a huge sale on all its clothing before moving.

The store will reopen sometime in January or February at 725 Omaha St., the former home of Movie Gallery. That’s the same strip mall as where Dunn Bros. is.

The store used to be downtown before moving to Baken Park in 1995. Mark Bachman, who owns the shop with his father, Leonard, said they plan to totally renovate the Movie Gallery store and reopen with an updated line of clothing.

“We’re anxious to get down there and into our spot,” he said.

The store will be open Friday 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Sunday noon to 5 p.m.

By Barbara Soderlin

The Mount Rushmore Road Group will hold a holiday lighting ceremony in Wilson Park at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 24. Volunteers from the group strung the lights recently as part of their ongoing efforts to beautify the commercial and tourist corridor.
The public is invited to the lighting ceremony. There will be cookies and hot chocolate at 5 p.m. followed by a welcome presentation and entertainment at 5:15. At 5:30 Mayor Alan Hanks will light a Christmas tree.
The lights and refreshments were provided by local businesses.

By Barbara Soderlin

Al Rodriguez at Curry Masala says the restaurant’s newish downtown location, 510 St. Joe, will soon be adding dinner service on Friday and Saturday nights, but it won’t be the same cafeteria-style service they have for lunches.

There will be sit-down service and a different menu featuring appetizers, soups, salad, entrees and dessert. He sent over a copy of the menu and it includes dal soup, veggie biryani, Chennai chicken curry, rice payasam and more. Many of the dishes are vegetarian, gluten-free and dairy-free.

If it’s successful on the weekends he may expand to weeknights as well. Nice to have another weekend dinner option downtown.

By Barbara Soderlin

Last week I wrote about the TECH2010 program offering grants to technology-based startup companies. Now another program, the new South Dakota Student Ventures Competition, will allow students to compete for a chance to receive up to $25,000 of investment capital to start a science and technology-based company, according to a news release from SDSU.
The competition is sponsored by South Dakota Innovation Partners in partnership with South Dakota State University’s College of Engineering, Entrepreneurial Studies Program and Technology Transfer Office.
“The objectives of the competition are to accelerate commercialization of entrepreneurial student ideas and generate a return on investment,” said President David Chicoine.
Individuals or teams interested in the student-based competition will submit an application for a concept that addresses a market issue and would lead to a science and technology-based start-up company.
South Dakota Innovation Partners, LLC is an early-stage venture capital firm that focuses on accelerating science and technology-based economic development while providing a return on investment to its investors.
“We believe that one of the best opportunities to develop a knowledge-based economy is through the concepts developed by our students, which will lead to a return on investment for our investors and our communities,” said Mark Luecke, managing director and CEO.

The deadline for submitting applications is January 15, 2010. Additional information is at www.southdakotainnovation.com/student_ventures.
The review and feedback period for Student Ventures will correspond with the business plan submission deadline for the Governor’s Giant Vision Business Plan Competition on February 15, 2010.
Successful teams will be named and investment offers made on April 6, 2010.

I don’t read enough blogs to have ever set up an RSS feed, but a reader of this blog sent the following note just now:

Last week I suddenly noticed that I was no longer receiving Business Blog updates on my RSS reader and had not been receiving them since the 16th of October.  It turns out the subscription URL changed so once I entered the new URL, things are back to normal.  Thought I would let you know.

I wanted to share it in case anyone else had the same experience when the Journal updated its Web site.

By Barbara Soderlin
People have been asking what’s going in at the former Khoury’s restaurant location at 2520 W. Main St. in the Haggerty’s building.
It’ll be a Beau Jo’s pizza place. I’ll have more in the Friday business column about it, but it’s a family-owned chain with a focus on healthful ingredients and environmental stewardship.
One fun thing about it is the restaurant’s food challenge: If two people can eat a 13-pound pizza in an hour, they get the pizza for free plus $100. That pizza has three pounds of meat and 40 ounces of mozzarella alone, so good luck.
Are there any other food challenges out there?

By Barbara Soderlin

The Department of Labor sends out new unemployment statistics each month, and the ones sent out today for October showed state unemployment hasn’t been this high in 24 years.

Local statistics usually come out a few days after statewide ones, so we’ll see how Rapid City is holding up. Fortunately we’ve had some good news about new jobs lately, including Jomay Steen’s story this morning about hiring at ASI. (Mistakes in stories aren’t funny, I know, but we had a laugh this morning because the story originally reported that people could make $45 an hour — when she meant to say $45,000 a year. The people at ASI said their website was overwhelmed this morning with people applying. $45 an hour is $93,600 a year. I was ready to apply. Oh well.)

Here’s the story:
Unemployment in South Dakota rose from 4.8 percent in September to 5 percent in October, according to the state Bureau of Labor Statistics. The national rate is 10.2 percent.
The last time the unemployment rate was at 5 percent was in December 1985, according to the state Department of Labor. The state’s highest unemployment rate since the bureau started keeping records in 1976 was 5.9 percent in October 1982.
Meanwhile, the level of unemployed was up by about 7,700 people in South Dakota according to the October 2009 data compared to one year ago. The unemployment rate for October 2008 was 3.2 percent.
This October there were 22,200 unemployed out of the state’s total work force of 446,700.
 “The unemployment rate has remained relatively stable in South Dakota for the past several months, fluctuating between 4.8 to 5.0 percent,” State Labor Secretary Pam Roberts said in a news release.  “We continue to see small layoffs, but there are some employers cautiously hiring again.” 
Roberts said that the statistics show that the recession continues to affect South Dakota’s work force, with the number of people claiming unemployment benefits about triple that of the same time last year.
On the Web: www.sdjobs.org.

By Barbara Soderlin

My colleague Heidi sent out the following message. Unfortunately I am hoping to receive Christmas presents this year. I think I have been good. But if you can help her out, give her a call:

I’m looking for a family who plans to go “presentless” for Christmas this year – maybe they’ve decided it’s too stressful or maybe they’re trying to teach their kids that the holidays aren’t just about “stuff.”
If you know someone who might be willing to talk to me for a story, please let me know.

Thanks,
Heidi Bell Gease
394-8419