Men's Wearhouse opens in Ammon

I consider it good news when any empty storefront (who hasn't seen plenty of those in the last two years?) gets a new tenant, so I was encouraged this week to see Men's Wearhouse has moved into the Ammon Town Center where Hollywood Video used to be.

The Texas-based chain has been around since 1973, when it was George Zimmer. It operates under the names Men's Wearhouse, K&G Superstores (an off-price retail chain featuring discontinued items) and Twin Hill Corporate apparel.

The chain runs television and radio commercials featuring Zimmer, and the oft-repeated slogan, "You're going to like the way you look; I guarantee it." According to Business Week, Men's Wearhouse targets the common man, with "the neatly displayed clothes in Zimmer's stores [being] designed to cater to the unpretentious guy who wants to do as little as possible to maintain his wardrobe."

Carl's Jr. opening two I.F. locations

Today's scoop comes in answer to my co-worker Cyndi, who asked yesterday what's going into the old Schlotsky's Deli on 17th Street, in the Grand Teton Mall parking lot.

Two words: Carl's Jr. I have no idea how many people here in Idaho Falls will be transported into the realm of delight at this news, but I'm reasonably sure there are at least a few fans out there. In which case, here's something that ought to make them twice as happy. Carl's Jr. is not only putting in a location on 17th Street, but also at the intersection of North Holmes and Yellowstone Avenue, where the Sinclair station used to be.

A building permit has been issued for the 17th Street restaurant, said Brad Cramer, city of Idaho Falls assistant planning director. Because of the limited size of the North Holmes lot, some variances will have to be obtained before work can begin there, he said.

Kelly Grieve, spokeswoman for CKR Enterprises, said they don't have a date set for the opening, but confirmed that two would be opening in Idaho Falls in 2011 or early 2012.

Carl's Jr. has 11 locations in Idaho, most of them in the Boise area, the nearest one in Twin Falls. Its corporate office is located in Carpenteria, Calif. The chain dates back to 1941, when Carl N. Karcher and his wife, Margaret, borrowed $311 on their Plymouth and added their $15 in savings to buy a hot dog cart. His first day in business, he took in $14.75.

In less than five years, they opened their first Carl's Drive-In Barbecue. Karcher died in 2007, at the age of 90. Today, there are more than 1,200 Carl's Jr. restaurants, most in the West and Southwest.

RE/MAX agents join Keller Williams East Idaho

Here's a new development in the local real estate market. Chris Pelkota Lee and several of her colleagues have left RE/MAX Homestead Realty to join Keller Williams Realty, which was Win Star Realty until September 2010.

Lee reports the merger occurred when the local RE/MAX office owners decided not to renew their franchise, opting instead to join the Keller Williams East Idaho office. They have stayed in the RE/MAX building, at 3525 Merlin, and the Keller Williams agents have moved in from their old offices on nearby Elk Creek Drive. A new Web site has been set up, http://www.kwreastidaho.yourkwoffice.com/

"Most of the RE/MAX folks have stayed through the merger, although a new smaller RE/MAX office has opened with a new owner," Lee said.

Chris is one of the more communicative real estate agents I've met, and does a great job of posting interesting links on her Facebook business page, http://www.facebook.com/?ref=hp#!/IFListings. I'm sure she'd like it if you liked her.

First Monday in October

I'm happy to report that in its first month, BizMojo Idaho received nearly 600 pageviews. At least I think I'm happy to report that. Maybe that's an abysmal number I ought to keep to myself. But having embarked on this with no idea of what to expect, I'll take what I can get.

The big winner for the month -- 73 pageviews -- was the news on Chick-Fil-A, which plans to open Nov. 17. Given my Shoptalk experience during the golden age of "When is Olive Garden coming?" I am not surprised by this. Tied for second place was the post about 3's Co. Catering opening its location on downtown.

The stats indicate our visits are coming almost exclusively from Facebook, which is not surprising. Like everyone, we're still trying to figure out how to make Facebook work more effectively for us. We launched BizMojo Idaho the same month that Facebook did its big makeover, the source of much online caterwauling. I'm not sure what sort of effect this had.

I have my own opinions about the effectiveness of pay-per-click advertising, having spent $25 on Facebook (thankfully, no more) to advertise a gig my band, Happyville, was playing at Vino Rosso and seeing no discernable results. I've got plenty of experience with advertising, and can tell you about the two slam-dunks I've engineered, one of which was online, the other on the radio.

I suppose a link to Twitter is next, although I remain unsold on its uses for anything other than celebrity gossip or Middle Eastern street demonstrations.

The number of followers seems to have hit a plateau, but I've been told that's all right, that pageviews is what I want to watch. We haven't received any comments other than two welcome back messages and a couple of likes on Facebook (heartwarming, especially the one from my sister, Marty, in Virginia).

All told, I'm hoping to build on what's been done. I will soon be writing up the new restaurant downtown, Il Castello, where I had lunch Friday (it was good). There will be much, much more to follow.

Honoring the memory of World War II

I was privileged to attend the opening of the Museum of Idaho's World War II exhibit Thursday, and it got me thinking about the people who fought fascism and won.

In my years with the Post Register, I interviewed plenty of WWII vets and their families. Memorial Day, Pearl Harbor Day, Veterans Day ... invariably the assignment would be to find a vet and conduct an interview. Being a WWII history buff who never gets tired of hearing the stories, the assignments usually came my way. A couple of them stand out in my memory.

