Tag Archives: life

Downtown store openings galore

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Several stores recently opened in downtown Duluth , though not all store signs are up yet. They’re all locally owned and operated and not associated with retail chains.

Port City Antiques opened quietly on Saturday at 120 W. Superior St. The new antique mall with about 30 dealers fills the 6,000-square-foot space that formerly housed the Saw-Mill Unpainted Furniture Store.

Jerry Fredrickson, founder and former owner of Father Time Antiques in Canal Park is behind the new mall.

Some dealer have more items to add to their displays and a couple of Twin Cities dealers have yet to move in. But so far, it’s looking good. I found something I had to have within minutes of walking though the door on Sunday. Hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, except Sundays when they’re open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

A block to the west, Superior Ballroom Dance Studio opened a storefront at 208 W. Superior St. on May 1. Led by award-winning dancer Andrea Kuzel, it’s the only dance studio around devoted to teaching ballroom dance to adults in the Duluth area. And classes for children are coming this summer, too, she says.

For more information about private and group lessons, call (218) 348-1928 or just stop in.

Over at Fitger’s Brewery Complex, Lotus on the Lake, a new women’s boutique also opened on May 1 on the Superior Street Level. The space previously had been occupied by Andi’s Closet which has moved downstairs.

The store offers moderate to upper end clothing for women ages 35 and older as well as jewelry, paper goods and home decor similar to what Catherine Imports carried in the Duluth Technology Village. Catherine’s, which had quite a fan base, closed late last year.

That’s because Kelly Yetter, Catherine’s former store manager and Jackie McLean, Catherine’s office manager, are behind this venture. Hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays.

As we previously told you, Eva Morris, another new women’s boutique opened recently at 732 E. Superior St., next to Coppola Artistica and Va Bene Italian cafe.

It offers clothing at affordable prices to women of all ages and includes larger sizes. Owner Stacy Foster previously operated Colors of Benetton at Fitger’s which closed in January. Hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, 12 to 5 p.m. on Sundays.

While it’s not a storefront, Northland Special Events opened a showroom just inside the front door of the Torrey Building, 314 W. Superior St., on May 1.  The site also serves as the wedding and event planner’s offices, floral studio and design center. They plan to have regular hours come fall, but until then, it’s by appointment. Call (218) 499-9449.

 

Plaza gets Engwalls greenhouse

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The Burger King block headed for redevelopment at 21st Avenue East and London Road in Duluth has its costs. Like the Engwalls satellite greenhouse that has set up shop on the corner in late spring and summer for years,

Well not this year. The Burger King property was sold last winter, ending the agreement Engwalls had with the previous owner.

“Whatever is going to happen with that corner, they weren’t interested in having us there this year,” said Rod Saline, owner of Engwalls Florist, Greenhouse and Garden Center in Hermantown.

So instead the greenhouse is going in the parking lot of Burggraf’s Ace Hardware at Superior Street and 13th Avenue East.

“We’ve been in the Plaza area before,” Saline said. ” This made sense from a visibility point of view. It’s in a known shopping area, so there will be traffic. We think there’s some good positioning, visibility and good synergy with Burggraf’s. They are a small, independent retailer just like we are.”

The framework for the portable greenhouse went up this week outside the hardware store, while it went up last week at their other satellite site at Kenwood Shopping Center. The covers of the greenhouses will follow.

With April’s record snow, their opening will be pushed back a few days. Instead of opening  during the first week of May, they might not open until May 7 or May 8, Saline said.

But that’s OK.

While a lot of their hanging baskets sell for Mother’s Day, from a gardening perspective, plant sales don’t take off until the third week in May, he said.

 

Eva Morris boutique opens

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When Stacy Foster closed Benetton, an upscale women’s clothing store she owned at Fitger’s Brewery Complex, she had a plan.

She would open another women’s boutique in a storefront on Superior Street, a block to the east. But instead of the Benetton brand of tailored European clothing topping at size 12, Foster wanted to offer more affordable clothes to women of all ages, including middle-aged women who need larger sizes.

The resulting store — Eva Morris (a combination of Foster’s paternal grandparents’ first names) — has opened at 732 E. Superior St., next to Coppola Artistica and Va Bene Italian cafe.

The new store gives Foster the greater flexibiity with her store hours that she had sought. The new store — offering women’s clothing, accessories and gifts — is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays.

You can check it out on Facebook.

Putting a dent in family travel

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Besides family time, one of the concerns about starting school before Labor Day is that it would cut into family travel… and ultimately the tourism and hospitality industry. And that’s a big deal in Duluth.

Well, it’s true, according to a University of Minnesota study.

The study by the university’s tourism center looked at the behavior of families in five states. It found that when school starts are moved to before Labor Day, the following happens:

**Family trips of two or more nights drop by 50 percent in August or September.

**Families travel 30 percent less all summer long.

That suggests that some families  are, indeed, foregoing summer trips when the school year starts before Labor Day.

The study collected information about family travel in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa and Virginia as they adjusted to changing school start times.

Getting married? Don’t forget the prenup!

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Well, I suppose Star Jones should know.

Among the deluge of e-mails we get here at the DNT every day, came one recently with advice from Star Jones. She’s the attorney-turned-”The View” TV host-turned author-turned… well, whatever she’s doing these days.

Apparently her over-the-top wedding and short-lived marriage, makes her advice on prenuptial agreements for professional women more credible.

