Local Business

The food hall, just up the hill from the Plaza, is set to open Monday in the Cascade Hotel, 4600 Wornall Rd. Plaza Provisions takes the place of the Strang Chef Collective, which closed in December after just a year.

Betty Bremser has been running Foo's Fabulous Frozen Custard for nearly 30 years, turning the Brookside locale into a dessert destination and the start of many local teens' careers. But Bremser is hanging up her scoop at the end of the month.

Grocery stores accepting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits in 12 states will soon have to accommodate new exclusions to the program. Industry advocates say the changes will be expensive, especially for smaller retailers.

Jackson County property owners spoke before a Missouri House special committee this week about receiving huge property tax increases — with few options for appeals. “There’s no transparency; there’s no accountability; and there’s no guardrail," Blip owner Ian Davis told lawmakers.

The little round balls may seem a bit outdated compared to some current games, but there’s a community of collectors, artists and kids keeping marble culture alive. In this store and studio just outside Kansas City, visitors can watch marbles being made.

President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has many recent immigrants terrified, hunkering down and holding onto their money. That new fear and frugality is crushing small, mom-and-pop businesses in some immigrant-heavy business corridors, like Central Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas, just as new tariffs are raising the prices of many products that recent immigrants buy.

Next year, transgender teens in Kansas will no longer be able to access puberty blockers and hormone treatments for gender-affirming care. One family in Wichita is worried about navigating the changes. Plus, aircraft manufacturing is a big part of the Kansas economy, but new tariffs by the Trump administration have some companies scrambling.

Hotel rooms, buses, and liquor laws are just a few of the problems that Kansas City will need to figure out in the next year, before the first World Cup games kick off at Arrowhead Stadium next June.

Kansas City Council set the money aside to encourage small businesses, artists, and makers to move into the city's highly visible, but vacant, storefronts before the 2026 World Cup. “When visitors from all over the world visit next year, we need to be open for business,” one member said.

Small business owners want Kansas Citians to know they don't want to raise prices, but President Donald Trump's turbulent tariff policy has put them in a tough spot. Businesses say the situation is "unsettling."

Businesses along Central Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas, are taking a hit as customers stay home and cut back on spending. "I don’t know what will happen,” one business owner said. "It's scary."

China is the source of 80% of toys purchased in the U.S. Two business owners in Kansas have been forced by the president's barrage of trade barriers to buy product early and in bulk, and deal with supply-chain issues.