YAKIMA, Wash. -- Hi, Shop Talk readers.

I will be away from the blog for the next few days while I tend to a personal matter.

As always, my colleagues will fill in during my hiatus if any news breaks.

And you can always comments and other questions here while I'm gone. You can also send an email to mhoang@yakimaherald.com.

I'll be back on Feb. 12.

-- Mai Hoang

UNION GAP, Wash. -- Bella Scrapbooking in Union Gap will be closing its doors after nearly three years in business.

“Economically, it’s not feasible to stay in business,” said Julie Harris, owner of the shop at 1209 E. Washington Ave.

The store has started marking down merchandise and will have enough inventory to remain open through the end of this month, possibly longer, Harris said.

Harris let customers know the bad news through her e-mail newsletter. She also used the opportunity to expre

YAKIMA, Wash. -- The remodeling of the Dairy Queen in West Valley is complete.

The Dairy Queen at 7410 W. Nob Hill Blvd. reopened today with a new design and layout.

Now that the restaurant is open, its hours are 10:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Sunday though Thursday and 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

-- Mai Hoang

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Looks like two more stores will be heading to the Valley Mall area this year.

Coldwater Creek is expected to go in part of the space that once occupied Rex Appliance & TV, which closed in June.

The store should be open by the fall, said Fred Bruning, CEO of CenterCal Properties, the Portland area firm that owns the mall.

The news is noteworthy, especially since the Sandpoint, Idaho women’s clothing chain, recently announced plans to close its downtown Seattle store at the end

YAKIMA, Wash. -- I wrote yesterday about a mysterious closing of the Yakima Papa John’s location.

Turns out 11 other stores throughout Eastern Washington and Idaho faced a similar fate, after the franchise group, North Country Pizza out of Colbert, Wash., decided Monday night to close all their stores, according to a statement from the Louisville, Ky. based pizza chain.

The franchise group had stores in Yakima, Spokane, Pullman, Kennewick, Richland, Wenatchee, Coeur d’ Alene and Moscow.

The c

YAKIMA, Wash. -- The only Yakima location for a national pizza chain closed suddenly this morning.

Owners of Papa John’s Yakima outlet closed its doors after nearly nine years in business.

No one, including the building’s owner, Oscar Francis, was notified of the closure. Francis only heard about the closure from another tenant in the building, who saw a sign letting employees know that they would be receiving their W-2 forms and paychecks in the mail.

Francis told me this afternoon that the

UNION GAP, Wash. -- Another brief update from Jim White of White-Leasure Development Co., the Boise company behind Union Gap Promenade.
The project has received final site plan approval from the Union Gap City Council, but the property purchase has not closed yet, White said.

With that in mind, White-Leasure is looking to start building in March.

In the meantime, White-Leasure is working a second tenant for the shopping center. And WinCo remains the main tenant for the project, White said.

--

YAKIMA, Wash. -- A dollar store chain is expected to open a second location in Yakima by April.

Construction of a new retail building at the Orchards Shopping Center at 72nd and Chestnut avenues is complete.

Dollar Tree is scheduled to open sometime between March 1 and April 1, said Chris Waddle of Creekside Commercial, which represented Dollar Tree during the leasing process.

Dollar Tree currently operates a location at 703 West Nob Hill Blvd.

-- Mai Hoang

Reach blogger Mai Hoang at mhoang

WAPATO, Wash. -- The tasting room of a Wapato winery is temporarily out of commission.

Sagelands Winery will close its tasting room at 71 Gangl Road while it fixes damage caused by a water main break, said Maire Griffin, a spokeswoman for Diageo Chateau & Estate Wines, Sagelands’ parent company in California.

Griffin said she did not have any estimates on when the tasting room would reopen.

Wine production will continue at the winery, Griffin said. In the meanwhile, consumers can still taste

YAKIMA, Wash. -- For an upcoming edition of the Shop Talk Reporter’s Notebook, which is printed every Monday in the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Your Money section, I plan to answer questions about the local retail or restaurant industry.

That means I need questions. So here’s your first call for questions. 

To answer your questions I will consult with people in the local retail and restaurant industry. For harder questions, I may even talk to people who track retail and restaurant trends nationa