YAKIMA, Wash. -- Several West Valley shoppers spent their St. Patrick’s Day not only wearing green but saving some green as well by checking out the new Dollar Tree store at the Orchards Shopping Center.

The dollar store at 140 S. 72nd Ave. opened yesterday. The store manager referred all my questions to Dollar Tree’s headquarters in Chesapeake, VA.
But I didn’t need to look far to see that people were eager to have a new retailer in the neighborhood. The parking lot, once empty during the sto

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Retailers got some good news today — the U.S. Census Bureau released data today that shows that sales in retail and food services increased last month.

Sales totaled $355.5 billion, an increase of 0.3 percent from January 2010 and 3.9 percent from February 2009.

Sales for just the retail trade sector was $317.3 billion, a 0.3 percent increase from January 2010 and a 4.4 percent  increase from February 2009.

Such stats surprised the industry  — during that month many consumers

YAKIMA, Wash. -- There’s chatter going around about Big Lots, a retailer that sells discounted and overproduced goods from manufacturers, coming to Yakima.

There’s speculation that the retailer is looking at the former Food Pavilion space at the Gateway Shopping Center.

At this point, it’s just speculation.

But Wallace Properties, a Bellevue real estate firm that owns the shopping center off Interstate 82 at North Fair Avenue, is working on a deal for that space.

“We’re certainly optimistic a

YAKIMA, Wash. -- A Moses Lake business owner is in the process of reopening the Papa John’s location in Yakima. 

That store was one of 12 locations to close in late January throughout Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho.

Steve Ethington currently owns a Papa John’s location in Moses Lake and is working to reopen in Yakima and Wenatchee. He said that other franchise groups are looking at reopening the other locations.

“We’ve been trying to figure out a way to reopen as many of them as we can

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Your children (or grandchildren) may be the ones to lead in a recovery of consumer spending, according to a report released today from PricewaterhouseCoopers and Kantar Retail.

The report, called “The New Consumer Behavior Paradigm: Permanent or Fleeting?” states that shoppers will continue to be more conscious and selective in their spending and will continue to seek coupons and price comparison Web sites. Retailers will need to adjust strategies to these likely permanent ha

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Despite having 75 acres off U.S. Highway 12 and 16th Avenue listed for sale, developers of the proposed $160 million Riverpointe Landing shopping center are still looking into a variety of options for the property.

“We are in discussion with potential buyers and still looking at having it be a retail development,” said Josh Parnell of First Western Properties of Tacoma, which is representing development firm Northward Real Estate Group of Bellevue. “People definitely recogniz

I made an error Monday on my report of the purchase of more than nine acres designated for the Union Gap Promenade shopping center. http://www.yakima-herald.com/blogs/shop-talk/posts/developers-close-on-land-purchase-for-promenade

Turns out the purchaser of two parcels totaling 9.35 acres isn’t the center’s developer, White-Leasure Development Co. of Boise.

The owner of the property is actually WinCo Foods, http://www.wincofoods.com/ said John Hodkinson of Almon Commercial Real Estate, who repr

Looks like the West Valley area will be getting a new breakfast spot in the next few weeks. 

Waffles Caffe will open a second location around March 15 at the Meadowbrook Mall at 72nd Avenue and Nob Hill Boulevard.

Regulars at its current location at 1510 N. First St. have been requesting that the restaurant’s owners consider opening a location farther west.

“There’s a lot more developments going out west, which is encouraging,” said co-owner Randi Parke. “There’s really not a lot of food estab

The first location of what would become the Red Robin Gourmet Burgers chain will be closing, according to The Seattle Times.

The Greenwood Village, Colo., burger chain will close the Red Robin location near the University of Washington on March 21. The company says the building needs investment and it opted not to renew its lease. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011228235_redrobin02.html

The restaurant started out in the 1940s as a tavern called Sam’s Red Robin. By 1969, Gerry

UNION GAP, Wash. -- Developers of a proposed shopping center in Union Gap have taken another step toward completion.

White-Leasure Development Co. closed on the purchase of nearly nine acres at the corner of Longfibre Road and Market Street for the construction of Union Gap Promenade, said John Hodkinson of Almon Commercial Real Estate, who represented White-Leasure in the purchase.

This is the next big step for the development, which recently completed the land use process with the city of U