Technology

The first-of-its-kind Home Channel News list of 50 hardware store all-stars appeared in the May issue of Home Channel News and recognized a diverse group of high-performance retailers -- large, small, urban and rural. Below, the state-by-state guide winds through Tennessee, Texas and Utah.

“Buy from the merchants who are your next-door neighbors. They are the folks who go to church with you, buy from other local firms and keep the money flowing within the community. Your local independent retailer is a longtime resident of the area who actively participates in and generously supports the community.”


That passage was written by a retail store owner, who worried about large competitors encroaching on his turf. The year wasn’t 2011, 2001 or even 1991. 


According to a report by CBS News, a number of Canadian consumers are coming into the United States to purchase pesticides, herbicides and other garden chemicals no longer sold in Canada because of that country’s strict regulations. Others are simply ordering products over the Internet from other countries.

California cities dominate the top-ten Eco-Friendliest Cities list assembled by small business-oriented web site thumbtack.com

San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose rank one, two and three on the list, which measures the per capita prevalence of a representative group of ten types of green services. More details about the data are here.

Here are the top ten eco-friendly cities from the list:

Appliance maker Haier has joined as a sponsor of the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA). 

NPCA represents more than 600,000 members and supporters throughout the country whose help is crucial to the mission of protecting and improving national parks.

The partnership goes hand in hand with Haier’s recent efforts to raise awareness and about sustainable living, including the launch of its new line of energy-efficient appliances, according to New York City-based Haier. 

The battle over online purchasing and sales tax might be winding to a close as more Republican governors are dropping their opposition to a mandatory state tax on Internet sales. The turning point may have been in May, when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie cut a deal with Amazon.com: Residents of New Jersey would pay a 7% sales tax on Amazon.com purchases, and the nation’s largest e-tailer would build two distribution centers in the state.

One of the attractions of Pinterest is how easy it is to use. But management attorneys caution that it makes breaking copyright law easy too.

“Pinterest just makes it so easy, without even requesting uploads (as sites such as YouTube or Instagram do), that the infringement can happen instantly and unthinkingly,” remarked Jonathan Ezor, assistant professor of law and director of the Institute for Business, Law and Technology at the Touro Law Center in Central Islip, N.Y.

Menards may become the first anchor tenant in a vacant St. Louis mall, one of local several sites the Midwest retailer is eyeing for expansion, according to an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The developer of the Northwest Plaza shopping center told the County Tax Increment Financing Commission on May 23 that Menards is interested in purchasing 17 acres of the site to build a 160,000 sq. ft. store.