The next time you buy a new pair of Levi's jeans, it may have a new kind of care label.
By January, the care label of Levi's jeans will include a note encouraging wearers to donate used clothing to Goodwill.
This is a partnership between Levi's and Goodwill to reduce the large amounts of clothing and other textiles that end up in U.S. landfills. It's called "A Care Tag for our Planet."
Click here to find out more details.
Look for a major expansion of Les Cheveux Salon & Day Spa's services at Towers Shopping Center this year and in early 2010.
The owner of this Roanoke salon and spa is making plans to open a new spa on Nov. 18. This spa will be an extension of Les Cheveux, offering body wraps, microdermabrasion, couples massages and facials in a 750 square foot space beside Weight Watchers, in the enclosed portion of Towers.
Owner Sherman Argenbright told me that this expansion will give Les Cheveux more space for additional spa services. The salon will continue to offer pedicures and manicures at its original location on the upper level of Towers, near Fresh Market.
But the spa isn't the only new addition at Towers. A cosmetology and aesthetics school is in the works.
Argenbright told me that he plans to lease a 1,500 square foot space near Ram's Head Book Shop for this new school, called Les Cheveux School of Cosmethology and Aesthetics.
Two instructors will teach cosmetology and one will teach aesthetics.
Argenbright said now is the opportune time to open this kind of school because hairstylists jobs are in demand.
"That industry has not been affected as much as the economy," he told me.
Sales for Les Cheveux's current services are up 15 percent from last year.
Argenbright's hoping to open the school by Jan. 15.
The tuition isn't cheap. It costs $10,000 for the full year cosmetology program and $6,600 for the aesthetics school. According to Simply Hired, a job listings Web site, the average stylist has 1,500 to 1,800 hours of education, with the costs ranging from $6,500 to $15,000.
At the new Les Cheveux school, students would have 1,500 hours of cosmetology training and 600 hours of aesthetics classes.
Longaberger fans, here's your chance to meet the basket company's CEO and do some shopping.
Longaberger's CEO Tami Longaberger is making an appearance tonight at the Hotel Roanoke & Conference for a Tailgate Party. She'll be selling Longaberger's new collegiate series, which includes Virginia Tech themed baskets.
Also, former Cleveland Browns quarterback, Bernie Kosar, will be there to sign autographs and baskets.
This event is free to the public. It lasts from 7 to 8:30 p.m. with registration and shopping starting at 5:30 p.m.
If you thought renting DVDs was becoming an archaic method of watching movies, pay attention to Redbox's many DVD kiosks throughout the Roanoke Valley and nationwide.
Apparently, this company that charges a $1 a day rental fee for the latest blockbuster movies is growing rapidly, landing its easy-to-spot red kiosks in more grocery stores, Wal-Marts and 7-Eleven locations. In the Roanoke Valley, you'll find Redbox kiosks in some Walgreens and Wal-Mart stores.
Check out this story about Redbox's success.
This is the popular time of year for tying the knot. My mailbox is evidence of that, because I've received several invitations to weddings this season.
So far, I've purchased gifts for two weddings, though I've been more particular this year about how much I'm spending. I've actually split the cost with family members to save money and presented the couple with a joint gift.
Still, according to a poll conducted by AP and Brides.com, wedding guests aren't holding back too much on the cost of a gift for the bride and groom. They're also not declining invitations to out-of-town weddings, even if it's an expensive trip.
The poll reports that the median cost of attending a wedding is $200, which includes travel and lodging. That cost obviously would be higher if you're traveling by airplane.
As for the wedding gift, the median cost is $80, though the most popular price point falls between $100 to $199, according to the poll.
And some people said they are more likely to purchase a gift that they can't afford than to decline a wedding invitation altogether and share the reason with the bride and groom.
What's your take on this poll's findings? And do you have any helpful tips on finding inexpensive wedding gifts?
Today, I've been reporting about unhealthy conditions at a Salem bread company. Federal authorities seized all food, ingredients and baked goods today from N2 Dough, which is known as Plantation Pride Foods.
Several inspections of this facility, including one last month, found live and dead rodents, insect infested raw ingredients and mold and mildew on the walls and ceilings.
Apparently, the owner neglected to clean up these unsanitary conditions after previous inspections by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, according to court documents.
Plantation Pride sells its bread products to some local restaurants, though it's unclear how many.
In case you're wondering where this company is located, it sits behind Bastians Bar BQ on Apperson Drive.
Check out my story in tomorrow's newspaper for more details.
A new fitness facility opened last month at the New Century Venture Center in Salem.
It's called Temple Fitness Studio, and it's a health facility for women, offering 30-minute circuit training, weight loss management and personal strength training.
If you're 30 years old or older and never have been involved in fitness training (or can't remember when you last worked out), you're just the customer that Temple Fitness wants, according to a news release about the business.
Leslie Ann Manning, a certified fitness trainer, owns Temple Fitness.
Click here to find out more about the New Century Venture Center, an incubator that offers services to start-ups and existing local businesses.
Though the use of plastic bags made headlines last year because of environmental concerns, Virginia lawmakers aren't planning to get rid of these disposable bags available at grocery stores and other retailers. According to this story, legislation aimed at banning plastic shopping bags at state retailers was pulled late last week in the Virginia General Assembly.
Big-box retailers and supermarkets oppose a ban on plastic bags, because it would be too expensive to offer alternative bags. Instead, they're pushing consumers to recycle the plastic bags. There are bins at many local grocers, including Kroger, where you can place these bags for recycling.
Also, a growing number of retailers, from grocers to dollar stores, sell reusable canvas or mesh bags as alternative totes for consumers to carry purchases.
Hello, everyone! On this chilly day, here are some ways that you can get in the giving mood. Below are two opportunities for donating to good causes through local retailers.
1) Cleaning out your closet? Until Feb. 22, you can take any brand of gently worn jeans to Aeropostale stores. Aeropostale, in cooperation with DoSomething.org, will donate the jeans to a network of 500 youth shelters, which house homeless youth. Also, for donating your jeans, you'll receive 25 percent off a new pair of jeans at Aeropostale.
2) Starting tomorrow through Feb. 8, the Go Red For Women campaign is going on at Macy's, to support the American Heart Association. Dress in red while shopping at Macy's on any of these four days, and you'll receive a 20 percent discount on most of the store's regular, sale and clearance items. If you're not wearing red, you can buy a red dress pin for $2 at Macy's and get the savings, too. Proceeds from your pin purchase benefit the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women movement.
This offer also applies to online shopping. Click here for more information and for a list of items excluded from the discount.
When consumers recently weighed in on the retailers with the best customer service, L.L. Bean came out on top. That's according to a National Retail Federation/American Express Customers' Choice survey this week.
Various Internet retailers ranked at the top. They included Overstock.com at No. 2, Zappos.com at No. 3 and Amazon.com at No. 4.
Other noteworthy retailers were J.C. Penney ( No. 7), Lands' End (No. 5), QVC (No. 8), Coldwater Creek( No. 9) and Nordstrom( No. 10).
The survey polled 8,167 consumers, who responded to the question "Thinking of all of the different retail formats (store, catalog, Internet or home shopping), which retailer delivers the best customer service?"
Let me know about your customer service experiences with any of these top ranked retailers.
