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A shopper outside a Jewel at Roosevelt and State Street, April 29, 2008. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Jewel-Osco parent Supervalu Inc. hopes to save millions of dollars a year by training workers to avoid double-bagging, putting more items in each bag or skipping the bag altogether.
“We’re in a very competitive industry. Anything we can do to lower our expenses will help us keep our prices as fair as possible,” says Supervalu spokesman Mike Siemienas. Get the full story »
Yahoo Inc has revamped its Internet search service to sense queries and showcase answers from movie listings to weather forecasts, even as users are typing in a word. Get the full story »
Michael Jordan at a golf tournament last year. (Jeff Siner/Charlotte Observer/MCT)
A Michael Jordan-branded restaurant is returning to Chicago after a 12-year absence.
Michael Jordan’s Steak House will open in late summer in the second-floor dining room and ground-floor bar area of the InterContinental Chicago on North Michigan Avenue.
Chicago-based Strategic Hotels & Resorts, which owns the hotel, will own the restaurant. InterContinental will manage it, while licensing the Michael Jordan name from Jump Higher LLC, which is based in Chicago and managed by The Cornerstone Restaurant Group. Get the full story »
The pharmacy of a Walgreen's store in New York. (JB Reed/Bloomberg)
Buoyed by an increase in the number of prescriptions it fills, Walgreen Co. this morning reported a 10 percent increase in its second-quarter profits.
The Deerfield-based drug store giant said earnings grew to $739 million, or 80 cents a share, compared to $669 million, or 68 cents a share, in the quarter ended Feb. 28. Revenues rose 8.9 percent to $18.5 billion.
Still, the price of Walgreen Co. shares fell $2.76, or 6.6 percent, to $39.21 a share on Tuesday because some analysts were unhappy with the company’s profit margins and higher expenses in the quarter. Selling, general and administrative expenses jumped 8 percent in the quarter to $4.1 billion. Get the full story »
The last big U.S. airline holdout to the Wi-Fi revolution, United Continental Holdings Inc., unveiled plans to wire 200 domestic aircraft for satellite-based broadband service starting next year.
United Continental said Tuesday it had signed a letter of intent with LiveTV, a subsidiary of JetBlue Airways, to provide inflight Internet service on more than 200 Continental Boeing 737 and 757 jets already equipped for DirecTV service. Get the full story »
Apple Inc. will stick to plans to roll out its newest iPad on Friday to 25 more markets, including France and the United Kingdom, even as it fails to meet the high demand for the gadget in the United States.
In affirming its international plans, Apple did not provide any hard figures for U.S. sales since the newest iPad, a thinner and faster version that features two cameras for video chat, was introduced March 11. Prices start at $499. Get the full story »
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will urge the U.S. Supreme Court next week to reject the largest class-action sex-discrimination lawsuit in history, brought by female employees who seek billion of dollars.
The top U.S. court hears arguments March 29 in a suit against the world’s largest retailer for allegedly giving women less pay and fewer promotions at 3,400 U.S. stores since late 1998. Get the full story »
The former Carson Pirie Scott building on State Street. (Heather Charles/Chicago Tribune)
Carson Pirie Scott’s corporate parent is suing Joseph Freed and Associates, accusing the developer of breach of contract for missing a $3 million payment promised to the retailer for exiting its flagship State Street store in 2007.
McRIL LLC, an entity associated with Carson parent Bon-Ton Stores Inc., claimed in a lawsuit filed Friday in a Chicago federal court that Freed and One South State Street LLC missed the final payment of a $22 million lease termination fee that was due March 1. Get the full story »
Six former and current employees of Bayer AG’s U.S. health care arm filed a $100 million gender discrimination lawsuit Monday, claiming the U.S. unit discriminates against its female employees in terms of pay and promotion, as well as pregnancy leave. Get the full story »
The weeks after the Super Bowl are considered the traditional start of the home-buying season, but home sales were a non-starter in the Chicago area last month.
February sales of existing homes in the Chicago area fell 8.8 percent from their level of a year ago, to 3,769 homes sold at a median price of $152,500. A year ago, in February 2010, the median price was $165,000. Get the full story »
Charles Schwab is acquiring Chicago-based online brokerage optionsXpress Holdings Inc. for about $1 billion, the companies announced Monday.
OptionsXpress stockholders will receive 1.02 shares of Schwab stock for each share of optionsXpress stock, under the terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2011. Get the full story »
The 747-8 Intercontinental, Boeing's largest-ever passenger airplane, returns to its hangar on Sunday. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty)
Boeing Co.’s newest 747 passenger jet, the largest commercial plane it has ever built, took to the skies for the first time Sunday, marking the third maiden flight of a new Boeing commercial airplane in the past 15 months. (See video)
Painted in its orange and red “sunrise” livery, the massive, four-engine 747-8 Intercontinental lifted off from Paine Field, north of Seattle, at 10 a.m. local time under partly cloudy skies and gusty northerly winds. At 250 feet long, the 747-8 is 18 feet longer than its predecessor. Get the full story »
Kate Pietrelli, marketing director of hi5, shows off a browser during a Microsoft Explorer event. (Chip Chipman/Bloomberg)
After a decade-long hiatus, the browser wars are officially back. With this week’s release of Internet Explorer 9, last week’s Google Chrome 10 release, and this month’s expected release of Firefox 4, the three most-used browsers are all trying to outduel one another with the most impressive specs. Safari 5, which was released in June, also features many of the same modern features. Get the full story »
European planemaker Airbus was placed under investigation on Thursday over the 2009 crash of a flight between Rio de Janeiro and Paris that killed 228 people, Airbus Chief Executive Thomas Enders said.
Investigators are trying to establish why the Airbus 330 plane, operated by Air France, plunged into the Atlantic during a storm on May 31, 2009, killing passengers from 32 nations, including 72 French citizens. Get the full story »