She never says whether she got a prenup herself, but as the national spokeswoman for the National Association of Professional Women, Jones provides the following advice:

Who needs one?

–People who have children from a previous marriage.

–People who own a business or are a partner in a business, law firm or medical practice.

–People who own significant assets or property.

–People who have much more money than their future spouses.

While a prenuptial agreement can derail the romantic start of a marriage, it establishes clear financial ground rules for the union and results in a fair division of assets if the marriage ends in divorce. It also preserves the inheritance rights of children from previous marriages.

Jones says each one in the couple should have their own lawyer. Each must reveal all their assets and each must sign the document willingly. Oh, and this is interesting. If you’re the one with the dough, Jones says be sure your fiance has the better attorney… so he or she can’t come back later and claim ineffective counsel.

 

More from the real ‘Mad Woman’

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On changing times and the myth of having it all:

I had more from Jane Maas, author of “Mad Women,” than I could squeeze into today’s Business Monday story on her, her book and the successful AMC-TV series “Mad Men” about a New York City advertising agency in the 1960s.

In her recently released book, “Mad Women,” Maas tells it like it was for women like her who broke into the male-dominated industry then. Some have even said the show’s Peggy Olson character —   the first female copywriter for the fictional Sterling Cooper advertising agency — was based on Maas. But she’s not so sure.

Anyway, in an interview last week, Maas had some interesting observations about how things changed as the 1960s wore on and into the 1970s. That era after JFK’s assassination was a time of rapid and enormous cultural change with the Vietnam War, Civil Rights movement, Black power and gay rights movements and, finally, the women’s movement.

The Equal Rights Amendment didn’t pass then, but by the 1970s women felt they were able to do anything, Maas said. And as more women became advertising copywriters, the television commercials they wrote mirrored that belief. They showed women as astronauts, as chairman of the board, as the boss.

“Women weren’t really there yet, but they were written by women and portraying what we thought we could be, Maas said.

In the 1970s, women thought they could have it all, do it all — raise a family and have a successful marriage and career. All you needed was not to sleep and have the stamina of a bear, Maas said.

Of course, it was a myth, she says.

“Today we know you can’t have it all,” she said. “Most working mothers I speak with today know there’s a lot of guilt. If you’re at the office, you’re missing your kid’s play. If you do that, you’re missing a big meeting at the office. Therefore you’re guilty most of the time about something.”

Two Harbors Pamida begins switch to Shopko

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The transformation from a Pamida store to a Shopko in Two Harbors began Sunday with a liquidation sale, reports the Lake County News Chronicle.

The story quotes store manager Tim Lekatz saying that only 18 percent of Pamida’s current merchandise will remain after Pamida holds a liquidation sale that started Sunday and continues until early July.

The story said:

After that, the store will be closed for renovations until the first week in August. The store will be completely redone and restocked with new merchandise currently offered by Shopko.

After Pamida and Shopko merged together in January of this year, Shopko announced that Pamida stores would undergo facelifts to become Shopko stores over the next year.

“It will be a completely different store,” Lekatz said.

The Two Harbors Pamida is one of more than 180 Pamida stores that will become Shopko stores nationwide. Shopko is spending about $80 million on the changes. Shopko focuses on smaller communities, while competitors Target and Walmart have the corner on larger markets

Hey IRS, you forgot something

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You’d think they didn’t really want our checks.

If you’re among the estimated 25 percent who still file their federal income taxes the old fashioned way — by mail — and owe the government some money,  you might have come across something missing in that thick 1040 instructions booklet and even on the 1040 form.

Like who to write the check out to.

I couldn’t find it in the obvious places in the booklet. And I thumbed through several times to find it. Nada. Surely it’s in there somewhere, I thought. But I sure couldn’t find it.

And on the 1040 form, where  you get to the “amount you owe” part, nothing there, either, or anywhere else on the form for that matter.

Ya, it’s logical to write the check out to the “Internal Revenue Service” but they really should tell us directly. Minnesota’s revenue department  does. And they don’t make you hunt to find the address to send the paper return to, either.

 

Dairy Queen opens, spring to follow

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When I noticed today that the Dairy Queen on Duluth’s Central Entrance was open and drawing in customers on this 25-degree day, I thought it’s got to a be the earliest opening ever for the popular summer stop.

But server Lauren Royer shrugged it off, saying they usually open the last week in February. And she should know. This is her fifth season at the quick stop for iced milk treats.

So their opening a week ago, on Feb. 16, was just a bit ahead of usual. So far , business has been decent, Lauren says, thanks to their returning regulars and the Blizzard special going on — buy one, get one half off.

With this harbinger of spring open, the Portland Malt Shoppe on East Superior Street shouldn’t be far behind. They usually wait til late March to open. But that’s after a typical winter in Duluth. And a typical winter it’s not.

Many face debt in retirement

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Financial planners have long advised those approaching retirement to become debt-free. And a big part of that is getting mortgages paid off.

But according to a report from the Wall Street Journal, about 40 percent of people age 60 to 64 are carrying first mortgages. And about 20 percent have second mortgages and home equity lines they are using.

But wait, it gets worse.

Only one in four people nearing retirement have enough money saved in retirement accounts that experts say they’ll need.

“Too much debt, too little saved,” is how consumer advocate Clark Howard summed it up on his Headline News cable TV show.

The moral of the story is to start saving when you’re young, he said.

“The more you save through the years, the more power and control you have over your future,” he said. “You want to retire on your schedule? Then save, save, save.”