CVS finds its inner Beauty
Sandra Guy: Cosmetics and skin-care shoppers may soon see a new boutique, Beauty 360, selling 32 brand-name product lines previously found in department stores. The surprise? The Beauty 360 concept is the brainchild of CVS Pharmacy. The Beauty 360 shops will be located next to certain CVS drugstores with high-sales cosmetics and beauty departments, said Cheryl Mahoney, vice president for beauty care for CVS.

Aculocity shows firms how to analyze claims
Sandra Guy: Warranties are the Rodney Dangerfield of the retail and manufacturing industries. Yet companies ignore warranties at their peril. "When a company pays attention to its warranties, it's a great way to improve brand image, save money and improve customer satisfaction, loyalty and repeat purchases," said Eric Arnum, editor of Warranty Week magazine, based in Forest Hills, N.Y. Product warranty claims total a jaw-dropping $28 billion a year in the United States, and extended warranty claims add another $16 billion, Arnum said.

Bay Harbour wins bid to buy Steve & Barry's
Sandra Guy: A newly created affiliate of investment company Bay Harbour Management has won the bid to buy Steve & Barry’s, known for its discount prices and celebrity-sponsored clothes. The $168 million purchase agreement calls for a majority of Steve & Barry's 276 stores to continue to operate, according to a press release issued Thursday by Steve & Barry's.

Worknet gets call when companies outsource
Sandra Guy: Food follows a circuitous route to get to food pantries and homeless shelters for people in need. America's Second Harvest, the nation's largest food-bank network, uses Worknet Inc., a Naperville-based technology firm, to host its computer servers that route food and make sure the food is delivered fresh.

Shop puts fun in fashion
Sandra Guy: A new teen fashion retailer, Frankie's on the Park, is hoping to show how intense customer service and unusual ideas can survive a brutal economy. Businesswomen Lisa Rolfe Burik and Mary DeRose Carter had worked together as partners at a health care consultancy that Burik and her husband, David, founded with two others. Three years ago, the Buriks sold Tiber Group, their 19-year-old firm that generated $10 million in annual revenues, to Navigant Consulting.

Sharing space keeps rents low for local artisans
Sandra Guy: Independent retailers are opening stores in today's tough economy by focusing on niche markets with one-of-a-kind concepts. The Andersonville Galleria, which showcases the importance of support for the arts and friendly property owners, is slated to double the space it rents to homegrown artists in time for Christmas and the winter holidays.

Barks beat economy's bite
Sandra Guy: Why would retail businesses be closing and vacancies left begging in the fastest-growing community in the Chicago area? At least 14 businesses have closed and two others have moved away in recent months in an area bordered by Cermak on the south, Roosevelt Road on the north, State Street on the west and Indiana Avenue on the east.

Beating the tax bite
Sandra Guy: Native Chicagoan Keene Addington plans to open eight new Flat Top Grill stir-fry fresh-food eateries in the next 18 months, but only one will be in downtown Chicago. The Loop site, in the old Carson Pirie Scott & Co. building at 1 S. State, is expected to open late this year. The entrance will be at Wabash and Monroe.

Location is key for restaurants to survive

Restaurants must charge an 11.5 percent sales tax if they operate inside a taxing district created 15 years ago by the Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority.

Course links Elmhurst students to South Africa
Sandra Guy: Ammar Haq had never paid attention to the message underlying a neighborhood's lack of banks and proliferation of currency exchanges until he took an honors course at Elmhurst College. "You don't see one bank for miles," said Haq, a 22-year-old senior majoring in biology, describing a class tour of a bank-less Chicago neighborhood. "You see storefront churches and fast-food places and currency exchanges." Haq, who grew up in Lombard and whose parents are from Pakistan, took the eye-opening tour as part of the course "Prophets: Visions of Social Justice."

No 'must-have' school item for kids this fall
Sandra Guy: It's a back to basics back-to-school year in electronics shopping, because there is no "must-have" item this year, experts say. "We haven't seen one product that teenagers are gushing over. Most of the text-messaging products and miniature computers have already been on the market for a while," said Kathy Grannis, spokeswoman for the National Retail Federation in Washington, D.C.

New spin at Motorola
Sandra Guy: Motorola's new co-chief executive and head of its mobile phone unit, Sanjay Jha, said Monday he will make important decisions on the Schaumburg-based cell phone giant's maligned software technology platforms in the next 90 days and aim to quickly launch the kinds of handsets that consumers demand. Jha, 45, will earn base pay of at least $1.2 million, receive a bonus of $2.4 million and get an ownership stake in a new, stand-alone Motorola handset business.

Hartmarx shifts pensions to protect top executives
Sandra Guy: Hartmarx, the Chicago-based suit manufacturer, is protecting its top executives' pensions by moving what it calls minuscule amounts -- $400,000 in the last five years -- into the rank-and-file pension plan. "A higher-paid person's pension benefit is entitled to the same amount of protection as the other employees' benefits," said Chief Financial Officer Glenn Morgan.

Dress cheap, don't look cheap
Sandra Guy: Students scrambling to save money should get help from retailers that are putting low-price jeans on display and reducing their supplies of premium denim. "Value is no longer a dirty word in the denim business," said Michael Silver, founder of the moderately priced Silver Jeans.

NBA chief backs Cuban bid for Cubs: report

Mark Cuban, billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks and a bidder for the Cubs, said Sunday he appreciates the unexpected support he has reportedly received from NBA Commissioner David Stern for Cuban's efforts to be a baseball team owner.

Etiquette essentials
Sandra Guy: Today's sometimes rude, crude, lowbrow culture proves to P.J. McGuire that her etiquette business is in desperate demand. "I'm trying to change our society one person at a time," said McGuire, 28, who attended finishing school in her native Lima, Ohio. McGuire remembers being raised in a "prim and proper atmosphere" by parents who grew up in Mississippi steeped in Southern manners. "I ended up going to charm school twice," she said. "I started at age 5, but I was too young to get it. The second time, I was about 7."

Surprise! Motorola dials up profit on cell phone sales
Sandra Guy: Is a Motorola cell phone spinoff inevitable? Analysts continued to ask that question Thursday after the Schaumburg-based cell phone giant reported a profit and better-than-expected cell phone shipments in the second quarter. The stock climbed 12.5 percent on the news, to close at $8.64. Speculation that Motorola would keep the cell phone business and spin off other units started earlier this week.