If you need anything leather, you may want to head to the Rushmore Mall in the next few days. Wilson’s Leather is going out of business and they have some fairly sizable markdowns in what is left of their store in Rapid City. The signs on Friday, April 25, said the sale lasts only six more days.

It’s a sudden end to a chain that’s been around for ages. The Rapid City store wasn’t on the initial cut list which was reported in January. But Wilsons did announce that it was removing the name from all of its 260 mall stores, closing about 160 of them permanently, and reopening about 100 as a new store, Studio. Their mall outlet stores will remain as Wilson’s.

Why their downfall? Merchandise selection? Is leather a luxury item to many shoppers and it doesn’t sell well in tough economic times? Or is leather not as popular as it once was?

I see that there was plywood on the front of the old St. Joe Pub in downtown Rapid City. I called the city and the only clue they could give me was that the building permit read someting like interior reconstruction. It’s been a bar and restaurant in the past. Anyone have a clue what’s going in there?

 

Let’s hear it for the Black Hills businesses that go out of their way to make our experience a good one.

(Too often, you only hear about the bad things or the negative comments … especially here on the web)

Here’s what prompted this post. Tonight, we went out to buy some food for our newsroom staff. Looking for mass quantities of food to feed lots of people. made fast, and reasonably inexpensive, because this was a spur-of-the-moment decision (read: unbudgeted).

Instead of tried-and-true pizza, we opted for Taco Bell, which has a 10-item meal for about $7. So when we walked in, we hit the woman at the counter with our order: Four of these 10-item meals (essentially 40 soft shell tacos, hard shell tacos, or bean burritos) … oh, and throw in a Mexican pizza and nachos bell grande too, please.

The Taco Bell employee (the woman may have been the manager) was fantastic. She helped us determine what may be the best value for the money when she found out we were ordering for the newsroom. She then stopped and asked if we could wait a minute while she asked a few more employees to get ‘on the line’ to help make the order quickly. She gave us a bag for condiments and napkins, and made sure we knew to grab some plasticware as well. And then when the order came up — in less than 5 minutes — she went into the backroom and grabbed a packing box, and helped place the bags correctly so the hard shell tacos weren’t crushed.

What great service from a fast-food restaurant which was very busy at the time (dinner time). Cars were lined up at the drive-thru, there were a half-dozen people inside who had ordered, and this employee/manager went above and beyond to make sure we were completely taken care of. (I think she would have offered to have one of her employees helps us out to the car with the food, if we had asked).

What a great experience from the folks at the Taco Bell on Mount Rushmore Road.

As noted at the beginning of this post, too often there is a lot of criticism on blogs, especially those which allow anonymous posting. Maybe we should have a weekly post on the Black Hills Business Blog which just features the great employee effort, the unsung heroes, the moments when you were extremely impressed by the customer service you received locally. Tonight, the Journal enjoyed one of those great moments with a local business.

Does anyone else want to share a great experience they have had with a local business which went well above and beyond what was expected?

The new Casa Real is now open on Mount Rushmore Road in Rapid City.

Casa Real is the reincarnation of Rapid City’s Casa Del Rey minus the fountain.

The menu, the décor, the logo and are all similar to Casa Del Rey.

Casa Réal co-owner Jon Sharp is the former manager of the Casa Del Rey. He and Norm Gary formed GS Corp, and they have been working since October to turn the former Marble Club, 2315 Mount Rushmore Road, into Casa Real.

Sharp and Gary hosted a group of Chamber members at a soft opening of the restaurant Sunday night and opened for the general public today.

The new eatery has sit-down dining for 120 people. The dining area is divided into several smaller dining areas, much like the Casa Del Rey was. There is also a cantina and casino, but with beer and wine rather than liquor. There is also a banquet room.

Black Hills Gold & Gift Store, Gary’s other business, will remain open at the front of the building. There is an inside doorway into the restaurant.

After 32 years in business, Casa Del Ray’s owners accepted an all-too-tempting buyout offer from Walgreen’s. The drug store chain wanted the prime corner location at St. Patrick Street and Mount Rushmore Road. At the time, the owners were trying to shake off bad publicity when Legionnaire’s disease was traced to its decorative fountain in the entry way of the restaurant.

Anyone stop by today? Tell us about it.

