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The doors are shut at Ashley Furniture HomeStore's Roanoke location.

Earlier this week, the store's general manager, Joe Overfelt, told me (here's the blog post) that the furniture retailer had a long list of back orders that hadn't been met because it was going through an ownership change. He said the corporate headquarters, Ashley Furniture Industries, planned to contact customers to deliver the back-ordered furniture.

The store wasn't planned for a closure, Overfelt said, but that's obviously not the case. A sign on its front door states that it will be closed during the sale's transaction period.

West Main Street in Salem has lost a coffee shop and possibly a barbecue joint.

The Daily Grind closed last Saturday, because one of its owners, Linda Thompson, is ill.
Thompson and her daughter, Erin Clinevell, opened the Daily Grind franchise in 2004.
Now, they’re selling the business to a potential Daily Grind franchisee or an independent restaurant operator for $250,000. The price includes restaurant equipment and rental of the 3,500 square foot space, said Steve Mullins, a Realtor who is marketing the sale.

Not too far from the former Daily Grind location, the sign for Dickey’s Barbecue Pit restaurant has been taken down. This eatery closed in May, after only six months in business, because of a change in franchise ownership. A company spokesman has said that it will reopen.

It's unclear what the removal of the Dickey's sign signals about this restaurant’s future. The company spokesman did not return a call for comment.

Life is full of pet peeves. And I bet you have plenty of them when it comes to communicating with store associates or cashiers. MSN Money recently published this article listing the five ways that retail cashiers irritate shoppers.

Here they are:
1) Not making eye contact, known as the “grab and scan”
2) Answering the phone, while you’re standing in line
3) Chatting to other clerks and ignoring customers
4) Not counting change back
5) Walking past shoppers who need help

Of this list, I find situations when store associates walk past shoppers or have long conversations with other clerks to be the most annoying. It’s also unpleasant when a store employee is nowhere to be found for answering a question or unlocking a fitting room. Several women’s clothing stores require staffers to unlock dressing rooms, and at times, I have spent quite awhile trying to locate an available associate with the keys to a room.

But on the flip side, here are ways that we can be better customers, according to the same MSN article. Perhaps applying these ideas will help our pet peeves diminish.

1) Know what you want. Call ahead to make sure that a particular item is in stock. Also, take an advertisement for a sale item with you.
2) Don’t expect the clerk to be your mother. If you drop something, pick it up. Put something back when you move it.
3) Be respectful. Ask, don’t demand. And smile.
4) Get off your cell phone.
5) Play by the rules. Don’t use the express lane when you don’t have a mega load. Don’t ask for freebies or try to convince store clerks to accept expired coupons.

What are your shopping pet peeves? And let me know your suggestions for easing the clerk/customer relationship.

The Virginia Department of Health now is listing smoke-free restaurants on its Web site. This is in addition to several other new Web sites that highlight non-smoking eateries locally.

For each locality on the Department of Health's Web site, you’ll see the percentage of eateries that are smoke free and a list of the specific restaurants.

Here is the percentage of smoke-free restaurants in some cities and counties in the Roanoke and New River valleys, according to this site:

Roanoke City: 66 percent
Roanoke County: 71 percent
Botetourt County: 64 percent
Franklin County: 64 percent
Salem: 66 percent
Montgomery County: 66 percent
Pulaski County: 64 percent
Radford: 55 percent

I hope you’re not one of many customers who have ordered furniture from Ashley Furniture Homestore in Roanoke and for months, have not received your items. But if you are, the retailer says your delivery is coming.

Ashley Furniture on Valley View Boulevard has been in the midst of an ownership change, which involves selling the store to a new investor. That’s a reason that some people who placed orders as late as March haven’t received their furniture, said the store’s general manager, Joe Overfelt. Most of the stalled orders are from the summer season, he added. Customers obviously have complained, and that’s why Overfelt called me recently to explain the situation.

