Retail

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.

A freshly revised report out today predicts strong economic growth in the Kansas City region. The Center for Economic Development and Business Research at Wichita State University forecasts that jobs and sales will be almost back to pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year, despite massive job losses last spring.

Normally empty this time of year, aisles full of school supplies suggest that parents are taking a pass on purchases until they have more certainty about openings.

It's been a brutal two months for Oak Park Mall and the businesses there that have been deemed non-essential. But late Wednesday morning the mall will start to come out of its coma.

As stay-at-home orders start to lift, business owners are thinking about how best to protect their employees, customers, and profits.