Following up on the conversation which spun off our previous post on Rushmore Crossing, Linens ‘N Things has a signed lease with the Crossing and has not filed for bankruptcy yet. Read the Journal story here

So, take that for what it’s worth. There’s a long time between now and a store opening.

On a side note, Gordman’s has a signed lease according to Crossing officials, and did file for a building permit with the city. Gordman’s sells men’s, women’s and junior apparel, women’s accessories, fragrances, intimate apparel, and handbags. They have locations all around RC (Sioux Falls, Sioux City, Omaha, Grand Forks, Fargo, a few in Colorado) so we would seem like a natural for the store.

They have a pretty good Web site, which includes a very unique look inside their departments.

But many of you may have already shopped a Gordman’s, given there are 60 of them in 16 states, including SF. What do you think? Do they add something that other RC stores don’t? Or just more choices?

Doug asked a couple of questions regarding radio stations in the last post, so I thought I would ask the question: Would readers be interested in a weekly or monthly column written by someone at the Journal about the goings-ons in the local media (TV, radio, newspaper)? It seems like it would be a bit self-serving when you look at it from our perspective, but would all of you find it worth reading?

If you remember a while back, we had a story about the on-again, off-again retailers in the new Rushmore Crossing, specifically Dillard’s and J.C. Penney’s. The information came straight from a property fact sheet from Katz & Associates, the national real estate advisors involved in the development.

That Crossing fact sheet has since been removed from the Katz Web site, the only fact sheet that Katz does not have on its site. Hmmmmm.

They do state this in their information about Rushmore Crossing:

Rushmore Crossing is an 866,000 square foot mixed-use development that will consist of retail, hotels, and restaurants. The retail portion will include a lifestyle district anchored by Dillard’s and Barnes & Noble and the power strip district will be anchored by Target, Scheel’s Sporting Goods, Linens ‘n Things and other national tenants.

Anyway, in case you’re in the mood to speculate on what other chain stores may locate in Rushmore Crossing, consider that Barnes & Noble and Linens ‘n Things are Katz clients. Shoe Carnival, which also has confirmed they are coming to the Crossing, is a Katz client.

Is it possible we will see Katz, the company helping to market the Crossing, sign on even more of their own clients? Their client list includes:

Cost Plus World Market (importer)

Loehmann’s (high-end retailer)

Panera Bread (mmmmmm)

AC Moore (Arts & Crafts)

Circuit City (electronics)

Jos.A.Bank (high-end menswear)

Gamestop (electronic games)

Chilis (restaurant)

Romano’s Macaroni Grill (restaurant)

Road Runner Sports (running)

Corner Bakery Cafe (cafe)

Jamba Juice (fruit smoothies)

So do you see anyone on that list you hope comes to the Crossing?

Come the first of next month, the government promises to send or place a check in the accounts of its taxpayers.

Here at rapidcityjournal.com we have asked visitors in our poll question how they will spend the stimulus money, but here on the business blog I’m asking for specifics. Will you pay down your credit card, buy the big screen TV, put the money in savings for the next time the car breaks down, or a million other things I haven’t even thought of?

By Deb

Sorry I haven’t posted lately. I’m still here, at least until the end of work Friday.

I just got back from a trip to the Bay Area of California. Gasoline there is very, very spendy. The cheapest price I saw was $3.74 per gallon.

No wonder that every third car in Berkeley was a Prius — and every fourth person was riding a bicycle.

By the way, someone went around Berkeley and stenciled a bunch of stop signs with the word, “DRIVING.” So at intersections, you see “STOP DRIVING.”

But the drivers of the 120,000 cars an hour going over the Bay Bridge apparently didn’t read, or didn’t heed, those signs.

Here in the Black Hills, where we’re paying a mere $3.29 per gallon, I guess we should count our blessings — or wait a couple of months.

I keep hearing that $4 gas is coming, but I somehow find that hard to believe. Anybody care to predict what the summer peak will be?

By Deb Holland

Earlier this week I finally got to making some plans for our son’s graduation in June. For our first son’s graduation, he chose a chocolate cake from Piece of Cake. It was amazing. But, our youngest son isn’t a big chocolate fan, so I took him and a couple friends to a tasting at Piece of Cake on Mount Rushmore Road in Rapid City. Matt chose a lemon cake with raspberry filling. The boys are having a joint reception. The others chose banana and pink velvet. Yum! I’m taking Dan’s lead to ask about your favorite bakery or cake bakers around the Hills.