With Paul Bunyan and Chinese warriors, museum stores in St. Paul and Minneapolis charge into the Black Friday fray

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Move over, Mall of America: there’s a new Black Friday tradition emerging for culture vultures in the Twin Towns. Museum stores are jumping into the mix offering unique seasonal shopping events on the day after Thanksgiving. Think of it as a “Cool-To-Wear-Black Friday”—we are talking museums, after all. The Minnesota History Center (MHC) and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA) are both hosting big Black Friday events, with specials that go beyond the gift shops and into the galleries.At MHC the theme is: “Black Friday, Not Just for Retailers.” Both the History Center and the on-site store will be touting deals and door busters that “would make Paul Bunyan proud.” Doors open at 6 a.m. on Friday, and those wide-eyed and bushy-tailed enough to be there get free parking, gifts, doughnuts, coffee, memberships and more. Plus there’s free admission until 9 a.m. to the opening of the “Then Now Wow” exhibit, the largest Minnesota history exhibit ever. Got rellies up in Paul Bunyan country? Continue Reading

Caitlin Kelly, at the University of Minnesota, shares retail design insights from The North Face

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Though online shopping is bigger than ever before, the bricks-and-mortar retail industry in the United States remains huge—and it’s tremendously important to the economy of Minnesota, home of thousands of independent retailers as well as international giants like Target and Best Buy. On October 30, Caitlin Kelly—a New York journalist who’s the author of Malled: My Unintentional Career in Retail—visited the University of Minnesota to address the conference “Retail Connect: Who’s Minding the Store?” Continue Reading

Breaking the oil cycles

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News shown out over the highway in big glowing numbers – 3.289, a number lower than anyone had seen in a while. That was the price per gallon of gasoline the last time the little purple car was filled up and piloted back down the highway. A few months earlier it was 3.929 at the same station, about 20% higher or $7.68 over a tankful. How can that possibly be? Continue Reading

FREE SPEECH ZONE | PTC foot-dragging threatens Minnesota jobs

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While candidates spar over taxes and private investment in response to sluggish job growth, one of Minnesota’s economic success stories may be coming to an untimely end. Free Speech ZoneThe Free Speech Zone offers a space for contributions from readers, without editing by the TC Daily Planet. This is an open forum for articles that otherwise might not find a place for publication, including news articles, opinion columns, announcements and even a few press releases. The opinions expressed in the Free Speech Zone and Neighborhood Notes, as well as the opinions of bloggers, are their own and not necessarily the opinion of the TC Daily Planet.The production tax credit, a wind-energy incentive that has garnered bipartisan support for years, is up for renewal, and election year rancor and campaign distractions suggest it may be allowed to expire in December. This could be devastating for Minnesota and the wind industry overall. With the encouragement of the PTC and the enthusiasm of private investors willing to take a reduced risk on a young but endlessly renewable energy source, the cost of wind has dropped 90% since 1980 and wind now provides 3% of our national energy supply. Continue Reading

How local are those flowers in the window? Part 2 of 4: Minnesota’s flower king

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In sleepy August, when warm breezes blow and the sun shines endlessly, small flower fields ring the Twin Cities. Their proprietors, who in many cases are vegetable growers first, saturate farmers markets with deep red, yellow, and purple flowers. It’s a time to forget that for seven months of the year, flowers are not a part of the Twin Cities’ landscape. The rest of the year, one grower sits at the top of most Twin Cities florists’ “locally grown” lists, and it bears little resemblance to any family farm you’ve ever imagined. Len Busch Roses is the biggest grower of cut flowers in the Midwest. Continue Reading