The News Tribune Business Team will keep you updated on what's happening in the South Sound and beyond. Check here for news about economic development, aerospace, shopping and much more.
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Contributors
Marce Edwards is the business editor. She has been at The News Tribune for seven years and has written about technology and big businesses in the South Sound including Weyerhaeuser and Russell. Before moving to Tacoma, she worked at The Idaho Statesman in Boise. She is a Northwest native who likes to garden and refuses to use an umbrella. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and two kids.
C.R. Roberts is a Tacoma native. Before joining The News Tribune, he worked as a freelance writer and part-time cowhand on a cattle ranch in Northern Idaho. He writes about small business, personal finance and other business issues.
John Gillie writes about the aerospace and airline industries, commercial development and consumer issues. During his 30-year-tenure at The News Tribune he has covered issues as diverse as the Native American fishing rights disputes, crime and the courts, the wood products industry and energy. He lived in Tacoma with his family for 25 years, but now lives in Kent because his wife heads a five-state non-profit foundation headquartered in Ballard, and it only seemed a sensible compromise to make considering their workplaces are 40 miles apart.
Kelly Kearsley has been a business reporter at The News Tribune since 2005. She covers the Port of Tacoma and international trade. Being born and raised in Spokane she’s used to living in cities with inferiority complexes and, in fact, prefers it. Prior to working at The News Tribune, she spent three years as a reporter for The Bulletin in Bend, Oregon and another year working stints for The Associated Press and Seattle Times. She graduated from Pacific Lutheran University. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and miniature schnauzer.
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If you need to run to the mall for a last-minute gift or a new pair of tights, stay away from Nordstrom at the Tacoma Mall on Thursday.
The retailer is closing its 42-year-old store tonight at 5 p.m. for the last time. An hour later, employees will push racks of clothes through the mall to the new store on the west end of the shopping center.
On Thursday, employees will put all the items away and make the story pretty for the grand opening on Friday.
The big event is Friday starting at 8 a.m. with a makeup party in the parking lot. The new store opens to shoppers at 10 a.m. Then you can shop your heart out.
Puget Sound Energy reported today that residential electric customers could see a 3 percent rate cut as early as Nov. 1 if the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission approves a request filed by PSE to resume the Bonneville Power Administration residential exchange credit on customer bills and grants PSE’s pending general rate electric increase request.
"We’re pleased to be able to bring our customers this rate relief in time for winter and throughout next year," said Kimberly Harris, executive vice president and chief resource officer for PSE. "All families in the Northwest deserve a fair share of the benefits from our region’s federal hydropower system. We will do all we can to make sure these benefits continue to flow to our customers in the years ahead."
If approved by the UTC, the 970,000 households and small farms that receive electric service from PSE should see a usage-based credit from BPA averaging $10.56, the utility said in a press release.
The credit’s bill reduction would average 11.4 percent — more than offsetting the separate 8.2 percent general electric-rate increase PSE is seeking.
In mid-2007, BPA suspended payment of the nearly 30-year-old residential exchange credit to customers of PSE and the Northwest’s other shareholder-owned utilities. The suspension followed a ruling by a federal court, which said BPA’s process for determining consumers’ power benefits did not conform with the Northwest Power Act.
BPA recently announced a new procedure for calculating the exchange benefits, as well as the amount of restored credit payments utility customers will receive for fiscal year 2009.
As if we didn’t have enough to be scared of already – war, meltdowns, elections, take your pick – here comes Halloween.
And not a moment too soon for retailers.
The National Retail Federation is out with is predictions for the devilish day. The news is good.
According to the group’s Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, more consumers will be celebrating the holiday this year (64.5 percent vs. 58.7 percent last year).
This year, the average American plans to spend $66.54 on the holiday, up from $64.82 one year ago. Total Halloween spending for 2008 in the U.S. is estimated to reach $5.77 billion, the federation said in a release.
“Halloween sales may be a bright spot for retailers this fall,” said Tracy Mullin, NRF president and CEO. “Consumers – who have been anxious and uncertain for the past several months – may be looking at Halloween as an opportunity to forget the stresses of daily life and just have a little fun.”
Word spread today about Starbucks new fancy hot chocolate drinks, what the company is calling a "signiture" drink, that debuted on Tuesday.
We just had to try it. Six of us here at The News Tribune tried the new Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate, which the company describes as "Made with a rich mélange of four exceptional cocoas."
Our verdict: Yum but difficult to distinguish from other hot chocolates. The drink was rich but not too chocolatey. One sipper compared it to the failed Chantico drinking chocolate of a few years ago, saying it was a better blend of sweetness.
This drink and all the other new menu items are part of the company's plan to spur sales at its stores and give consumers reason to drop by more often.
The details: The short salted caramel with whip is 320 calories (140 from fat) and 160 mg of sodium.
It cost $2.85 for the 8-oz. short size from the 6th & Pine Starbucks Wednesday morning.
