“The King of Queens” star Kevin James will walk the beat in the comedy feature “Mall Cop,” playing a mild-mannered security guard who patrols a mall that’s taken over by highly organized thieves.

James wrote the screenplay for the Columbia project with Nick Bakay. The actor’s feature credits include “Hitch,” opposite Will Smith, and “I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry,” opposite Adam Sadler.

Original story here.

The owner of 134 Wendy’s restaurants wants to make a bid for the nation’s No. 3 hamburger chain with two private-equity firms.

David Karam, president of Cedar Enterprises Inc., said Wednesday that he and his partners have been invited by Wendy’s International, Inc. to a second round of talks. He is backed by Kelso & Co. and Oak Hill Capital Partners.

”I’ve been involved in the brand,” he said. ”I see the great potential of it.”

Cedar Enterprises, based outside Columbus, owns Wendy’s restaurants across the country that have a combined annual revenue of $200 million.

More here.

But now city leaders are worrying that all the high living is destroying the exclusive small-town allure of their former hippie hangout and mining outpost. Aspen’s more modest-living, year-round residents have looked on in dismay as a flood of luxury retailers have replaced their unique, independent shops, which no longer can afford the lofty rents. Aspen’s 20-block downtown now counts 24 jewelry stores and roughly 30 high-end chains.

Aspen’s city council must make a decision on the downtown’s fate by year end, when a yearlong moratorium on approvals for downtown construction will expire. The hiatus was intended to provide city officials time to determine the downtown’s direction after an historic independent restaurant and movie theater both closed.

Among measures the council is considering are caps on the number of luxury chains and jewelry stores allowed downtown. It is also mulling subsidizing at-risk stores deemed “essential commercial uses,” like pharmacies and laundromats. That assistance could entail public-private partnerships that defray rent or incentives for developers to build ancillary space, such as basements or second floors, that could be occupied by local retailers.

More here.

LI Biz Blog has excerpts of an interview with Cedar Shopping Centers CEO Leo S. Ullman.

TWST: Looking ahead for the next few years, what are the main opportunities that lie ahead and what are the main strategies that you will be employing?

Mr. Ullman: We hope to continue to build on what we have started with, which is to enhance the portfolio that we have been developing primarily in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Delaware. We think these are uniquely strong areas and we think we are very well positioned in those areas to continue to compete effectively. We look to develop where we can, either ourselves or in partnership with a few local developers that we would finance and help, banking on our special development experience and on our relationships with grocery anchors, for example, as the driving force for these types of property developments. They would generally be 120,000 to 180,000 square foot centers with a grocer that might represent 40% to 60% of that area. We would continue generally not to take down a development site until we have a signed lease with primarily a grocery anchor, for example.

The full interview is at Yahoo.

Via Supermarket News:

Whole Foods Market is scheduled to open what it described as a first-of-its-kind “market hall”-format store here today, in which shoppers can access all departments in a single loop. “It will not resemble a typical supermarket, or even other Whole Foods Market stores around the country,” the Austin, Texas-based company said in a prepared release. The design, the company added, “was inspired by several international market halls from around the globe, including ones in Berlin; Granville Island, Vancouver; and Portland, Maine.” It includes a dine-in venue called Market Bistro and a “Fresh and Wild” station with a juice bar, salads and other offerings. Separately, Whole Foods said it plans to close the original Capers Market location in West Vancouver, British Columbia, according to reports. It is one of four Capers stores in Canada that Whole Foods acquired when it bought Wild Oats. Last week Whole Foods also said it plans to close a Wild Oats in downtown Salt Lake City when a new Whole Foods is completed in late 2009 or early 2010, according to reports.

Movie Gallery Inc., the nation’s No. 2 video rental chain, said Tuesday it would close about 520 stores to save money and cut costs. The move comes as the Dothan-based company struggles to pay debt.

The company said it was closing underperforming and unprofitable stores that operate under the Movie Gallery and Hollywood Video names.

Movie Gallery stock rose about 7 cents, or nearly 14 percent, to 58 cents a share in afternoon Nasdaq trading. Prices have ranged from 25 cents a share to $5.29 a share over the last year.

A spokeswoman said liquidation sales will begin Thursday at Movie Gallery and Hollywood Video stores nationwide. The closings are scattered across the country, but the number of jobs affected was not disclosed.

More here.

Roger Staubach, who stepped back from running his eponymous Staubach Co. this summer, has moved on to his next act: Stumping for Republican presidential aspirant John McCain.

We interviewed Staubach in July.

The shoe retailer Finish Line, responding to a lawsuit brought by Genesco, said yesterday that Genesco had breached their merger deal by not providing certain information or access to its executives that Finish Line requested.

Finish Line said it was reviewing the lawsuit — brought last week to force it to complete its purchase of Genesco, whose shoe and hat chains include Journeys, Johnston & Murphy and Lids — and would take steps to protect the interests of Finish Line and its shareholders.

In June, Finish Line agreed to buy Genesco for $1.5 billion, but last month said that it would evaluate its options for the deal after Genesco posted a surprise quarterly loss.

More here.

I’ve never heard of this company, Peebles. It sounds like they open small-scale–like less than 20,000 square feet–department stores in small markets. It’s a strategy designed to keep them out of competition with Wal-Mart.

There’s a story about the chain making its debut in Wisconsin. The chain operates 655 stores in 33 states and is planning to open 45 this year.

Peebles wins that sort of affection by giving shoppers in rural areas an opportunity to buy brands such as Estée Lauder, Liz Claiborne, Mikasa, Izod and other department store names without making a trip to a regional mall.

The Mukwonago store is one of about 45 that Peebles’ parent company, Stage Stores Inc. of Houston, plans to open this year around the country. Executives at the Peebles division headquarters and Stage Stores corporate office did not respond to several requests for an interview. According to the company’s annual report to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Stage Stores plans to open 70 new stores in 2008.

Waukesha County shoppers who visited the new Peebles said it reminded them of a Kohl’s store. Peebles uses a racetrack layout, with a tile floor in the main traffic paths and carpeting in merchandise areas. Most of the store is devoted to brand-name clothing, accessories and shoes for women, men and children. A small area of gifts and décor is located at the back of the store.

People are confessing in unlikely places. On a recent Saturday morning in Colorado Springs, seven people lined up outside an office next to a Burlington Coat Factory at the Citadel mall. At the appointed hour, Father Matthew Gross, 72, strode up wearing his brown friar’s habit. “Three minutes each, that’s all you get,” he joked to two women waiting in line.

Since 2001, the Rev. Gross and two other Capuchin friars have come to the mall to hear confessions 11 hours a day, six days a week in a small office with a box of Kleenex and a laminated copy of the Ten Commandments. They now hear about 8,000 confessions a year.

More here.