B2B Stories

Lessons Learned: Show up every day with integrity

Twenty-eight years… That is 10,220 days and 1,344 weeks. During this time, I experienced the death of MTV, the release of the first cell phone, the rise of social media/share culture and the beginnings of Super Savers, now known as Home Direct of Augusta, my direct mail advertising company. When I first started in the advertising industry it was the late 90’s, men’s shorts became longer, Walkmans and cassette tapes were abundant, and power suits were a thing. The advertising company I worked for was Jones Intercable’s Cable Coups, a

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Consumer Stories

Macy’s competes with nearby stores on deep discounts

ABD previously reported that Macy’s in the Augusta Mall was launching a store within a store – a 12,000-square-foot retail space on the lower level called Macy’s Backstage, which is officially open for business. The store, which had its soft opening on Saturday, Sept. 18 followed by a grand opening on Saturday, Sept. 25, features a variety of discount items, such as clothing, shoes, home décor, and toys, as well as designer handbags from Gucci and Louis Vuitton. The concept is designed to appeal to bargain shoppers, according to Abbey

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Consumer Stories

Real Restaurant Review: Manuel’s Bread Café is from another world

Editor’s Note: Wes Hennings never met a meal he walked away from and is an opinionated eater! Each Monday he shares the results of a business lunch he’s had with a colleague as a way to advise our business community on the good, bad and the tasty across the CSRA. He doesn’t let ABD or the restaurant know where he is going and his opinions are his own. He grades the restaurants he visits on a 1-5 scale with “5” being outstanding. This real restaurant review was written in May

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B2B Stories

Communicating On the Job in the CSRA

This Thursday and Friday, Dr. Melissa Furman, MS, DBA Founder of Career Potential, LLC will host a two-day conference dedicated to enhancing, elevating and accelerating career and leadership for women. Last week, nearly 100 women got a sneak peek of just one of the components, courtesy of the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce’s monthly, “Women in Business” series, focusing on communication styles. Nancy Powell, local Augusta Real Estate broker (pictured above in red at front table) took a D-I-S-K assessment questionnaire with other audience members. She learned her personality is

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Consumer Stories

Retailer opens in former CSRA drugstore

Late last week a subsidiary of Dollar General opened “Popshelf”, a female-focused discount retail store that is stocking trendy seasonal and home décor items, health and beauty favorites, home cleaning supplies, household and specialty items, arts and crafts, party planning and more. It is located at 3510 Richland Avenue in Aiken in the former Walgreens building. Popshelf is similar to “Five Below”, a discounter in the Mullins Shopping Center in Evans, where the majority of items sell for less than $5! According to a news release this is the 15th

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B2B Stories

Coach Darin: Top ten reasons that marketing can fail

Editor’s Note: Yours truly considers himself a marketing professional, but I can admit it is a whole lot easier marketing for someone else than yourself! When I launched ABD in March 2021, I experimented with Facebook ads, radio and TV ads, e-blasts and more, trying to find “my lane”. I made mistakes via “trial and error”. Coach Darin enlisted the help of his TAB colleagues from all over the world!   1. Trying to expand product offerings and reaching multiple markets at the same time. There are many reasons your

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Darin Myers

Coach Darin: Top ten reasons that marketing can fail

Editor’s Note: Yours truly considers himself a marketing professional, but I can admit it is a whole lot easier marketing for someone else than yourself! When I launched ABD in March 2021, I experimented with Facebook ads, radio and TV ads, e-blasts and more, trying to find “my lane”. I made mistakes via “trial and error”. Coach Darin enlisted the help of his TAB colleagues from all over the world!   1. Trying to expand product offerings and reaching multiple markets at the same time. There are many reasons your

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Shawna Woodward

Real Talk Real Estate: September 24th update!

Happy Fall! What an amazing spring and summer we have survived in real estate. So many buyers and sellers are hoping for a reprieve, so I figure it is time for a quick market update. Currently in the entire CSRA we have 982 residential properties listed for sale and 1,932 homes are pending sale. This means that a buyer has made an offer that the seller accepted, and the buyer and seller are working towards completion of the sale, also known as a closing. The average listed price per square

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Consumer Stories

Wild Wings Update: 3 is better than 2!

ABD’s learned that an unnamed real estate developer in the CSRA has signed on with Wild Wing Café corporate to build three new Wild Wing prototype stores in Richmond and Columbia County, with a 2022 completion date for all three. The developer attended recent franchisee meetings in the Southeast with a small group of CSRA business leaders who came as a show of support. Former Augusta Mayor Deke Copenhaver, now a business consultant and author was a keynote speaker at one of the Wild Wing Café events. The Scholer family

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Consumer Stories

Real Talk Real Estate: September 24th update!

Happy Fall! What an amazing spring and summer we have survived in real estate. So many buyers and sellers are hoping for a reprieve, so I figure it is time for a quick market update. Currently in the entire CSRA we have 982 residential properties listed for sale and 1,932 homes are pending sale. This means that a buyer has made an offer that the seller accepted, and the buyer and seller are working towards completion of the sale, also known as a closing. The average listed price per square

Read More »