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Consumer Stories
Consumer Stories

Area Restaurants & Coffee Shops Cut Hours, Raise Prices, Scramble For Staff

Gary Gibson is getting ready to raise prices again. He has no other option. He’s already thin on labor expenses. “My food costs are up 30%,” said Gibson, who owns the Gary’s Hamburger Restaurants in North Augusta, West Augusta, Martinez and Evans. There are times his restaurants may be out of catfish or other products. “This is so against the way I’ve run restaurants for 38 years. I have a hard time telling customers we can’t get something”, added Gibson from his flagship restaurant on Georgia Avenue in North Augusta.

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Neil Gordon August 31, 2021 No Comments
Consumer Stories

Popular Mexican restaurant to relocate from Augusta to Martinez

Evan Luda lives off Fury’s Ferry Road in Martinez and is excited at the prospect of a local Mexican restaurant relocating to that area. ABD has learned the rumors are true—Mi Rancho Mexican Restaurant – located at 3064 Washington Road next to Chick-fil-A – will soon relocate to 407 Furys Ferry Road in Furys Ferry Plaza – the former home of St. Louis Original Hamburgers. The burger restaurant has been closed, and the building has remained vacant since 2014. A construction worker at that site stated Mi Rancho will move

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Josh Heath August 31, 2021 No Comments
Consumer Stories

Real Restaurant Review: Doc’s Porchside Transformation

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. We call this our “Real Business Lunch Review”.

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Wes Hennings August 30, 2021 No Comments
Consumer Stories

New store added to Columbia County’s paint palette

Columbia County already has several paint stores, but a new one just opened in Evans. Alta Paint and Décor – a family-owned Benjamin Moore store located at 4467 Washington Road near Walmart – will celebrate its grand opening on Tuesday, Aug. 31 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the store. The celebration will include a free lunch, product demonstrations, and prizes. Alta sells a variety of paints, stains, color swatches, and even flooring, as well as blinds, drapes, and shutters from Hunter Douglas. Their services include color consultations and

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Josh Heath August 30, 2021 No Comments
Consumer Stories

News 12/26, Cardinal Health and photography studio enforce vaccine mandates

Evamaria Foltz – a local photographer – doesn’t require her contracted photographers to be vaccinated against COVID-19, but everyone, including photographers and clients, must now show proof of full vaccination before entering her home studio in Martinez. Their contracts won’t be terminated, but there will not be any work until they get vaccinated or until Foltz changes her policy. Foltz – owner of Foltz Photography, LLC – states she only has contracted workers. “I’m not forcing anyone to do anything,” she explains. They “have the complete freedom to make their

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Josh Heath and Neil Gordon August 27, 2021 No Comments
Consumer Stories

Starbucks closes temporarily while other quick serve restaurants adapt to Covid’s second wave

No large sign out front. No sign of baristas. Foggy weather and fogginess in general at Starbucks on Thursday morning outside of the Riverwood Subdivision in Evans. Many cars patiently waited in line one by one and when they didn’t hear a response to their orders they drove up to the drive-thru window. There, they saw a small sign apologizing that the store and drive-thru were closed. Some headed a short ways away in the parking lot to the Rooted Coffee house where employees were busy taking orders at the

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Neil Gordon August 27, 2021 No Comments
Consumer Stories

Real Talk Real Estate…CSRA Rental Market

Owning investment property is a common wealth building tactic for the novice investor as well as the experienced one. I am not a financial advisor, and I am not giving financial advice, but I am sharing about our rental market. I feel my opinion on the matter could help someone thinking about investing in our market. I like to look at investment properties as a forced or free savings account when done correctly. If you have a mortgage on a property, each rent payment made should be covering the mortgage

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SHAWNA WOODWARD, RE/MAX REINVENTED EVANS August 27, 2021 No Comments
Consumer Stories

Grand Opening of $1.7 Million Evans restaurant is today!

If practice makes perfect, then Slim Chickens franchisee Jim Bennett should feel pretty good about today’s grand opening at the corner of Washington Road and North Belair in Evans. On Tuesday, Bennett and his team served hundreds of complimentary meals from a limited menu to friends and family as a way of providing needed training for its new staff. Other than a brief outage of a Point of Sale (POS) system at the beginning of the dinner hour, dozens of customer service employees took orders and served hungry volunteers. Meals

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Neil Gordon August 26, 2021 No Comments
Consumer Stories

National company with 3 CSRA locations gives all its employees $100!

Imagine how you would react if your company handed you a stack of 100 $1 bills. For many, that probably sounds like a dream, but it’s exactly what happened to every employee of Classic Collision – a collision repair company – nationwide on August 19 and 20. The surprise gift was the company’s way of celebrating the purchase of its 100th location, which is in Oregon, according to Tracy Bryant, regional director. “It would’ve been easy to hand everyone a gift card or a $100 bill, but our CEO (Toan

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Josh Heath August 26, 2021 No Comments
B2B Stories

How we can help the CSRA hospitality industry in need

Editor’s Note: This story was first published on May 27th. With the emergence of the Delta Variant, not a lot has changed for the hospitality industry in the CSRA. On Tuesday morning the Starbucks Coffee Shop on Washington Road at I-20 CLOSED because there was not enough staff to service guests. They re-opened Wednesday morning after locating workers. On the same day, one of the Gary’s Hamburgers had to close at 3 pm—the stories go on and on.  As part of our weekly strategic alliance with AU’s Hull College of

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Marsha Loda, AU Hull College of Business August 26, 2021 No Comments
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