Retail

Country Club Plaza, Oak Park Mall and Independence Center face similar challenges and starkly different futures.

Despite a few headline-grabbing incidents in Overland Park, public records show that reports and arrests for shoplifting and theft remain below their pre-pandemic peaks. But police officials are raising concerns about what they call "organized retail crime."

Leawood Mayor Peggy Dunn announced last summer that she wouldn't run for re-election. She'll officially leave office when newly-elected mayor Marc Elkins is sworn in on Jan. 2.

Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker has launched an effort to charge more cases of retail theft and illegal firearms on the Plaza.

After two shootings at stores in the Plaza, some retailers have changed their business hours out of concerns for employee safety. Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas says the city is talking with the Plaza's owners about increasing law enforcement presence in the area.

The idea for the beloved and iconic bookstore was "birthed on a bar stool less than 50 feet from its front door."

The locally-owned soap company announced in April it would close its Soap Bar storefront and move into Mid Coast Modern just a couple doors down on Westport Road. It's also leaning more into wholesale through Made in KC.

For years, Nordstrom has planned to leave Oak Park Mall and move to a 122,000-square-foot space on the Plaza. But lately, reports have circled that the national retailer is reconsidering.

Nearly a dozen stores, both local shops and national chains, have closed their Plaza locations over the past year.

The Missouri Legislature is considering several measures that would bar COVID-19 vaccine mandates and provide greater exemptions for vaccinations. But the Missouri Chamber of Commerce says that should be the choice of individual employers.

To survive the pandemic, indie booksellers in Kansas and Missouri have found success by directly competing with Amazon for online orders. Plus, a new show at the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art features the work of nine Kansas City women.

The Kansas Board of Tax Appeals sided with Nebraska Furniture Mart's protest of its tax bill in Wyandotte County in the latest of so-called "dark store theory" cases.