Overfelt said all of the back orders are being “released immediately,” after being tied up in the sale process. Ashley Furniture, which is based in Wisconsin, will be contacting people to set up delivery times. Overfelt said he did not know the total number of back orders.

Most Ashley Furniture stores are individually owned, including the Roanoke location. But the sale doesn’t mean the end of this local store. There are no plans to close the store with the ownership swap, Overfelt said.

Sticker shock. That was the feeling that much of the country, including the Roanoke Valley, had last Friday when gasoline prices shot up in at least 20 cent increments throughout the day.

It’s not over. If you thought fuel prices rose to the highest peak possible last weekend, don’t hold your breath. Average prices are likely to move to $4 a gallon this week, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic. Most oil refineries in the Gulf Coast have not yet resumed power and assessed wind and water damage, in the wake of Hurricane Ike. It could be three weeks before they are back in operation, states a news release from AAA Mid-Atlantic, based in Richmond.

Also, there are power supply issues for Gulf Coast pipelines carrying crude oil and refined products in other parts of the country.

AAA Mid-Atlantic predicts that September will be a “problem-prone” month for fuel prices and supplies.

Today, the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in Roanoke is $4.13, compared with $3.54 a week ago and $2.62 a year ago, according to AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report.

There’s an interesting phrase on Roanoke City’s Economic Development home page, among a list of the 25 reasons that people enjoy Roanoke. There are various city designations, such as Roanoke’s ranking as one of the top 20 cities for quality of life and Roanoke's place as one of the top 10 cities in which to raise a family. The list also states this: “The number of restaurants per capita (345:1) is just behind that of world-famous San Francisco (284:1).”

I’m not yet sure the source of this data, but I plan to find out. I'm interested in what you think. Restaurants are significant to the local retail industry, and many of you enjoy discussing the state of area eateries on this blog.

What do you think of the number and selection of Roanoke restaurants? Does it reflect this figure?

After nearly a year in business, T-Bone Jacks Steak & Seafood in Salem has closed. Yesterday was the last day in business for this eatery, located off Electric Road at the Ridgewood Farms retail center, according to Angel Simurina, who works for Line Management, the restaurant's ownership company. The reasons for T-Bone Jacks closing are unknown.

Jack Winston, who owns Line Management, did not return messages for comment. T-Bone Jacks opened inside a former Western Sizzlin restaurant structure last year.

Line Management has a long history in the restaurant business. It operates Jersey Lily's Roadhouse Grill on Orange Avenue in Roanoke, and it used to own some Texas Steakhouse & Saloons in Virginia and West Virginia.

Nationwide, some grocery stores are getting smaller. We've discussed the pros and cons of big box stores versus smaller storefronts. Here is a story about how some grocery chains are squeezing their product selections into shorter aisles and slimmer buildings.

In the Roanoke Valley, it seems that our newest grocery stores are only getting larger. Kroger’s new store in the Bonsack area measures 84,000 square feet, its largest store in the Roanoke Valley. Ukrop’s Super Market’s store is 58,000 square feet.

Next to these giants, there’s Fresh Market, sporting a 25,000 square foot location, inside a retail center.

There are times that I don’t mind shopping at large grocers. But I find the food items that I want so much faster when the store is smaller.

What’s your ideal grocery store size?

When is the last time that you stepped foot in a movie theater? Despite the economy and higher prices for movie tickets, frequent moviegoers apparently don’t plan to cut back on trips to the theater this year. According to a summertime report by market research firm, the NPD Group, 80 percent of people will go to the movies the same amount or more often than they did last year.

Of those consumers surveyed, 48 percent said they enjoy going to the movies because of the “movie-theater experience,” such as the large screen and sound systems. But the top reason that many like the movie theater is because it’s a social experience that they can enjoy with friends and family.

Still, those who plan to scale back their movie theater trips this year believe that there is a dearth of good film choices, and they’re unwilling to spend time and money at the theater, according to the NPD report.

In the last year, I have rented movies more often than going to the theater, but that’s mainly due to time constraints. What about you? Have your movie viewing methods changed in the last year?