One WWII piece I can recall was about Lloyd Gneiting of Rigby, an 89-year-old vet who'd gone into Germany with Patton, liberating the Buchenwald concentration camp. He had photos that had miraculously made it home, which, horrible as they were, could only hint at what he'd seen with his own eyes.

The interview took place in 2003, a few months after the Iraq War had begun, and Lloyd was having a hard time with his memories, which were being triggered by everything he was seeing on TV. There was no Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in 1945, it was called shell shock. For Lloyd, the memories he'd suppressed for nearly 60 years were coming back with a vengeance. It was a hard story to write, and a reminder that not all was roses for the men and women who came home from Europe and the Pacific. Judging from this YouTube video from last Memorial Day it appears he is doing better than when I saw him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABwAmTBGMDE

The second story that comes to mind -- a happier one -- is the one I did in 2004 after receiving a letter from a woman in Rambouillet, France, asking if we could find any relatives of Harold Grout of Firth, a combat engineer who'd been killed in an ambush in August 1944 during the Allied drive toward Paris. They were planning to add his name and a few others to a monument, and wanted to invite family members.

With legwork, I was able to locate Grout's widow, Melva, who had remarried after the war but had two daughters by her first husband. In the end, the entire family went to France for the dedication and the two daughters, who had only a very dim memory of their father, were able to visit his grave at the Allied cemetery on the coast of Brittany. Melva also discovered she was entitled to a pension from the Veterans Administration, a nice bonus for an 88-year old widow on a fixed income.

Much has been made of the "Greatest Generation," people who came home to enjoy the post-war economic boom and the best standard of living the American middle class has probably ever had. I think of my father-in-law, Ed Juell, who served in the Pacific and then went to work 42 years as an engineer for Westinghouse, raising a family and sending five children to the University of Utah.

What strikes me is that the children of the Depression did not preoccupy themselves with big houses, flat-screen TVs in every room and every kind of toy easy credit could buy. I hear about how tough times are today, and I know they are for many, but I think about choices people make and the men and women born in the second and third decades of the 20th century. They came out of the Depression to save the world, many of them sacrificing their lives, many more paying with arms, legs and their central nervous systems.

After the war (and thanks in great part to the G.I. Bill), they enjoyed prosperity, not to mention security, working for employers that viewed them as people to be developed, not "full-time equivalencies" to be cut in the name of short-term profit.

They wanted the best for their children and future generations. As they leave us, our best hope for honoring them is by being the best people we can be, embracing their ideals and committing ourselves to the liberty they fought to preserve.

Lucy's opens Hitt Road pizzeria

Lucy's Pizzeria has opened a second location in the greater Idaho Falls area, at 2489 S. 25th East, formerly Sundae's Eats and Treats.

Owner Jeff Padigimus said they had been looking for an Ammon location when Sundae's owner Marshall Egan approached them (for those of you who miss it, Lucy's is still carrying Sundae's ice cream and a few of their desserts.) Padigimus jumped at the prospect of 3,000 square feet on one of the busiest thoroughfares in the area.

A native of Roberts, he started Lucy's there in June 2009. The Idaho Falls location, at 725 E. Anderson opened in November 2009.

His idea at first was to do hot-and-ready pizza part time, but the slowdown in the construction industry (in which he was employed) made him think again and so did his introduction to Rich Franco, who showed him how to make New York style pizza. In fact, Lucy's is named after Franco's bulldog, Lucy, and the pizza ovens and equipment came from Franco's kitchen on First Street.

Word of mouth has been building since the Hitt Road store opened Sept. 15, and they have done a mailer and started advertising on the radio. Padigimus (the name is Lithuanian, in case you're curious) said he is optimistic that they can make a go of it in two locations, especially since what they offer is so different from anything anyone else has.

In true NYC fashion, Lucy's sells pizza by the slice, which makes them an automatic lunch destination in my book.

To look at the menu, check out the web page, http://lucysnypizza.net/.

Ad agency buys downtown I.F. building

MCS Advertising has not only got a new address in downtown Idaho Falls, but a new building.

Agency owner Lisa Fischbach said they were determined to keep an actual address downtown. “We’d been to a seminar on advertising agency principles, and they really advocated owning your own place,” she said. “We love it downtown and want to be part of the community. We want to have a real location.”

While visiting Grandma’s Relics on B Street (indulging her passion for vintage plastic and glass), owners Debbie Hipps and Elaine Gray told her they and their silent partner, Karin Fry, were looking for someone to buy their building, which is on the corner of Park Avenue and B Street, next door to the Center Theatre. After some negotiation, the deal was done.

Fischbach said they’ve taken to calling their property “Block 22” after its legal description, which dates back to 1884. They have gotten lots of paperwork that dates back to then, including the original warranty deed. “I can’t believe this came all this way with all these owners,” she said.

MCS has its offices on the second floor. Fishbach and her real estate agent, Kevin Cutler, are looking for tenants for the street level. They are also looking into finding grant money that will allow them to pull off the plastic siding that was put on in the 1960s and restore the building to its original splendor. The found an excellent picture in a Polk’s City Directory from 1920, on which they plan to base their efforts.

The agency’s clients include Blacker’s, Taylor Group Automotive, MicroServ, Idaho Falls Regional Airport and Doug Andrus Trucking. It’s web address is http://www.mightymcs.com.