Late last week, Starbucks announced its 600 stores that will be closing. While Pennsylvania was hard hit with 20 stores set to close, State College's four locations were spared.
Altoona wasn't as lucky and will lose two locations, as will Harrisburg.
The full list is available here, if you want to download the pdf file.
Many of these suggestions are the common sense moves that we hear about time and again. What makes this more interesting is there's a dollar amount tied to each one of what you could save. With belts tightening for all of us, it never hurts to take a second look.
A new survey published by CareerBuilder.com found that 78 percent of Americans say they feel burned out by their jobs.
The results cite "downsized staffs paired with increased workloads may be causing a rise in stress levels around the workplace."
Approximately 46 percent of workers surveyed said that their workload had increased over the last six months, with about the same amount describing their workload as heavy or too heavy.
About a quarter of people surveyed said they are dissatisfied with the current work/life balance, according to the survey results.
On the positive, more than half said that the companies they work for are offering some soft of flexible work arrangements when it comes to things, such as scheduling or telecommuting.
As things tighten financially, more people are considering second jobs, while some are already at that point to help make ends meet, according to this story.
What are your thoughts on taking a second job? Is it a necessity to make ends meet or is it a way to pay for the extras we've become accustomed to in the face of rising costs all around? Let me know you thoughts on this subject, either through the comment section here or at jthomas@centredaily.com.
Just how much more are you paying at the pump? It's easy to look at gas costs in the 5 to 10 cents jumps it takes, but what about the longer term picture.
Last year at this time, you were paying -- on average-- a $1.13 LESS per gallon.
Go back to 2002. Gas now costs $2.60 cents more, according to data from the Energy Information Administration.
So what about the broad picture?
The average household paid $25 a week for gas in January 2002. Fast forward to this June, where $83 was the norm -- that's a 335 percent jump, based on information from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index.
The American Coalition for Ethanol, a grassroots voice of the U.S. ethanol industry, released these figures in a press release touting the effect of ethanol and the need to keep exploring and expanding it's used in the United States.
That organization says that ethanol is helping to keep costs from soaring even higher, and the consumer benefits from savings of $210 to $642 per year because prices are lower.
In case you missed this week's column, just a heads up that Home Depot opened its doors this morning at 6 a.m.
The home improvement retailer plans to be open Monday – Saturday 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Kohl's has been doing it's best to play coy about its plans for the Centre Region.
The retailer denied having any plans for our community in recent weeks despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. After all Patton Township approved a plan, the building is under construction and there's even a sign for Kohl's at the construction site.
Now we have the next piece of the puzzle -- even though they aren't coming here -- the company placed a classified advertisement seeking employees for its State College location.
It seems that by the time they're ready to announce their big plans it'll be old, old news.
United has announced plans to charge $15 for a first checked bag on domestic flights.
This shouldn't really come as a surprise, because American Airlines announced a similar move last month, saying it would offset soaring fuel costs.
United's projections for the fee ad several others it's adding? $275 million a year.
Here's a peek into the scope and size of the state's dairy industry via the Pennsylvania Dairy Task Force Economic Development Committee.
Did you know...
* Pennsylvania is the 4th largest dairy state in U.S.
* Dairy is the largest segment of PA’s agricultural industry
*Pennsylvania is home to 560,000 dairy cows and 9,000 dairy farms
*Pennsylvania produces 10.3 billion pounds of milk or 1.2 billion gallons annually
*The dairy industry has a $4.2 billion local economic impact
*The dairy industry supports 40,000 jobs
This week's Bits of Business found construction moving steadily along at the Mount Nittany Inn, where the owners are hoping for a September opening.
That news along with an effort to be more energy conscious when building at S&A Homes, a new salon and a model investment club to help get your feet wet when it comes to investing rounded out the week. You can read all the details here.
