Latest Retail Niche: Clinics
Coming soon to a store near you: health clinics. Seeking to capitalize on the country’s costly and often slow healthcare delivery system, a number of start-ups are building storefront clinics that offer quick and cheap medical services inside chain pharmacies and large retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp., the Los Angeles Times reports.
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Galpin Starts Selling Hondas
The world’s No. 1 Ford dealership is joining its longtime adversary, Honda, the Los Angeles Daily News reports. After fighting off Honda’s strong-selling cars for years, Galpin Motors in North Hills has opened a Honda dealership in Mission Hills. Galpin’s owner, Bert Boeckmann, has ventured into other brands in the past, selling Saturns, Suzukis and Hyundais. His dealership sells an array of Ford sister brands, including the Japanese Mazda and the upscale British makes Land Rover, Jaguar and Aston Martin, but this represents its first foray into a major Japanese mark.
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Making Way for Home Depot
Two major retail additions to a run-down portion of Covina are expected to revitalize the area, the Pasadena Star-News reports. Home Depot and Walgreens are planning to move to the southwest corner of San Bernardino Road and Azusa Avenue. The carwash on the corner is being demolished to make way for the Walgreens, a project being reviewed by Covina’s building department, said Nuala Gasser, Covina redevelopment manager.
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Illnesses From Beach Contamination Cost Millions
About 600,000 to 1.4 million swimmers, surf-ers and other beachgoers get sick to their stomachs each year thanks to dirty water along the Southern California coast, racking up at least $20 million annually in health costs and other expenses, according to a new UCLA study, the Daily Breeze reports.
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Redondo Seeks to Revitalize a Gritty Street
Its carwash sweepers are thick with dust and its front doorway is a threshold of shattered glass. Save for the cars that pass by and the sparsely filled businesses across the street, the only signs of life at the Redondo Car Wash are the stubborn weeds sprouting through the cracked sidewalk out front, the Los Angeles Times reports. The empty carwash is on a strip of Torrance Boulevard in Redondo Beach that the city hopes to revitalize with a mix of residential and commercial development.
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