Consumer Stories

Consumer Stories

Simon Says: Summer is here, time for cricket

Editor’s note: Man cannot live by economics alone. While Simon still has his finger on the pulse of economic reports for the CSRA, for now, he is focused on his mother country’s #1 sport. In case you missed it, the T20 cricket world cup started on Saturday when the USA beat Canada in Dallas!! Yes, a cricket world cup (there are two) is being played in America (and the West Indies). Games will also be played in New York and Fort Lauderdale. The T20 format is the shortest version of

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B2B Stories

Downtown businesses kick off weeklong event today

Who is your buddy business? Local merchant association Downtown Soul City is hosting Buddy Week – a weeklong celebration of community and friendship between downtown businesses. During the week, the public can get a glimpse of behind-the-scenes footage of their favorite spots downtown to show everyone just how much fun they have working together. The week will end on National Best Friends Day, June 8, where participating businesses will offer incentives to customers who visit the “buddy” locations. The public can engage with the businesses on social media through posts

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B2B Stories

Fostering success with apprenticeships

The importance of apprenticeships in developing a successful career was highlighted during the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce’s Women in Business luncheon in May. Three women who have skillfully navigated training, internships, and apprenticeships led the presentation. Wennie Squires is the Cyber Career Success Coordinator at the Georgia Cyber Innovation & Training Center with Augusta University. She was joined by Booboo Roberts, Program Manager, and Abigail Bowman, College Partner, for the Apprenticeship School and Pipeline Development Training Workforce Programs with the SRS Apprenticeship Program. Roberts said the three main contractors

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Consumer Stories

Business Lunch Review: The Feed Sack – North Augusta

Food Quality: 4 Service: 5 Business Meeting: 4 Value: 4 Overall Rating: 4.25 out of 5 As a former ABD reporter, I often covered future restaurant openings and vowed to visit many of them when they opened. I tried some of these eateries, but there are still many others I plan to visit someday. In March 2023, I wrote one of those stories about plans to open The Feed Sack’s North Augusta location following the success of its original location in Aiken. I wanted to check out the upscale restaurant

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Consumer Stories

Winding down the life of the James Brown Arena

Members of the Augusta-Richmond County Coliseum are taking steps to close the James Brown Arena and prepare for demolition. Members held what is expected to be their second to last monthly meeting at the arena just before the ribbon cutting to re-open the renovated and expanded Bell Auditorium. Ed Enoch, the authority’s legal counsel, updated members on the hiring of a construction manager for the $250 million project that includes a concourse to connect the new JBA to the Bell. “I got to fill out an RFP (Request For Proposal)

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Consumer Stories

A Gracious Goodbye to Augusta Business Daily

This week will mark my last as an entertainment writer for Augusta Business Daily, and it is a bittersweet feeling. When I started last September, I was fresh out of the Savannah College of Art & Design with a degree in Dramatic Writing and, seemingly, nothing to do with it. The movie industry was frozen: paralyzed for a moment with pangs of greed, anger, demonstrations, and perseverance by the folks who make the biz operate daily. Yet, my passion for movies – a love story dating back to being a

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Consumer Stories

Retail boom at Village at Riverwatch

After more than 10 years of planning, land clearing, groundbreakings, and construction, there is no more room at the Inn over at the Village at Riverwatch in Augusta. The leasing agents and property managers at Jordan Trotter Commercial shared the celebratory news on Wednesday morning. JT tells ABD that the last two tenants to open were Starbucks and Smoothie King and that there are more than 20 different entities open for business. The last parcel of land developed was at the entrance of the center when the Olive Garden moved

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Consumer Stories

First step complete for new Augusta entertainment complex

The public got its first look inside the newly renovated and expanded Bell Auditorium during a Tuesday ribbon-cutting ceremony. The facility closed about a year ago for the more than $17 million project, designed to enhance the current venue as the first phase of a three-phase development. “For more than 80 years, this venue here has hosted a lot of fun events,” Mayor Garnett Johnson told the crowd. “Here we are, bigger and better, to host more events for generations to come.” The Bell is more than 80 years old.

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B2B Stories

New business serves up tasty way to beat the heat

The first day of summer is still about three weeks away, but with temperatures starting to hit 90 degrees in the CSRA, the opening of The Classic Cone ice cream shop is perfect timing. When Carrie Srnka moved from New York to Aiken in 2016, she knew she would eventually open a soft-serve ice cream business. It took a while because she also owns Wellness Deserved, which offers PEMF, Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy for Humans, Horses, and Pets. For more information, click here. Another delay came when Srnka was looking

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Consumer Stories

Beyond Casual’s Upcoming Thriller Is Creative Collaboration

At the foot of the Thurmond Dam last week, movie magic was once again being made in Augusta. The film is called The Observance, a psychological thriller brought to you by Beyond Casual Media, a local media company that has produced several films over the past half-decade. Their presence is a jolt of life into Georgia’s recovering filmmaking scene following the creative industry strikes of 2023. The Observance is the fourth in a string of indie features made by collaborators, Robert Hollocks and Amy Rhinehart Bailey, preceded by Encounter (2021),

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